It’s now been a full two years since the release of the first trailer for The New Mutants, and the film’s release date is still a few months away. New Mutants began pre-production in April of 2017, and is expected to finally hit theaters three years later in April of next year.
The New Mutants is 20th Century Fox’s last X-Men movie, following the box office bomb Dark Phoenix. Directed by Josh Boone, The New Mutants was originally developed as the beginning of a trilogy of movies that would be different from the other films in the X-Men franchise. New Mutants was described as a “full-fledged” horror movie, with the movie set to tell the story of a group of teenage mutants who are being held against their will in a secret facility. The film stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Magik, Maisie Williams as Wolfsbane, Charlie Heaton as Cannonball, Henry Zaga as Sunspot, and Blu Hunt as Dani Moonstar. The five characters are the same New Mutants from the original 1982 comic.
The movie’s first trailer came out two years ago on October 13, 2017. At the time, New Mutants had a release date of April 13, 2018. In January of that year, it was moved back to February 22, 2019 reportedly to accommodate reshoots that would add to the film’s horror elements. Though the delay was longer than usual, release dates being pushed back for reshoots are sometimes necessary and not too uncommon.
Later, it received a second delay when the movie was rescheduled for August 2, 2019. At this point, it had become apparent that The New Mutants was experiencing problems that hadn’t been made public. After the Fox-Disney deal was finalized and The New Mutants became a property of Disney, the release date was changed again. This time, it was moved all the way back to April 3, 2020. It was reported that Disney was “unimpressed” with The New Mutants, even though test screenings were reportedly getting a positive response.
It didn’t help that Dark Phoenix wasn’t tracking very well. Dark Phoenix was plagued with issues of its own, including troubling reports about the script being rewritten on set. If Disney was concerned that Dark Phoenix would flop, they weren’t wrong. Dark Phoenix was a complete box office failure that led to Disney’s large third quarter loss. Disney could have reasons to believe that The New Mutants won’t fare much better. Also, the reshoots that were supposed to be coming still haven’t happened.
Key Release Dates
New Mutants
Release Date:2020-08-28
