The newest trailer for The New Mutants is full of great moments, but it also confirms the role that the alien-dragon Lockheed will play. It has been a long road for Fox’s final X-Men movie to get close to a theatrical release, but an April release date is quickly approaching. Now under the control of Disney, the film is being released under director Josh Boone’s original vision - without any reshoots - and the trailer gave fans plenty to be excited about.
Not only is New Mutants sticking with the horror tone that was communicated in the first trailer (that was released over two years ago), but the most recent one highlighted the superhero elements as well. Those who saw the footage witnessed the first mutations for the lead characters. Maisie Williams transforming into Wolfsbane was a great tease, while the power sets of Cannonball and Sunfire were featured too. But, the money shot of the trailer showed Anya Taylor-Joy’s Illyana Rasputin aka Magik gaining her Soulsword. Her facing down (presumably) Demon Bear gave us a look at the likely finale, but it also included the reveal of Lockheed.
During the final moments of the trailer (right around the 2:15 mark to be exact), Magik is charging towards the central foe with the Soulsword. On the left side of the screen though, a small blue stream is also being fired at Demon Bear. A close look at the moment shows that it is coming from a winged creature that is staying afloat and participating in the battle. After a tease of a stuffed toy version of Lockheed in prior promotional materials, this moment appears to confirm that not only will Lockheed make a physical appearance in New Mutants, but the dragon will also fight alongside Magik. A clear look can be seen below thanks to a Reddit post by EKRB7.
Lockheed is a fan-favorite character associated with the X-Men, which is why his appearance in this manner is so exciting for fans. In the comics, he is a dragon-like alien, whose race has the ability to travel through space by using astral ships that moved their essence. He is usually associated with Kitty Pryde, as he rescued her in space and came back to Earth with her. At this time, Kitty roomed with Illyana at Xavier’s school and saw Lockheed form a relationship with her as well. Since Kitty is not part of New Mutants, it appears Lockheed will be tied to Illyana from the start. She has been the one with the stuffed toy version of Lockheed in the marketing, but we now know that this won’t just be an Easter egg.
With Lockheed’s role now further revealed, it has left fans to theorize how it will come to be. The trailer teases Magik in Limbo - the place where she gets her powers - and it is possible the plot was engineered so Lockheed also has ties to the location, making his bond with Illyana more natural. There is another fascinating possibility in play though thanks to the involvement of Dani Moonstar. It’s possible that the entire movie is built around Dani not being able to control her powers that manifest images of someone’s greatest fear and that the uncontrollable nature of them is what creates Lockheed. Even though we may now have questions over where Lockheed comes from, there is no longer any doubt that The New Mutants will feature him.
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- New Mutants Release Date: 2020-08-28