Next month’s cinematic calendar will include the release of The New Mutants, a movie that was originally scheduled to come out two years ago. For a long time, it was believed that the reason The New Mutants, which serves as the final movie of Fox’s X-Men franchise, was taking so long to arrive is because of planned reshoots. As it turns out, these reshoots never actually happened!
Although we already knew that the theatrical cut of The New Mutants only contained footage shot during principal photography, this is the first time we’ve heard that no additional footage was shot whatsoever. Evidently Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox sidelined the reshoots aspect of the production, as director Josh Boone explained:
Everybody said we did reshoots! We’ve never done reshoots. And I’ll tell you this: if there hadn’t been a merger, I’m sure we would’ve done reshoots the same way every movie does pickups. We didn’t even do that because by the time the merger was done and everything was settled, everybody’s older.
So had the Disney/Fox merger not gone through, Josh Boone believes that The New Mutants would have done reshoots, like so many blockbusters do nowadays. Alas, this gigantic business deal, along with Disney’s continued focus on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, resulted in The New Mutants being delayed, eventually reshoots just wouldn’t work because the actors had aged too much, having first worked together back in summer 2017.
Josh Boone added to EW that there was “radio silence” for about a year where he and the rest of the cast and crew didn’t hear anything about what was next for The New Mutants. During that time, Boone finally got his adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand off the ground as a limited series for CBS All Access, and shortly after that was officially announced, Boone was called back to finish editing The New Mutants.
When reports of The New Mutants reshoots first surfaced, it was said that the extra filming was being done to make the movie scarier. While that never came to pass, Maisie Williams, who plays Rahne Sinclair, a.k.a. Wolfsbane, is assuring fans that the movie hitting theaters is properly reflective of the original vision. In her words:
The movie is exactly the movie we set out to make. I was nervous when they were talking about reshooting or re-editing that it was gonna be very different, but honestly, it’s exactly what we set out to do. I would be in press for something else and then [reporters would] ask me about [The New Mutants] and the last thing I heard was, ‘Nothing until we know something.’
Maisie Williams also described The New Mutants as being very “thriller” and “dark” in its “honest” exploration of young mutants being trapped in a facility against their will. Joining Williams in the main cast are any Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin, a.k.a. Magic; Charlie Heaton as Sam Guthrie, a.k.a. Cannonball; Blu Hunt as Danielle Moonstar, a.k.a. Mirage; Henry Zaga as Roberto de Costa, a.k.a. Sunspot; and Alica Braga as Dr. Cecilia Reyes.
It had also been reported that Antonio Banderas had been cast to play an unidentified villain appearing The New Mutants’ post-credits scene, which was among the planned scenes being reshot and originally featured Jon Hamm as Mr. Sinister. Since the reshoots never occurred, it’s unclear if Banderas is actually present in the movie, if we’ll see Hamm’s Sinister instead or if both men will be absent.
The New Mutants opens in theaters on April 3. Don’t forget to scan through our 2020 release schedule to figure out what other movies you plan to see this year.
