'The Fault in Our Stars' director Josh Boone to helm X-Men spin-off 'The New Mutants'

It's the end of an era in the X-Men franchise. After director Bryan Singer finishes his final mutant epic, X-Men: Apocalypse, and once Hugh Jackman dons the claws in Wolverine 3 for the last time, both men will be departing the franchise. These two superstars kick-started the X-Men series in 2000 with the first major Marvel superhero movie and seventeen years later, they're finally wrapping it up. After righting the wrongs of the franchise with X-Men: Days of Future Past and hopefully giving us two more epic adventures, this feels like the right thing to do. Jackman is 46 years old now and while he probably has the physique and the work ethic to keep playing Wolverine until he's 90, I'm glad that he's moving on to other adventures. He's a fantastic actor and I know he'll pick some good projects down the line. As for Singer, despite his public scandals, he's done a fabulous job with the X-Men franchise and is leaving it in infinitely better shape than when he started.

But for 20th Century Fox, this franchise must continue in one way or another. The studio relies on the X-Men series as their biggest cash cow and there's no way that the departure of two men will stop this multi-billion dollar franchise. And while the immediate future of Wolverine, Storm, Cyclops, Xavier, Magneto and other popular mutants is still uncertain, Fox has found their man to direct their X-Men spin-off film The New Mutants. This project is still in early development, but Deadline has confirmed that Fault in Our Stars director Josh Boone will be the one to direct the film. Simon Kinberg and Lauren Shuler Donner will produce the film. Fox still has Deadpool, Gambit and the final two Singer/Jackman X-Men films to worry about first, but Boone's film will certainly come out before 2020. I don't know much about the New Mutants, but I do know that Boone is an incredibly talented director and that Fox is lucky to have him. He did a fantastic job with Fault in Our Stars and I'm glad that he's getting the chance to direct a film like this. Stay tuned for more info on The New Mutants, but for now, you can get your next X-Men fix on February 12, 2016, when Deadpool hits theaters.