Posted in: Disney, Movies | Tagged: 20th century studios, movies, The New Mutants, x-men

"The New Mutants" Director Felt Less Pressure After "Dark Phoenix"

Published Sat, 21 Mar 2020 07:15:31 -0500

The world is in sort of a weird place right now and a lot of movies and productions are getting rightfully delayed due to the coronavirus and theater closures. While all of these delays are sad there have been others that feel like kicking someone when they are down. One of those movies is The New Mutants which has found itself pulled from its April release and saddled with yet another delay. The movie, which was shot in 2017, was originally supposed to come out in 2018 but got caught up in the Fox-Disney acquisition. There were rumors of extreme reshoots that never happened and we learned recently the movie was sitting at about 75% complete. 20th Century Studios was getting ready to promote the movie before the coronavirus delay so there is an interview with director Josh Boone in Empire (via Digital Spy) where he gets a bit of a dig at Dark Phoenix.

Himself referring to the movie as "one of the worst-reviewed movies of last year", Boone added: "Look, you can only go up after Dark Phoenix. That's not to say anything bad about the people involved, but it was what it was. "Honestly, I feel less pressure now than I did ahead of [the first slated release date]. Because we've tested our movie so many times, and audiences have loved it."

To be fair to Boone and The New Mutants being better than Dark Phoenix is a bar so low that you would stub your toe on it. This movie is going to be a one and done movie now but according to Boone there were plans for a sequel and he even had a post-credits shot planned.

"We had always planned to have a tag at the end of the movie that introduced the villain for the next movie. We even had an actor cast, but because of the merger and because Marvel owns X-Men now and is going to do their own thing, there was no reason to go shoot it."

At this point, there are calls for Disney and 20th Century Studios to just release the movie on Hulu or VOD. The irony is that audiences have been excited about this movie since the first trailer dropped. It seems like it would just be poetic justice if this movie was a critical and commercial success. The X-Men get to go out on a high note instead of the huge misstep that was Dark Phoenix.

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 currently doesn't have a release date.

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