Director Josh Boone confirms PG-13 rating for ‘New Mutants’

One of the biggest films in flux following the news of the Fox/Marvel/Disney transaction is Fox’s X-Men project: New Mutants. Marketed and billed as a horror film, director Josh Boone offered up some disappointing news for some fans.

“This movie is probably the hardest PG-13 ever made. I mean, we’ve pushed it,” Boone said, during his interview with Empire Magazine. “The horror is pretty dark, but there’s also an emotional core, too. If I can scare you and make you cry: that’s the goal.”

Don’t expect a traditional X-Men film as Boone also confirmed the absence of tights or uniforms.

“There are no costumes. That alone makes it different. They can’t be with the other kids at the X-Mansion. They’re too f***ed up. They’ve all killed people, whether intentionally or unintentionally.”

Boone has said “New Mutants absolutely takes place in the same universe as X-Men, Logan and Deadpool” amd pitched three films to Fox: “We brought it to Fox as a trilogy of films, really all based on that long run by [Bill] Sienkiewicz, and kind of incorporates some stuff from later issues in the ’80s. These are all going to be horror movies, and they’re all be their own distinct kind of horror movies. This is certainly the ‘rubber-reality’ supernatural horror movie. The next one will be a completely different kind of horror movie. Our take was just go examine the horror genre through comic book movies and make each one its own distinct sort of horror film. Drawing from the big events that we love in the comics.”

The film stars Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) as Wolfsbane, Anya Taylor-Joy (Split) as Magik, Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things) as Cannonball, Henry Zaga (Teen Wolf) as Sunspot, Blu Hunt as Mirage, and Alice Braga as Dr. Cecilia Reyes.

New Mutants arrives in theaters on February 22, 2019 August 2, 2019