It’s official: The New Mutants is coming home on November 17, 2020.
The youth-skewing X-Men spinoff movie has been through a lot over the past few years. It was originally scheduled to be released on April 13, 2018, back when the X-Men franchise was owned by Fox. In order to avoid running up against the blockbuster Deadpool 2, the movie was moved to February 22, 2019, then moved to avoid X-Men dud Dark Phoenix on August 2, 2019. In the intervening time, Disney officially bought Fox, meaning the latter’s whole schedule got shifted around and New Mutants was pushed, again to April 3, 2020.
Then COVID-19 hit, which led to another reshuffle from Disney, pushing the superhero flick to August 28 to (hopefully) avoid the coronavirus pandemic. Needless to say, that’s still going on, but rather than bump the movie another time, Disney stuck to its guns and released the movie in theaters, leading to a somewhat less than stellar $42 million take on an estimated $67-$80 million budget. Still, that’s to be expected what with the relatively lukewarm reviews. Oh, and also most of the theaters in the country and many countries around the world being closed due to the still raging coronavirus pandemic.
It’s certainly arguable whether Disney should have taken the theater route at all due to safety concerns (though rumors pinned the release as contractually obligated). But the way most folks have begged Disney to release the movie — digitally — will finally happen on November 17. The movie will be released on Digital, 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD, and comes with a slew of extras: featurettes, deleted scenes, and a chat between Director Josh Boone and Marvel Comics artist Bill Sienkiewicz
Directed by Josh Boone, and written by Boone and Knate Lee, the movie focuses on five young mutants trapped in a facility who seem to be there for therapy, but of course more devious things are going on. They include: Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams as Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane, who can turn into a wolf; Anya Taylor-Joy as Illyana Rasputin/Magik, who is able to teleport (among other things); Charlie Heaton as Sam Guthrie/Cannonball, who can create a blast shield around most of his body; Blu Hunt as Dani Moonstar/Mirage, and is able to create illusions; and Henry Zaga as Roberto da Costa/Sunspot, who can become super-strong thanks to the sun, at least in the comics.
A comic book fan, Boone pulled in particular on Chris Claremont and Sienkiewicz’s classic run on the series to craft a movie that is a little more horror focused than the superhero angst of the other X-Men films. And though there has been a bunch of back and forth about where New Mutants sits in continuity with both X-Men and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (which is thus far separate from the Fox films), it clearly will continue to be a weird spot between the two until Marvel moves forward with their own plans for their merry mutants.
Other speculation about the movie — and heck, there was plenty, fans were waiting years for the movie to be released — focused around the potential digital release. Though a “leaked” trailer seemed to point to a September 4 release date on Disney+, that was debunked by Disney, and revealed to be a fan-made fabrication. Other fans/professional journalists demanded that the movie be released on the also Disney-owned Hulu, which tends to skew a little more adult than Disney+. But ultimately, with money on the table, it clearly made more sense to do a theater release, targeting states that have open theaters and/or drive-in theaters, and then dip again for the home release. Due to contractual quirkiness with the X-Men series, it’s expected New Mutants will head to HBO Max early next year, and eventually make its way to Disney+.
Whatever the story behind the movie, finally, we’ll be able to watch New Mutants and put a close on the Fox chapter of Marvel — before we have to start calling them… Wait for it… Old Mutants.
