So does anyone know what the deal is with The New Mutants movie? The first trailer dropped back in October of 2017 (it’s been that long) and yet the film is still not in theaters. Due to the Disney/Fox deal, production of the film has been pretty complicated, going from having a set release date to being back in limbo. It got to the point where fans lost interest and even the cast of the film were unsure about its release date, but just when all hope was lost, a glimmer of hope has come to light.
A seemingly legitimate update on the film was recently sighted by Comic Book Resources, pointing out an update from Josh Boone, the director of the film. Boone took to Twitter and proclaimed that a new trailer for the film will be dropping in January of next year. That sounds far away but it’s actually just a month away and it makes perfect sense, considering that the last release date set by Disney was April 16, 2020. The initial release date for the film was sometime in April of last year, so we’re hoping that a trailer dropping three months before this set release date brings some validity to it. The director himself has confirmed it, but then again, we should all be cautious no matter what.
Another seemingly legitimate source is Bill Sienkiewicz, an artist for Marvel who has worked on several of The New Mutants most popular runs. While speaking on Kevin Smith’s podcast, he claimed that he has kept in contact with Josh Boone and has even seen the trailer. Based on what he said, he sounds very excited and optimistic about the film’s progress and believes it will turn out fine. This statement from Sienkiewicz does indeed reaffirm Boone’s tweet about the upcoming trailer, so maybe we can expect the movie to actually hit the release date next April, but we still know better to not get our hopes up. If something does change, fans won’t be happy.
So let’s just assume for now that the tweet from Josh Boone is in fact true and a trailer is coming next month. If that’s the case, then The New Mutants movie will most probably be released in April and the painfully long wait will finally be over. So what can we expect from this movie? From the very beginning, we were sold on the idea that it was going to be different from other superhero movies by adding a dark little horror theme in the mix. This sounds interesting and based on the first trailer, it seems that the horror-themed route is the one the film is really taking. Simon Kinberg, the producer of the film and the previous X-Men films, has stated that they are going for a more young adult vibe, focusing on how young mutants are treated in a world where they are feared and hated while also discovering their powers. All of this sound very intriguing, so let’s go over why The New Mutants movie can actually be good.
The Fox-produced X-Men film series was supposed to have come to an end when this year’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix was released, but The New Mutants movie has the honor of having that chance. While we don’t want another disaster like Dark Phoenix, it’s understandable why we can fear The New Mutants might turn out to be another massive misfire. However, with the likes of Anya Taylor-Joy and Maisie Williams helming the film, along with Boone as the experienced director, we can at least expect a dedicated cast and crew. Dark Phoenix did poorly in test screenings, causing a ton of trouble during production and reshoots and while The New Mutants did go through some reshoots, no word on early overwhelmingly bad reviews have been heard of yet, so we can be happy about that.
Let’s go back on the horror aspect this film is going for. The setting of this film is supposed to be some kind of secret facility under the disguise of a hospital and the young mutants are being kept there against their will. The main antagonist of the movie is supposed to be a character called Reverend Craig Sinclair, the abusive father of Maisie Williams’ character, Wolfsbane. He is also the leader of a fictional Christian fundamentalist group called The Purifiers, an anti-mutant group that believes that mutants are literal children of the devil and should be destroyed. This is a scary and realistic group to have as the villains, considering that there are groups very similar to this in real life. They hold mutant children hostage in a secret facility where they probably torture and kill them and whatever children alive in there are slowly losing their minds. We see this in the trailer from 2017, as mutant children with powers they don’t understand are losing control of their powers to the point where they literally frighten themselves and others to the point of insanity. This psychological horror aspect, along with the realistic villains, is something we aren’t used to seeing in regular superhero movies, so seeing this in the film will be a very interesting and different kind of vibe that we can see be exploited.
Are The Purifiers the only villains to appear in the film? Over the last two years, rumors have sprung around the internet, claiming that Antonio Banderas will appear as an undisclosed villain in the post-credits scene of the film. He was meant to replace Jon Hamm, who was playing popular X-Men villain, Mr. Sinister, but Banderas was set to play another villain. Whoever this villain is will most likely be revealed when (or if) the movie gets released, but since it will apparently be during the post-credits scene, he’ll probably serve as a villain to the follow-up.
Speaking of follow-ups, The New Mutants is revealed to be the last X-Men film in the Fox-produced franchise due to the merge with Disney, so what does that mean for the future of these characters? Is this movie connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in any way? Will it introduce the X-Men into the MCU? Will other characters from previous X-Men movies make an appearance? These are questions that will be answered when we watch the film, but it’s enough to get us excited and actually watch it.
With all the things we don’t know and already know, The New Mutants has a lot going for it and it’s enough for us to believe that it will turn out good. Sure, we had to wait longer than we expected, but if it pays off than we’ll take it.
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