When Blu Hunt was initially cast as Dani Moonstar in The New Mutants, she was a relative unknown in the industry, with her most prominent credit being a guest spot on The CW’s Vampire Diaries spinoff The Originals. Now, three years later, she’s a promising up-and-coming actress who has much more experience to her name (Stumptown; Another Life) than the wide-eyed newcomer that first landed the part. 

Chatting with Hunt earlier this week, she spoke at length about what it was like to land her first big Hollywood leading role, and whether she would tackle it any differently if she got the part today now that she’s a few years older and has the added benefit of hindsight, or if that was the perfect window in her life to play Dani.

“No, it was not the perfect time for me to take on a role that big. *laughs*

I think in a lot of ways, it was kind of perfect, because what I was going through as a person was what the character was going through too. Dani shows up somewhere, she’s intimidated, she’s confused, she’s going through changes, she’s completely overwhelmed, there’s things within herself that she hasn’t faced, but really needs to. She has her own demons and I was going through the same thing, just as Blu Hunt, so I think that parallel is there and I think that’s cool, but I definitely wish I could do it now or at least do it again, but better.

I would really love to do it again, I’m 25 now, so I’m still learning, but now that I know what making a movie is like, I can take a step back and understand how it works and what’s needed of you as an actor, psychologically, I wish I could come at it differently, but I try not to live my life with regrets.“

While it’s been sort of understated in the trailers and recent TV spots – which have instead opted to highlight the star power of Game of Thrones alum Maisie Williams and the sheer badassery of Anya Taylor-Joy’s Magik – Dani Moonstar is really the true lead of The New Mutants. 

As a Native American, Dani is undoubtedly one of the most diverse characters to ever lead a superhero movie, and the honor of playing her was definitely a responsibility that Hunt didn’t take lightly as she knew exactly what it meant to land such an life-altering part. 

She explains, “I remember before I went to make the movie, right after I had been cast, actually maybe even during the audition process, I remember kind of sitting on Twitter – I don’t have a Twitter anymore, I deleted it a couple years ago – and I remember just sitting on Twitter and reading about what everybody was saying about me, like “Oh my God.”

It was really hitting me and I was feeling so honored and excited for myself, always knowing I was mixed-race and always knowing being honest about that. There was a lot of talk between me and the producers and Josh about my background and I just wanted to be really honest and transparent, like this is exactly what my background is, this is who I am and having to ask myself “Am I the right person to play Dani?”

Talking to other indigenous people, it was a really big decision for me, do I even take this role? Is it right for me to take this role as a mixed race actress? Then, realizing that so many native people are mixed and they thought it was okay and they approved of me in the role.“

Unfortunately, Hunt ran into some backlash from the darker corners of the internet, but thanks to the support of Josh Boone and her co-stars, she found a way to stay true to herself and play the part as honestly as she could 

She continues, “Showing up to set with that pressure though, wanting to do justice for how I represented her for the community was big for me, but to then realize that people I didn’t know didn’t like me or didn’t want me in the role. People that weren’t even Native American, it was mostly white people, which was kind of insane to me, and not because I hadn’t really acted in anything this big before, but people had never talked about me online anonymously before, so I didn’t really know how to deal with that. Now, I actually literally just do not care anymore.

I really just wanted to play Dani as myself, I remember when we did makeup and hair tests, I had short hair because I always have short hair, I just prefer it, but I remember really wanting to put extensions in and having the real long-haired Dani Moonstar look and Josh being like “No, we just want Dani to be you, who you are right now is fine,” and so I tried to approach it like that. If I’m just myself and I’m Native American and Dani’s Native American, and that will be what it is, if that makes any sense.“

Stay tuned for more exclusive The New Mutants coverage!

20th Century Fox in association with Marvel Entertainment presents “The New Mutants,” an original horror thriller set in an isolated hospital where a group of young mutants is being held for psychiatric monitoring. When strange occurrences begin to take place, both their new mutant abilities and their friendships will be tested as they battle to try and make it out alive.

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While a good chunk of theaters are set to reopen this weekend for The New Mutants and Bill & Ted Face the Music, DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group is still keeping us informed with their weekly “Watched at Home Top 20” list, tallying up the most popular titles consumed on disc and digital (excluding outside subscription-based streaming platforms). 

For the third straight week, David Ayer’s The Tax Collector was the top film, followed by Dreamworks/Universal’s animated comedy Trolls World Tour in second and all three seasons of Paramount’s critically acclaimed drama series Yellowstone in positions three through five. 

As for the rest of the top ten, Lionsgate’s The Silencing was sixth, Paramount’s The Vanishing was seventh, Screen Media’s The Outpost was eighth, IFC Films’ Made in Italy was ninth, and Universal’s You Should Have Left was tenth.

Among the five new titles to join the Top 20 this week was Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment’s Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons – The Movie, which dropped on Blu-ray and DVD last week. The animated film features the voice talents of Michael Chiklis (Fantastic Four; Gotham) and Sasha Alexander (Rizzoli & Isles; Mission: Impossible III).

For the week of August 27, here is the ‘Watched at Home Top 20’ list,

1. The Tax Collector (RLJ Entertainment)
2. Trolls World Tour (DreamWorks/Universal)
3. Yellowstone S1 (Paramount)
4. Yellowstone S3 (Paramount)
5. Yellowstone S2 (Paramount)
6. The Silencing (2020, Lionsgate)
7. The Vanished (2020, Paramount)
8. The Outpost (Screen Media)
9. Made in Italy (2020, IFC Films)
10. You Should Have Left (Universal)
11. The Rental (2020, IFC Films)
12. Deep Blue Sea 3 (Warner)
13. Jumanji: The Next Level (Sony)
14. The King of Staten Island (Universal)
15. Spree (2020, RLJ Entertainment)
16. Scoob! (Warner)
17. The High Note (Universal)
18. Sputnik (2020, Sony)
19. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Universal)
20. Deathstroke Knights & Dragons: The Movie (Warner)

Source | DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group
Includes U.S. Digital Sales, Digital Rentals (VOD), DVD & Blu-ray for week ended 8.22.20

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The women of The New Mutants will understandably take center stage, with Dani Moonstar’s (Blu Hunt) personal ties to the Demon Bear as well as her burgeoning romance with Rahne Sinclair (Maisie Williams), but the upcoming Josh Boone-directed film will also feature what sounds like a pretty fun bromance between Sunspot and Cannonball, played by Henry Zaga and Charlie Heaton, respectively. 

Speaking with Zaga during the press tour this week, the actor very enthusiastically explained his dynamic with Cannonball,

“Sunspot has a bromance, man, he and Sam are really tight. They’re incredibly different, but they know each other on a deeper level, I think that Sam knows that Roberto comes from a good place, even when he’s being a dick. He doesn’t want to be a dick, he’s traumatized too, and there’s so much more to him than the surface-level, jokester front he puts up. 

He’s a guy that really just needs a friend and I think Sam does that really well. He’s a great friend to Roberto. There’s a line that I love in the movie that when Sam gives me the go, he goes “Nut up ‘Berto!,” and it’s finally when you see me become Sunspot. 

That was one of the most rewarding relationships for me to play, outside of growing even closer to Josh, Charlie and I have become such great friends, he’s a wonderful actor and person, and it was like Sam and Roberto’s relationship bleeding into real life.“

It remains to be seen exactly how much levity the film contains, but it does sound like Sunspot and Cannonball will do their best to keep things relatively light throughout the course of the film, which could be a welcome reprieve from the darker elements of the story. 

On another note, with Marvel Studios regaining the X-Men and all of their associated characters, it’s highly unlikely we’ll actually get to see Josh Boone’s plans for a trilogy realized, but that doesn’t make speculating about what might happen any less exciting, and it sounds like Zaga got very fanboyish himself when any rumor would hit the web. 

With a big smile across his face, he tells us, “I love that you guys ask me these questions because I know about as much as you do, I’ve read your stuff, the stuff other guys post online, any article that has my Twitter handle tagged, and I react just like everyone else. “Oh cool, I didn’t know, that’s awesome.”

After taking somewhat of a backseat here, Sunspot was all-set to have his moment in the spotlight in the next film, which would’ve moved the action to Brazil as the New Mutants – with new characters Warlock and Karma in tow – squared off with Roberto’s evil father Emmanuel da Costa, who, rumor has it, was to be played by Academy Award-nominee Antonio Banderas.

Now, while he doesn’t confirm Banderas was ever actually cast, he doesn’t exactly deny it either, and seemingly expresses excitement at the prospect of getting to work with the legendary actor. 

Josh has a great vision for Sunspot’s story and for the trilogy, for a continuation of our movie. All I can say is that it would be incredible to film in Rio and dive deeper into Roberto’s life and work with Antonio Banderas, but yeah, I don’t know.

I don’t know, it’s a huge question mark still up in the air, but again, it all depends on the fans really. I mean, if the fans want a second one, and they show up in theaters this weekend and show their love online to Marvel, to Disney, then there may be no other option and we might get to make another one.“

Stay tuned for more exclusive The New Mutants coverage!

20th Century Fox in association with Marvel Entertainment presents “The New Mutants,” an original horror thriller set in an isolated hospital where a group of young mutants is being held for psychiatric monitoring. When strange occurrences begin to take place, both their new mutant abilities and their friendships will be tested as they battle to try and make it out alive.

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25 years after their last bogus journey through time, space and the afterlife, Bill S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter), and Ted “Theodore” Logan (Keanu Reeves) return to face the music, and while this doesn’t quite live up to their earlier excellent adventures, it’s still well worth a watch.

We catch up with middle-aged Bill and Ted, who have now settled down with their wives and daughters in San Dimas and put their time-travelling exploits behind them. Unfortunately, they still haven’t quite managed to write the greatest song of all time and unite humanity in the process.

When Rufus’ daughter Kelly (Kristen Schaal) drops in from the future to inform them that the stakes are much higher (like, apocalyptic) than they realized, the dim-witted duo decide to travel to the future when they’ve already written the song and take it from their older selves.

It takes a while to get used to these older takes on Bill and Ted, but Winter and Reeves do such a great job of reprising their iconic roles that it soon feels like no time at all has passed. The pair are joined by their equally affable daughters Wilhelmina (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and Theodora (Samara Weaving), who have clearly been introduced to (potentially) carry on the franchise. They’re fine, but are never really given the chance to establish themselves as fully formed characters. “Bill and Ted but teenage girls” only goes so far.

The great William Sadler also returns as the Grim Reaper, and even though he only shows up towards the end of the movie, it’s a joy to see him rock out with the Wyld Stallyns again.

While Face the Music is always fun, it’s not quite as funny as it should be. There are hilarious moments (the scene with Bill and Ted encountering their gun-toting future selves is a riot), but a lot of the gags do fall flat. The biggest perpetrator is a bizarre new robot character, who turns out to be a humor vacuum. He wanders aimlessly through the movie trying to tell people his stupid name, and you’re left waiting for a punchline that never comes. We already have one pale, insecure death machine, we don’t need another.

The plot is all over the place and doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but that’s always been part of the charm. The Bill and Ted flicks never aspired to be anything other than silly sci-fi romps starring a couple of likable idiots, and that’s exactly what we get with this third installment.

Bill and Ted Face the Music may not be the most excellent return we were hoping for, but fans should still find a lot to love. It’s a little uneven and not up there with Adventure or Journey, but it’s hard to be too critical of a movie with its heart planted so firmly on its checkered sleeve. Air guitars at the ready!

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Despite being developed primarily as a multiplayer space combat game, Star Wars: Squadrons will also feature a single-player story. Although the campaign will serve as a tutorial, giving players a chance to get into the cockpit of the various ships before heading into some 5v5 dogfights online, the story itself sounds rather compelling.

Set towards the end of the Galactic Civil War after the destruction of the second Death Star, the campaign offers alternating perspectives from both sides of the conflict. During Gamescom today, Electronic Arts released a brand new single player preview, offering us our best look yet at the campaign.

Although the introduction is told through the eyes of a New Republic fighter, the bulk of the gameplay consists of footage from an early Imperial mission where players must fly behind enemy lines to extract an ally spy with vital intelligence on the Republic’s classified Project Starhawk. We don’t know much about the game’s story, but Starhawk is said to be a “tipping point” in the Galactic Civil War.

Buckle up and experience this action-packed and authentic STAR WARS™ story – following the events in Return of the Jedi – from both sides of the conflict in the cockpits of iconic starfighters.

In addition to the single-player story, Star Wars: Squadrons features a robust multiplayer that features ship customization, evolving battlefields in never-before-seen locations, and multiple game modes. While the core gameplay consists of 5v5 dogfights, players can actually also take part in larger scale Fleet Battles. These are multi-stage, objective-based contests where multiple squadrons must work together to take down the enemy flagship.

Star Wars: Squadrons launches on October 2, 2020 for PS4, Xbox One and PC. Despite the Star Wars brand name, Squadrons is actually developed as one of EA’s budget titles and will only cost $40 as opposed to the industry standard $59.99.

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