Amandla Stenberg Serves Up Badass Superpowered Activism in theDarkest MindsTrailer

Amandla Stenberg has carved out a fantastic niche for herself, starring in film adaptations of blockbuster YA books, from her breakthrough role of Rue in the firstHunger Gamesmovie, toEverything, Everything, to the upcomingThe Hate U Give.Next up she’ll be starring inThe Darkest Minds, adapted from Alexandra Bracken’s immensely popular book series.

InThe Darkest Minds, a disease has killed off 98% of children. When the surviving children and teenagers begin to develop special abilities, the government rounds them up and sends them to a “rehabilitation camp” (basically a brutal internment camp). Our protagonist, Ruby (Stenberg) manages to escape, joining up with other powerful and potentially dangerous teens and joining them in a revolt.

Superhero and superpowered books and movies have often had activism allegories at their center, most notably with the X-Men, to which this trailer is being heavily compared. Here, though, the activism angle doesn’t seem to be limited to metaphor. And while the reflections of our current political landscape are obviously coincidental (the book was published in 2012, and the movie has been in development for some time), it’s never been more timely to see teenagers fight back against the adults who are doing a crap job of protecting them.

The Darkest Mindshits theaters August 3rd. Interestingly, it’ll be the live-action directorial debut from Jennifer Yu Nelson, who didKung Fu Panda 2 & 3.

What say you, TMSers? Are you excited for this movie? Have you read the books, and if so, how does the trailer compare? Does this fill the void in your hearts left by the continuous delays ofNew Mutants?Let us know in the comments!

(image: YouTube)

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