Quick, name one movie that’s suffered 10 films’ worth of development hell in the last decade. For those of you who said Justice League, while correct, that’s not the superhero flick I’m talking about. Instead, I’m referring to Fox’s, but now Disney’s, The New Mutants, which actually finished production about two years ago, if I’m remembering correctly. Fox hated it, though, then the Disney buyout rumors started swirling and the movie was re-shot, re-edited, you name it. Now, it looks like Mickey has edited it even more.
FandomWire allegedly has a source close to Marvel/Disney/whoever that’s stated that the studio is intentionally removing any and all references to the Fox’s X-films. It’s also being said that the idea of being a “mutant” will be, basically, a brand new concept in the movie, one that no human has really ever heard of before. This is all being done for if/when Fiege and crew decide to bring their versions of X-Men into the MCU, because it’s looking like The New Mutants may be canonized.
The supposed ties to any previous X-Men film comes from the Essex Corporation, which is a remnant of X-Men: Apocalypse. Remember when Jon Hamm was going to be Mr. Sinister?
I mean, these cuts make sense, but I don’t know why studios are afraid of a spooky, horror-y X-Men movie. That’s the angle these new mutants are apparently going after and people were pretty excited for it, so I’m not sure why it’s been pushed back THREE times now.
Disney, even after all these cuts, are still going to eventually release the thing though and the new-new-new release date is set for April 3rd, 2020, which is a much better spot than January or February, so that shows a little confidence. Granted, they also seemed very confident in Dark Phoenix and, well, we all know how that turned out. Better luck with The New Mutants, DisCorp.