Highly anticipated X-Men spin-off The New Mutants is finally heading for cinemas, despite being filmed back in 2017, and is set to include a same-sex love story featuring Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams.
Williams, who recently appeared as a guest judge on RuPaul's Drag Race UK, plays werewolf Rahne Sinclair (also known as Wolfsbane), who has a "telepathic connection" with psychic mutant Dani Moonstar, played by Blu Hunt.
Speaking to , Williams said that the movie's plot is “a real extension of what is touched on in the comics."
She explained: “Rahne and Dani have a telepathic connection in the comics, and so we just wanted to extend that in the film and put that within reality.
“If they really could understand each other on that level, then you’d probably end up falling in love with that person.”
Still, the actress insisted that the characters aren't defined by their sexuality, with their relationship making up just one facet of their respective stories.
“It’s not really a story about these two characters understanding their sexuality. It’s not centered around that and they don’t really necessarily label it.
“No one else does either and no one really questions it.”
Director Josh Boone told that he has a personal connection to Rahne's backstory, with the character facing exorcisms in the original comics, an attempt at 'curing' her mutant powers.
“We [both grew up] in the Bible Belt," Boone said. "It was as red as it could get back then… I remember watching when I was 11 or 12 and being like, ‘Maybe the people at church are wrong about gay people.’ I always felt a bit like an outsider.
“I’ve certainly had my head put in the toilet when I was a kid at school, had bullies chase us around, had oppressive things that I guess just made me more sensitive to things like that. So, we like to try to push anything [like Rahne and Dani] forward as much as possible.”
