The New Mutants has been delayed once again, a situation that has become all-too-familiar for the film over the last couple years. The most recent delay comes courtesy of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has shaken up the global entertainment industry.
Centering on a group of young teenage mutants, the Josh Boone-directed Marvel horror film was expected to finally be released on April 3. However, it has since been postponed indefinitely. While the timing is coincidental, after the many time the movie has been pushed back for both common and uncommon reasons, fans might be starting to wonder if The New Mutants is cursed.
EARLY DELAYS
The first delay of The New Mutants came in February 2018 shortly before its original April release date. Fox, which was still an independent studio at the time, moved Deadpool 2 up a month from its originally scheduled June release to May; and in a decision to avoid competing with another Fox-Marvel property, Fox pushed The New Mutants back a whole 10 months to February 2019. The film was then pushed back another six months to August 2019. However, by March 2019, Fox's merger with Disney was complete, which brought a whole new set of problems.
DISNEY ACQUISITION
Once Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, including the X-Men and other Fox-owned Marvel properties, The New Mutants was in limbo. Disney is the home of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and under Fox, the X-Men films, including The New Mutants, had no connection to the franchise. After the acquisition, however, Disney made it clear it had plans to include the X-Men and other mutant characters in the MCU at some point.
This left fans to wonder if The New Mutants would ever see the light of day, especially when Disney was initially reported to have been 'unimpressed' with the film and doubtful of its success upon release. Plus, Dark Phoenix, another Fox-Marvel film that was also delayed and released post-Disney merger, was critically panned and flopped at the box office. This surely did not look like a good sign for The New Mutants, Fox-Marvel's final unreleased film.
RESHOOTS?
Many believed that the film's frequent delays were the result of extensive reshoots, but in a recent interview, director Josh Boone claimed no reshoots were done and pointed to the Disney-Fox merger as the reason. "If there hadn’t been a merger, I’m sure we would’ve done reshoots the same way every movie does pickups," Boone said. "We didn’t even do that because by the time the merger was done and everything was settled, everybody’s older."
The New Mutants originally wrapped filming in September 2017, and since most of the main cast was fairly young, post-2019 reshoots were a challenge because the actors looked different than they did during principal photography. Reshoots are not necessarily an indication of whether a film is good or bad, and are quite common for most movies, especially big franchise films. As a result, it might not bode well for The New Mutants if it was not able to do reshoots, as that might have been an opportunity to improve the film's quality. On the other hand, the film's stars have recently praised the final cut that was set to release in theaters, but since no one else has seen the movie, it's hard to get a realistic idea of its overall quality.
At the moment, the future does not look as bright for The New Mutants as it did even a week ago. The film is likely to hit the big screen eventually, but interest could wane by then. Disney was putting a great deal of marketing muscle behind the movie before its postponement, but that momentum could now be stalled. In addition, as we get further away from Fox's X-Men series and closer to the time mutant characters may be introduced into the MCU, fans are likely to turn their attention to the X-Men that are expected to join the franchise in Phase 4 and beyond, possibly making The New Mutants feel like a relic of a bygone era.
In order to salvage the film, Disney might consider releasing it on its Disney+ streaming service, or if its quasi-horror content is too intense, Hulu, instead of moving forward with a theatrical release. At this point, just getting The New Mutants in front of audiences would be a victory.
Directed and co-written by Josh Boone, The New Mutants stars Maisie Williams as Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane, Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin/Magik, Charlie Heaton as Sam Guthrie/Cannonball, Henry Zaga as Roberto da Costa/Sunspot, Blu Hunt as Danielle Moonstar/Mirage and Alice Braga as Dr. Cecilia Reyes.