20th Century Fox has released the first trailer for The Darkest Minds. The movie comes a bit out of left field, as this wasn't one of the big movies on everyone's radar this year. However, coming from Shawn Levy and Dan Levine, the producers behind Stranger Things, that's somewhat surprising. What's more surprising? This is basically a young adult version of an X-Men movie, only it's not actually an X-Men movie. It's got a bunch of dangerous kids with powers on the run from the government, they just aren't called mutants.

The trailer is action-packed and very effects-heavy. There are elements of Stranger Things at play here, with the group of young kids having to band together, in addition to the very obvious X-Men elements. There's also a bit of Marvel's The Runaways in here. What's perhaps most surprising of all is that Fox is actually the studio in control of the X-Men franchise, yet they've made a movie that looks like it could be accused of imitating the famed mutants. That's not to say this can't be good, as it looks like a potentially impressive and exciting YA sci-fi thriller, but it's hard not to think about while watching the first teaser for The Darkest Minds. Maybe it will fill the void left y New Mutants, which was delayed until summer 2019 just yesterday.

In The Darkest Minds, some teens mysteriously develop powerful new abilities and they are declared a threat by the government and detained. Sixteen-year-old Ruby, one of the most powerful young people anyone has encountered, escapes her camp and joins a group of runaway teens seeking safe haven. Soon this newfound family realizes that, in a world in which the adults in power have betrayed them, running is not enough and they must wage a resistance, using their collective power to take back control of their future.

The movie comes from director Jennifer Yuh Nelson, who is best known for her work in the animation world, having directed Kung Fu Panda 2 and Kung Fu Panda 3. This marks her jump to the world of live-action features and, while we haven't seen the movie yet, it looks like she didn't have a lot of trouble. The Darkest Minds is based on the young adult novel by Alexandra Bracken. So it's not as though Fox decided to cook up something out of the blue to rival the X-Men. They just decided to adapt a novel that seemingly translated to the big screen as such.

Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games), Mandy Moore (This is Us) and Gwendoline Christie (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) topline the cast. The screenplay for the movie comes from Chad Hodge (Wayward Pines). The Darkest Minds is set for release on August 3, which is actually something of a crowded weekend. The action/comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me, as well as Disney's live-action Winnie the Pooh movie Christopher Robin, are both coming out on that day as well. Be sure to check out the first poster and teaser trailer for The Darkest Minds, courtesy of the 20th Century Fox YouTube channel, for yourself below.