Fan-favorite Warlock, the eye-catching mechanical alien that was part of the initial The New Mutants comic books, was originally set to be part of the film adaptation, director Josh Boone revealed out of last week’s virtual San Diego Comic-Con.

While Warlock didn’t appear in the Marvel comic series until issue #18, Boone had planned to include the character in the X-Men spinoff film up until six months prior to shooting, but removed him due to budgetary concerns.

“He was in all our early drafts. He was really in it until maybe six months before we shot, but he doubled our budget,” Boone revealed to Cinemablend. “It was just too expensive. The studio had a very hard place that they needed it to be at, financially, to launch [the movie]. And Warlock was what left in order to make it possible to make the movie.”

As Boone notes, the only way they would have been able to move forward was to remove Warlock from their drafts and subsequent film. While disappointing, the filmmakers had originally planned to introduce him in the sequel.

“So our plan was always to put him in the second one,” adds Boone. “So I hope everybody watches the movie.”

For those who have read the comics, it’s pretty clear that Warlock would have been an intensive process involving a shit ton of CGI. While the new trailer includes a wide variety of stunning visual effects, Warlock would have put the project over the top and set it up for failure.

With all of that said, even though Disney now owns Fox, and The New Mutants has been in distribution hell over the past few years, Boone does sound optimistic about sequel potential. If it were to be a big hit, could he get the green light to turn The New Mutants into the trilogy he always planned? Or will the franchise meet an untimely death as Marvel sets to reboot X-Men and other properties in the future?

All I know is that there’s no world in which The New Mutants makes it into theaters come August 28…

Maisie Williams, Henry Zaga, Blu Hunt, Charlie Heaton and Anya Taylor-Joy in The New Mutants.