Initially set for release back in 2018, Josh Boone's The New Mutants will finally (hopefully) make its debut later this month. The long-awaited film will introduce newcomers to the X-Men film series, including a key character that was briefly spotted in the trailer. Though its origins won't be comic accurate.
During 20th Century and Disney's global press conference for The New Mutants (via CBM), Boone explains why the film changes the origins of Lockheed, the dragon-like alien. The creature will make an appearance in the movie, but its convoluted history has been simplified to make things straightforward for those who aren't familiar with the comics.
Lockheed is known to be Kitty Pryde's companion in the comics. However, the movie will tie his origin into Anya Taylor-Joy's Magik instead. "I'd say [The New Mutants] are very much like the characters in the comics," Boone notes. "But I'd say we had to make sense of a very convoluted Marvel history that a lot of these characters had and their entanglements with other books and everything else."
"Lockheed would be a prime example," the director continued. "We made Lockheed much more tied to [Magik] directly in terms of her backstory and everything, because the way she gains this dragon in the comic is, you know, this dragon came from space."
Though Kitty initially got it, it'll eventually become Illyana's. "For us, it was just like, I don't know how to do the space backstory," Boone adds.
Lockheed's first appearance was on Chris Claremont and Paul Smith's Uncanny X-Men #166 in 1983. The creature was found by Kitty and the two have been inseparable since.
The New Mutants is currently set for release on August 28.
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