The circle is complete.
Maisie Williams, best known as Arya Stark from Game of Thrones, has been cast in the forthcoming New Mutants movie, a spin-off taking place in the X-Men cinematic universe. She will play Rahne Sinclair, codename Wolfsbane, a devoutly Presbyterian Scottish teenager who discovers she can change into a wolf.
Not only will Arya Stark now be playing a woman who can change into a wolf, this puts Williams in the same movie universe as her onscreen Game of Thrones sister Sophie Turner. Although in the comics Jean Grey and Wolfsbane have essentially no interaction, we dare the filmmakers not to pair them in at least a whimsical post-credits scene.
The characters comprising the “New Mutants” group (essentially the next generation of X-Men) are famously diverse, including Wolfsbane, Native American Danielle Moonstar, Brazilian rich kid Sunspot, an alien techno-being called Warlock, Vietnamese telepath Xi’an Coy Manh, a Kentuckian code-named Cannonball, and Russian teen Magik. To the filmmakers credit, the Hollywood Reporter notes that:
Fox is making serious efforts to find ethnically appropriate actors, conducting wide searches for a Native American to play Moonstar and a South American for Sunspot.
Josh Boone is directing and writing New Mutants with his partner Knate Lee. The film is scheduled for release on April 13, 2018.
