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"The New Mutants" Director Talks Those Reshoots Rumors

Published Mon, 09 Mar 2020 18:15:58 -0500

There have been so many rumors and conflicting information about The New Mutants that it's hard to understand what's real and what isn't which is very on theme considering this is a movie that looks like the concept of reality isn't quite what it seems to be. The New Mutants was supposed to come out in 2018 the same year as Deadpool 2 and Dark Phoenix which was interesting. They were three X-Men movies that couldn't be more different in terms of tone and that kind of variety was what the X-Men needed to remain relevant in a MCU world. Then everything went to hell as Disney decided to buy Fox and all of their properties including the X-Men. Both The New Mutants and Dark Phoenix got delayed and while Dark Phoenix eventually got released The New Mutants kept getting pushed back. There were rumors of reshoots but they never seemed to happen. Disney appears to have realized that the movie isn't making them anything sitting on the shelf and gave it a April 2020 release date two whole years after its initial release date and three years after it was shot. Director Josh Boone spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the production and the reshoots.

"Everybody said we did reshoots! We've never done reshoots," he tells EW over the phone in late February. "And I'll tell you this: if there hadn't been a merger, I'm sure we would've done reshoots the same way every movie does pickups. We didn't even do that because by the time the merger was done and everything was settled, everybody's older."

So it turns out the delays are not the most unique thing about The New Mutants but the fact that they didn't even do any pickups is incredibly rare. Almost every movie does pickups and the very passage of time and people dragging their feet have prevented this movie from even having pickups. Star Masie Williams talked about how people would ask her about the reshoots and how she was nervous about them.

"The movie is exactly the movie we set out to make. I was nervous when they were talking about reshooting or re-editing that it was gonna be very different, but honestly, it's exactly what we set out to do. … I would be in press for something else and then [reporters would] ask me about [The New Mutants] and the last thing I heard was, 'Nothing until we know something.'"

Boone went on to say that he had radio silence because of the chaos that was the merger and during that time he got the green light to adapt The Stand. It also turns out that the movie wasn't just sitting there on the shelf and finished.

"We had heard nothing because of the merger," Boone adds. "It was radio silence for about a year where we had no new information at all. … When they called me right before I went to go make The Stand and said, 'Would you come finish the movie?' I said, 'I would f—in' love to come finish the movie! … In the editing, we were probably 75 percent done. We came back and finished it up. It took a couple months, and it was nice to be able to come back. Knate [Lee], my co-writer, and I, we hadn't seen it in a year. We did a bunch of things here and there that we hadn't thought about or noticed a year before."

Some of those effects included the powers for Illyana Rasputin aka Magik as played by Anya Taylor-Joy. We got to see some of those powers in the latest trailer including the sword that materializes from her arm and Lockheed her dragon companion. Boone was hesitant to say how much of a role Lockheed would play in The New Mutants but that he "was pleased with how we had him in the world and had him as part of Illyana's story." Boone got to show the film to his cast not long ago and William had some very interesting descriptions for it.

"It's very… thriller," Williams describes. "I think the nature of a bunch of teenagers being trapped at a facility, all with individual powers which they don't know how to use yet or even summon, that lends itself really well to suspense and scary cuts. It's all done in a very honest way and it really does come from the characters and the situations that they're in. It's not a happy, upbeat superhero comedy film. It's definitely very dark."

At this point, Disney has pretty much nothing to lose by releasing the movie and the first trailer was well received. People were looking forward to this movie so it's going to be interesting to see if it makes any money at all.

Summary: Five young mutants, just discovering their abilities while held in a secret facility against their will, fight to escape their past sins and save themselves.

The New Mutants, directed by Josh Boone, stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Alice Braga, Maisie Williams, Charlie Heaton, Blu Hunt, and Henry Zaga. It will be released on April 3, 2020.

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