Director Josh Boone has added yet another cast member to his upcoming Marvel Comics adaptation The New Mutants. According to the Variety, joining the cast as Roberta da Costa, a.k.a. Sunspot, will be 13 Reasons Why star Henry Zaga. He joins Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin, better known as Magick, and Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams as Rahne Sinclair, also known as Wolfsbane. Other recent additions to the cast are Charlie Heaton of Stranger Things as Cannonball, and Daredevil’s Rosario Dawson as mutant doctor Cecilia Reyes. The part of Sunspot was played previously by Adan Canto in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
In the comics, Roberto da Costa was a young Brazilian mutant, who had the ability to absorb and channel solar power. He was a founding member of Xavier’s third generation of students, which he named the New Mutants. Unlike the X-Men, this class was meant to learn to hone their abilities, and not use them to fight villains. Sunspot was a main player for the vast majority of The New Mutants 100 issue run, and eventually played a fairly big part in the New Mutants spin-off title, X-Force. Most recently, he and his New Mutants teammate Cannonball jumped ship and joined the Avengers.
This casting choice doesn’t come without controversy however. Although Zaga is of Brazilian heritage like his character, traditionally in the comics, Roberto has been portrayed as having a much darker complexion. In the images above and below, you can see how the character of Sunspot has usually been portrayed to look like in the comics. Some fans are already calling this a white-washing. Of course, you could say that Fox wanted an actor who somewhat resembled Adan Canto from Days of Future Past so that it matches up, but since when does Fox care about continuity like that in the X-Men films?
According to Fox’s official description of the movie, New Mutants will resemble a horror film more than a traditional superhero movie. Below is the official synopsis:
“Mutants are at their most dangerous, both to themselves and others, when their powers are new, especially because mutation reveals itself during the teenage years. Held in a secret facility against their will, five new mutants have to battle the dangers of their powers, as well as the sins of their pasts. They aren’t out to save the world – they’re just trying to stay alive.”
Five mutants means only one more member of the team needs to be cast — Dani Moonstar, better known as Mirage. Earlier reports had the alien mutant Warlock as part of the group, but it looks like he might be dropped from the line-up. His unique, alien look might have made the sr The movie is said to be a an adaptation of “The Demon Bear Saga”, one of the most popular storylines in the New Mutants canon from its original run. The movie is said to start shooting this April for a July 2018 release date.
What do you think of this latest casting addition to Fox’s latest X-Men spin-off film? Let us know your thoughts down below in the comments.
Images: Marvel Comics / Netflix
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