'The Darkest Minds' May Scratch Your 'X-Men' Itch, And Then Some

By Tori Preston | Film | March 28, 2018 |

By Tori Preston | Film | March 28, 2018 |

20th Century Fox may have pushed back their upcoming X-Men titles, New Mutants and Dark Phoenix, until later next year, but it turns out the studio still has a diverse group of super-powered teens to put on the big screen. They just released the first trailer for The Darkest Minds, which looks like the Hunger Games/Firestarter/X-Men hybrid you didn’t know you needed:

To be fair, a good portion of the Hunger Games vibe stems directly from Amandla Stenberg, who played Rue in the film. And also because this movie is an adaptation of a dystopian YA book series as well — only in this series, a mysterious disease has wiped out most of the children, and the ones who survived developed frightening new powers. So, naturally, the government views them as a threat. Stenberg plays Ruby, who it appears is even MORE frighteningly powerful than average, and is maybe hiding that fact? And she’s on the run with some other teens, and I think there will be a revolution? Which, now that I think about it, a bunch of teens rising up in resistance against the government feels pretty fucking on-brand these days.

The film also stars Mandy Moore and Gwendoline Christie, and was directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson (Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3). It’ll be in theaters August 3rd. And TK may have just convinced me to read the book series, which he apparently enjoyed quite a bit. Dude contains MULTITUDES.