The Saga of The New Mutants. Sounds like the title of a comic book story arc but it’s actually just the crazy and convoluted story of how the last X-Men franchise film produced by Fox – before the studio was snapped up by Disney – is getting to the big screen. And yes, it is indeed still headed to the big screen.
The film had been conspicuously missing when Disney unveiled the new theatrical releases dates for all the Marvel Cinematic Universe films last month. Technically, The New Mutants isn’t an MCU film as it’s just this weird leftover from when Fox still owned the rights to the Marvel Comics property… but rumours had persisted that Marvel Studio bigwig Kevin Feige and co were perhaps crowbarring it into their plans somehow to potentially be the first step to introducing mutants to the MCU. However, it was previously stated by director Josh Boone and now confirmed by THR that the current cut of the film being used by Disney is Boone’s original horror-centric version that was used for the first test screenings in 2017 before Fox tried to chop up the film and change its tone drastically.
Whatever it is though, we won’t have to wait too long to find out. Unlike the other MCU films that got pushed back considerably (some delayed by a year), it was officially revealed yesterday via a new poster tweeted out by Disney’s 20th Century Studios that The New Mutants will be released in cinemas on 28 August 2020.
That’s just over three months away. Of course, now comes the question of whether cinemas will actually be open by then. And even if they are, just how many people will actually be going out? Disney is clearly extremely confident that the COVID-19 pandemic is starting to wind down as they still even have their big-budget Mulan live-action remake scheduled for 24 July. I have a very strong suspicion that’s getting changed though. There’s just too much potential box office money riding on that one.
The New Mutants is a different story though. It’s much smaller-scaled and may just be a legacy standalone effort with no ties to bigger franchises. And if that is the case, Disney can definitely gamble on an August (which technically makes it a summer blockbuster) release date. And after more delays and production troubles than we have to time recap anymore (luckily CinemaBlend has done just that), you think that this movie will honestly let a little global pandemic keep it down? No, it’s mutant power is endless survivability!
Last Updated: May 14, 2020
