While Wolverine has always been my favorite mutant, I had also collected every single issue of “New Mutants” and “X-Force”. The “X-Men” spinoff was my everything that transcended greatness near its end as artist Rob Liefeld introduced us to Deadpool, Cable, and Domino, all three of who are appearing in this summer’s Deadpool 2. In regards to the timeline, “New Mutants” preludes everything else, although the cinematic universe doesn’t have to match. Still, I expected 20th Century Fox’s New Mutants feature film to arrive before the Deadpool sequel, and was hoping there were plans for it to all crossover in a future film, possibly X-Force.
Digressing, Fox is confidently pumping Deadpool 2 into theaters this May. It was supposed to be primed by the Josh Boone-directed New Mutants, which was slated to arrive mid-April, before a vicious bump all the way to Feb. 2019. If that weren’t bad enough, the studio has just shifted Simon Kinberg’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix to Feb. 14, 2019, which has had a ripple effect on New Mutants, forcing it out to a ridiculous August 2, 2019, release. Fuck.
Prior to this double whammy, several sources have indicated to me that New Mutants was in serious trouble. Even so, I tend to turn a blind eye to such information because films often times can be fixed with new editing, additional photography, etc. (A perfect analogy would be that a studio ends up with either Justice League or Wonder Woman, two troubled productions that had wildly different receptions.) So, it came as no surprise to me that Boone would be getting back behind the camera, presumably to fix the movie and now allegedly add a new character.
Update: Collider has more information. We can confirm their report that, after a recent test screening, the film was deemed not “scary” enough. It gets even more troubling:
“The reshoots that the studio wants are now even more significant. We’re hearing that at least 50% of the movie may be reshot, and they’re adding one or two new characters who will be present throughout the entirety of the film—this isn’t simply adding a cameo. Moreover, Boone has been having some creative differences with the studio over the requested changes to the movie, so the reasons for the New Mutants delay are more complex than why Dark Phoenix is being pushed.”
While I won’t judge until I can finally see it on screen, this delay is more than troubling. Not only does it imply the studio has no confidence it can even be fixed, but it also shows that the studio may be hiding it from Disney, who is in the midst of acquiring the company. For those who follow me on Twitter, I made this bold prediction: New Mutants will never see a theatrical release and will be the first major motion picture released on Disney’s planned OTT service sometime in 2019. As a fan of the franchise, it’s probably best to pretend it hasn’t even been filmed yet and to act surprised when it finally comes out, which won’t be easy as I reshare the excellent trailer…
In the film, “five young mutants, just discovering their abilities while held in a secret facility against their will, fight to escape their past sins and save themselves.”
The cast includes Henry Zaga as Roberto da Costa a.k.a Sunspot, a mutant with the ability to absorb and channel solar power; Blu Hunt as Danielle Moonstar, the Native American telepath also known as “Mirage”; Alice Braga as Dr. Cecilia Reyes, a medical doctor who has the ability to generate a protective bio-field around herself but also has more going on than she lets on; Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin, also known as Magik, who uses teleportation; Charlie Heaton as Sam Guthrie, a.k.a. Cannonball; and Maisie Williams as Rahne Sinclair, a.k.a. Wolfsbane, who can turn into a wolf.