There’s been a lot of bad press surrounding The New Mutants ever since Fox repeatedly pushed the release date back and ordered the film to undergo significant reshoots. A bevy of rumors of various levels of trustworthiness have claimed that the studio has no faith in the movie, that director Josh Boone was unprofessional on set and that, overall, it could be a disaster of 2015’s Fantastic Four proportions.
However, from what we’re hearing from the cast of the teen-oriented X-Men pic themselves, these stories have been greatly exaggerated. Charlie Heaton, who plays Cannonball, said things were looking good and that New Mutants will be “a fully-fledged horror film” when it arrives. Likewise, Maisie Williams (Wolfsbane) dismissed the reports and argued that it’s for the best that the movie’s being delayed.
Following on from her co-stars’ comments, Anya Taylor-Joy spoke with Collider recently and gave her take on the extensive reshoots. The actress was full of enthusiasm for the production – in particular, her character Illyana Rasputin/Magik – and promised that “it’s going to be fantastic.”
“It’s crazy exciting! I love my character. I have such a connection to Illyana. I absolutely adore her, and getting to play her is super fun because she’s sassy and Russian and a little bit psycho. She’s just so much fun to play. And I don’t find [the delay] frustrating because when the film comes out, we want it to be something that will make the fans truly happy. Taking the time to do it, whilst people might find it a little bit frustrating to wait for it, when we deliver it, it’s going to be fantastic. That’s the most important thing. And getting the opportunity to play the character again is just great.”
Reports have varied on what exactly the reshoots are supposed to be changing – some say more scares are being added while others claim that the character development and general shape of the story are being tweaked. According to Taylor-Joy, though, The New Mutants won’t be massively altered by the extra shooting and is still the same movie they set out to make.
“I think we’re making the movie that we set out to make, in the beginning. That’s what we’re going to end up delivering to people. It feels like the movie we all signed up to do, which is good.”
Fans will certainly be hoping that the actress’ excitement is warranted. With the Disney/Fox buyout, the X-Men movie franchise as we know it could come to an end. As such, it ‘d be nice if The New Mutants, alongside X-Men: Dark Phoenix, end up sending it out on a high.