There are a lot of moving pieces in place as Disney prepares to acquire Fox. Yes, Marvel Studios is preparing to adopt a number of key comics characters that once belonged to Fox, proper. But there also are a few existing movies – including Dark Phoenix and The New Mutants – that are in a limbo as fans wonder where the mutant characters will fall in the MCU. Co-producer Lauren Shuler Donner was on hand at TCA, where she spoke with CinemaBlend about the status of The New Mutants, and if it actually would make it to theaters. She candidly replied:
I’m being told yes. As I say, I took a step back, so that was under Simon [Kinberg]’s purview. I hope so. They worked on it hard. I do like the idea, we started off as more of a team kind of movie, and the decision came to it more of a horror film. I think it’s a good idea. I want to see it released. I’m hopeful that it will. I’d hate to see it thrown aside.
The New Mutants has been directed by Josh Boone, but it has been in a perpetual state of limbo for some time. Its original release date was April 13, 2018. But then it got pushed back to February of this year, and finally to August. There were rumors of rewrites and reshoots, though the more that the origin-story feature film got pushed back on Fox’s release slate, the more that it meant it probably would be a victim of Fox getting acquitted by Disney, and Disney not wanting to release a version of a movie universe that they now want to start over on.
The way that Josh Boone conceived it, The New Mutants would introduce several key members of the offshoot X-Men team – including Cannonball, Magik, Sunspot, Mirage and Wolfsbane. But it would do it under the umbrella story of young mutants being held in a secret facility against their will, as they are tested and potentially led to believe that they do not have powers.
Josh Boone, in past interviews, said that The New Mutants would have the tone and vibe of a Nightmare on Elm Street sequel. And if you are going to take a hard left turn with a mutant superhero movie, that’s an interesting turn to take.
We got a trailer for The New Mutants a while back. At the time, it looked like this:
But no one knew of that version of the story was going to keep, or if the August release would be drastically different. Then, rumors swirled that New Mutants would be dumped on a streaming service – possibly Hulu – as Disney and Marvel figured out what they wanted to do with the mutant side of the Marvel equation. Lauren Shuler Donner hopes that won’t be the case, but her words suggest that she doesn’t know, for certain.
At the moment, The New Mutants has an August 2 release date, and nothing has changed. So we will see soon enough if Donner’s wishes are upheld, and Josh Boone’s movie gets a proper theatrical release. As huge fans of the team, I just want to see it. How do you feel?
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