New Mutants director Josh Boone says he wanted to cast Sacha Baron Cohen in the film as Warlock, but was forced to ditch the idea due to budget.
The director of New Mutants reveals that comedian Sacha Baron Cohen was almost cast as X-MenX-Men
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Indeed, writer-director Boone seems to have a lot of interesting ideas when it comes to New MutantsNerdistNew MutantsLord of the RingsNew Mutants
In the comics, Warlock is a member of the alien race Technarchy, biomechanical organisms who use a virus to drain living beings of their life energy. After first being an enemy, the shape-shifting Warlock eventually becomes a member of the New Mutants after he demonstrates a level of compassion, and like so many X-Men characters, has to learn how to use his powers in non-destructive and morally responsible ways. Clearly though, the alien look of Warlock would have been too expensive for the New Mutants
As disappointing as it may be for Warlock to be excluded from New Mutants
That being said, it might actually have been jarring to see Cohen do his own shape-shifting shtick in New Mutants, so who knows if his depiction of Warlock would’ve really paid off either comedically or otherwise. If nothing else, Boone’s idea to cast Cohen as Warlock proves he’s willing to go to some strange places, and indeed that sort of outside-the-box thinking is exactly what the X-Men