Josh Boone Writing & Directing X-Men Spinoff THE NEW MUTANTS

Warlock will become the new Groot, just watch.

Deadline revealed yesterday that Fox has tapped The Fault in Our Stars director Josh Boone to co-write and direct The New Mutants, an X-Men spinoff film based on the Marvel Comics characters.

According to the article, Boone will co-write the film with Knate Gwaltney.  Simon Kinberg will serve as producer produce along with Lauren Shuler Donner.

"We’re so excited to explore this new part of the X-Men universe," remarked Kinberg, "and so excited to do it with Josh, who is uniquely suited to tell this story about young characters."

The film is the latest in an increasing line of X-Men franchise films from Fox.  Ryan Reynolds is starring in Deadpool with Tim Miller directing, Bryan Singer is directing X-Men: Apocalypse for 2016, director James Mangold and star Hugh Jackman are returning for another Wolverine sequel, and Channing Tatum is attached to star in a solo Gambit film.

Created in 1982 by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, the New Mutants first appeared in Marvel Graphic Novel #4 as another team of young mutants brought together until the supervision of Professor X while the X-Men were off in space fighting the Brood.  The initial team consisted of:

• Cannonball (Samuel Guthrie), a mild-mannered Kentuckian and eventual co-leader, who became nigh-invulnerable when rocketing through the air.
• Karma (Xi'an Coy Manh), a 19-year-old Vietnamese girl and the team's original leader, who could mentally possess other people's bodies.
• Mirage (Danielle Moonstar, originally codenamed Psyche), a Cheyenne and eventual co-leader after Karma's "death," who could create visual empathic three-dimensional illusions.
• Sunspot (Roberto da Costa), a Brazilian who gained superhuman strength fueled by sunlight and could store solar energy in his body to use his super strength during the night.
• Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair), a Scot who could transform into a wolf-like creature.

Karma was later presumed killed, with additional members joining the team:

• Cypher (Douglas Ramsey), an otherwise ordinary young man who could learn any language, spoken or written, at an exponential rate, whether it was human, alien, or machine, making him an unmatched computer expert.
• Magma (Amara Juliana Olivians Aquilla), a fiercely tempered native of a secret Roman society in the Amazon who can control lava.
• Magik (Illyana Rasputin), sister of the Russian X-Man Colossus and long-time resident of the X-Mansion, an accomplished mystic who could open "teleportation discs" allowing travel to Limbo and from there, any point on Earth.
• Warlock, an extraterrestrial of the techno-organic race known as the Technarchy.

New Mutants members Sunspot and Warpath have previously appeared in live action, played by Adan Canto and Booboo Stewart in the 2014 film X-Men: Days of Future Past.  The team also appeared on the animated series X-Men: Evolution, which featured team members Boom-Boom, Cannonball, Magma, Mirage, Sunspot and Wolfsbane.

The New Mutants will most likely arrive in theaters sometime in 2017.