The New Mutants director Josh Boone has already spoken about wanting to introduce Warlock in his X-Men spinoff, but it sounds like the fan-favorite alien came a lot closer to making the final draft than we realized - and Boone even had someone in mind to play him.
During an interview with Nerdist, Boone revealed that he had conversations with none other than Sacha Baron Cohen (Ali-G, Borat, Les Miserables) about potentially coming on board to provide the voice for what would have been a fully CG character. He didn't say how close it came to becoming a reality, but it wouldn't have mattered anyway because the studio threw a spanner in the works.
Budget constraints meant that Boone was basically forced to choose between Warlock and the villainous Demon Bear, and obviously settled on the latter.
The New Mutants probably won't get a sequel (if it performs much better than expected it is possible, but unlikely), so chances are we won't get to see Warlock make his big screen debut for a very long time. If it were to happen, though, we might just see Doug Ramsay, aka Cypher, introduced alongside his "self friend."
The New Mutants is set to hit theaters on August 28. No press screenings are being held, which may not be a very good sign - although it could simply indicate that we'll see a Disney+ release shortly after.