The New Mutants is the next X-Men movie that is getting ready to go into production at Fox, and it will be just one of three new X-Men movies to be released in 2018. The movie recently got its first couple of confirmed cast members in the form of Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, Split) and Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones). Now, we have a couple of other casting confirmations for The New Mutants, but this time, it is about actors who will not be appearing in the movie.

Film reporter Borys Kit, who works for The Hollywood Reporter and broke the recent casting news for The New Mutants, took to Twitter to clear up a couple of rumors about the new X-Men movie. The first, and probably most important confirmation is that James McAvoy will not be reprising his role as Professor x in The New Mutants, which is something that has been rumored to be happening for some time. Here's what he had to say about it.

"On New Mutants: other rumored castings, James McAvoy as Prof X, not true. He is not in movie, per sources."

So we won't be seeing a Split reunion with Anya Taylor-Joy and James McAvoy in The New Mutants. But, more importantly, these new, young mutants will be making do without the leader of the X-Men and without the acting chops that McAvoy brings to the table. No reason for his absence was provided, but it could be a contractual and timing thing. With Fox also gearing up to shoot X-Men 7, they will probably want to save him for that movie. Plus, shooting two different X-Men movies in the same year would probably be a bit much for James McAvoy. And, depending on how many movies he has on his contract, Fox may have to prioritize how they want to use him.

Specific plot details about The New Mutants haven't been released yet, but we do know that the movie will be focusing on a group of young mutants, including Russian teen Magik (Anya Taylor-Joy), Scots girl Wolfsbane (Maisie Williams), Native American Danielle Moonstar, Brazilian ladies man Sunspot, a Kentuckian code-named Cannonball, and an alien named Warlock. Borys Kit also revealed that the role of Cannonball will not be played by Nat Wolff (The Fault in Our Stars), which is another bit of rumored casting that has been floating around. Here's what he had to say in regards to that.

"On #NewMutants: other rumored casting, Nat Wolff as Canonball, not happening either."

Since Nat Wolff worked with director Josh Boone on The Fault in Our Stars, it wasn't totally unreasonable to assume he may be joining the cast of New Mutants, but that has now been shot down. The movie is set to start production soon, which means that we should be getting some more casting updates in the near future. The New Mutants is set for release on April 13, 2018.