Little has been confirmed about 20th Century Fox's plans for X-Men: The New Mutants. We know that Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) currently sits at the helm and will direct from a script he co-wrote alongside Fault's Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, with Knate Lee (a.k.a. Kante Gwaltney) also tackling Chris Claremont and artist Bob McLeod's early 1980s comic book creation; Simon Kinberg and Laura Shuler Donner are producing.

As far as rumors go, they abound. Most of them center on casting choices, like Maisie Williams announcing her interest in playing Rahne Sinclair / Wolfsbane in the movie back in April of 2016. Around that time, it was also reported that Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch) was the studio's choice to play Colossus' younger sister/teleporter Magik, a.k.a. Ilyana Nikolievna Rasputin. Alexandra Shipp was also rumored to reprise her X-Men: Apocalypse role of Storm in the upcoming film. Cannonball (possibly played by Fault's Nat Wolff), Sunspot, and Mirage were also rumored to be on the team, while James McAvoy’s Professor X was expected to play a significant role. That's where today's rumor comes in.

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Image via Marvel Comics

Coming Soon sat down with Taylor-Joy during a round of press interviews for her role in M. Night Shyamalan's thriller Split, which opens January 20th and just so happens to star McAvoy. They asked her about the animatic featuring concept artwork related to the New Mutants' "Demon Bear Saga":

I have [seen the Demon Bear animatic], it’s pretty cool. I’m a big fan so I’d love to be a part of it. I can’t say very much, but I would love to be a part of it. I think this year’s gonna be very exciting.

They also asked if she was looking forward to reuniting with McAvoy and about his presumed involvement in the film:

I mean, I think James is already a part of it, isn’t he?

Not exactly official confirmation, especially considering Taylor-Joy stated twice that she'd "love to be a part" of the film, but we'll take what we can get.

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Image via Marvel

Considering that the title heroes studied and lived at Professor X's school for gifted youngsters, and considering the current trend to connect movies together within the framework of a cinematic universe, it would make a lot of sense for McAvoy to show up as Charles Xavier once more. This is assuming that X-Men: The New Mutants will follow up on the 80s setting of Apocalypse, quite possibly giving us the first truly 90s X-Men film that could tap into the franchise's explosive popularity during that decade. Keep an eye out for official word sooner than later as the film is expected to start production this year for a 2018 release.

For more on X-Men: The New Mutants, be sure to take a look at our previous write-ups below:

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Image via Marvel Comics