How Stranger Things’ Charlie Heaton Is Getting Ready For New Mutants

The core group of the X-Men will continue their adventures in X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and in the meantime, Fox is busy expanding their X-Men universe with a number of spin-offs. Among those is New Mutants, which will focus on, a new young group of mutants (duh). The cast is filled with up-and-comers, including Charlie Heaton, best known for his role as Jonathan Byers on Stranger Things. Heaton will play the hero Cannonball on New Mutants, and like most actors who play superheroes, Heaton is busy getting physically fit, as this below social media post proves.

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New Mutants has been described as a different kind of superhero movie, but it looks like the young actors need to get the superheroic physique. Personal trainer Bevan is responsible for getting Charlie Heaton in shape for his upcoming role in New Mutants, and shared a photo on his Instagram with the actor. Bevan wrote that it was an "absolute pleasure" to work with Heaton, who is now more than ready to launch himself and crash into stuff at insane speeds. The photo doesn't show off any intense physical workouts (like Amber Heard for Aquaman), but we'll just trust that Heaton put himself through the ringer.

Charlie Heaton will be portraying Sam Guthrie, otherwise known as Cannonball- a teenager with the ability to sail through the air at high speed and is invulnerable while doing so. Cannonball is a founding member of the New Mutants, and Heaton will join Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, Split) and Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) as Magik and Wolfsbane, respectively. Henry Zaga (13 Reasons Why) and Blu Hunt (The Originals) round out the core team as Sunspot and Moonstar. Rosario Dawson is also rumored to play a mentor figure, a doctor with mutant powers of her own.

New Mutants will be directed by The Fault in Our Stars' Josh Boone. Though the film was initially billed as a YA superhero story, it is now being described as a "full-fledged horror" movie set in the X-Men universe. The story supposedly follows a group of teenagers who are being held in a secret facility against their will, and must deal with their emerging powers and the sins of their pasts. Fox is looking to redefine the superhero genre as it did with Deadpool and then again with Logan. Considering how well both of those movies turned out, we could be looking at another strong hit for Fox's X-Men.

New Mutants is currently scheduled to hit theaters on April 13, 2018. There's bound to be plenty more updates until then so make sure to stick with CinemaBlend and we'll keep you updated with new information as soon as it becomes available.

Matt Wood

Matt has lived in New Jersey his entire life, but commutes every day to New York City. He graduated from Rowan University and loves Marvel, Nintendo, and going on long hikes and then greatly wishing he was back indoors. Matt has been covering the entertainment industry for over two years and will fight to his dying breath that Hulk and Black Widow make a good couple.