Introducing the Brilliant Young Characters of The Darkest Minds
They’re young, angry, and can control your thoughts or use telekinesis to throw a car at you. No wonder their government is afraid of them.
The Darkest Minds began as a young adult novel by Alexandra Bracken. It quickly became a hit, and in less than three years, Bracken released two more novels to complete the trilogy. Last week, Arrival and Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy brought the narrative to the big screen with Kung Fu Panda 2 and 3 director Jennifer Yuh Nelson at the helm.
The film’s heroes live in a world that doesn’t want them. And the world is not passive about it. After a virus wiped out most of the young population on Earth, the survivors find themselves with mysterious powers. Threatened by their own normality, the government begins to imprison the children, or kill them if they are too powerful. 20th Century Fox posted some videos introducing the kids who plan to resist their aggressors—starting with Ruby, the novel and movie’s exceptionally powerful protagonist.
Ruby is introduced at ten years old, but for the majority of the narrative is a teenager played by Amandla Stenberg. Years ago, Stenberg played the tragic fan favorite Rue in The Hunger Games, and now she’s the star of her own trilogy. Here, Stenberg as Ruby possesses the ability to control people’s minds. It looks like she becomes a leader, or at least a steadfast member, of the resistance against those wishing to extinguish her and everyone else her age.
One of Ruby’s sidekicks is the short but strong Zu, played by Miya Check. Zu is a “Gold”—or a “Yellow” if you’re a book reader—meaning she has golden eyes and can manipulate electrical objects to make them surge with power or explode. Zu, which is short for Suzume, will be at the head of her own book on the way from Bracken.
Next is the blue-eyed Liam, who has telekinetic powers that allow him to lift and throw objects from trees to buses with just the movement of his hand. Liam (Harris Dickinson) is a bit more mature than the rest of the group, and acts as a mentor for the other young adults who can’t fully control their newfound abilities.
Rounding out the group is Chubs, who is surprisingly not chubby and portrayed by The Get Down’s Skylan Brooks. Chubs is a Green, the least feared category in the eyes of the oppressive adult world. Greens are supremely intelligent and able to master language, mathematics, and many other subjects. In a group of people who are not quite used to being in charge of their own lives, Chubs is invaluable to planning the resistance movement and navigating the broken world.
Meet all of these characters and more (including Game of Thrones’ Gwendoline Christie) in The Darkest Minds, in theaters now.
Featured image: L-R: Chubs (SKYLAN BROOKS), Zu (MIYA CECH), Ruby (AMANDLA STENBERG) and Liam (HARRIS DICKINSON) in Twentieth Century Fox’s THE DARKEST MINDS. Photo credit: Daniel McFadden; TM & © 2018 Twentieth Century Fox
