Don's Digest: Will The New Mutants Ever See The Light of Day?
If the recent round of rumors are to be believed, the long-delayed superhero horror film, The New Mutants, will not feature any references to the Fox X-Men series upon its April 2020 release.
In an attempt to breathe new life into the mutant ensemble origin story, Marvel Studios is instead hoping to integrate the tale into the larger MCU. At a time when it seemed that The New Mutants was doomed to be released directly to the Disney+ streaming platform, the most recent cut of the film that was screened for studio executives has apparently been generating a very good buzz. Marvel Studios is aiming to present the story in a very different context to moviegoers, most of whom would rather forget about the last disappointing mutant-centered film, Dark Phoenix, which ended up losing over $100 million by the end of its box office run.
Unfortunately, The New Mutants has quite a difficult journey ahead of it. The film has been delayed multiple times, had its original post-credits scene scrapped and still has not finished the scheduled reshoots that were supposed to ensure that it will frighten audiences. One can only imagine how daunting of a task it must be for writer/director, Josh Boone, who described principal photography on the film to be extremely stressful since he was required to tone down some of his “full horror” ideas. It has been many months since Boone last addressed the state of the production and whenever the film’s young cast members are interviewed, they typically state the following: “I have NO IDEA what’s happening with the New Mutants. That film may never be released for all I know.” Who knows if The New Mutants will turn out to be a sleeper hit when it is released in April 2020. We could witness a truly unique and terrifying cinematic experience or we could potentially add this superhero ensemble to the prominent list of disappointing comic films. Only Time Will Tell…
And that time is NOW?! On Monday January 6th, Marvel Studios released the brand new trailer for The New Mutants and it was surprisingly spectacular. An intriguing blend of horror and superhero action, the trailer gave audiences a small glimmer of hope that this long-delayed production could be worth the wait. And then…Covid-19 hit the market, shutting down theaters across the globe and bring the economy to its knees. Today, the question revolves more around whether the movie industry as a whole will ever recover rather than whether The New Mutants will be released in theaters. The latest reports seem to imply that the film could finally be released on a digital streaming platform (i.e Disney+, Netflix, Hulu) which many believe was the plan ever since Disney acquired the property.
At the present time, the jury is still out on The New Mutants! Will it ever see the light of day? Will it see a limited theatrical release once social distancing is a thing of the past? I, for one, hope The New Mutants will be unveiled in some format as it’s clear that the filmmakers behind it were passionate about the story, characters and the last remnants of the Fox X-Men series.