What Exactly Is Going on with X-Men Spinoff Movie 'The New Mutants'?

It will be in theaters this weekend, but will anyone see it?

new mutants
20th Century Studios
20th Century Studios

At this point in time, the X-Men movie The New Mutants almost sounds like the stuff of lore. Is it even real? The spinoff was announced in 2015 and filmed in 2017. It was initially supposed to be released in 2018. Now it's hitting theaters in the middle of a pandemic. If a movie is released and some states don't have indoor theaters open, has it really been released? That's the question that New Mutants will answer this Friday. 

We figured you may have some questions (or just forgotten some details) about this movie, so here's a quick primer. Also, it bears repeating that Tom Cruise is foolish -- please don't go to a movie theater right now.

Why is The New Mutants

When The New Mutants was put on the movie schedule five whole years ago, the X-Men franchise was in a much different phase than it is now. Days of Future Past was a box-office success and Apocalypse was set to introduce a whole new cast of young mutants, including Sophie Turner as Jean Grey. Fox was taking the property in daring new directions. Deadpool was in the pipeline for the following year, and The New Mutants looked like a foray into a darker, teen-centered horror-infused property. The studio selected Josh Boone, of YA weepie The Fault in our Stars, to direct.

What is The New Mutants

They are mutants, just like your familiar X-Men faces like Wolverine and Storm, but they are new. I kid (kind of), but that's basically the theory that inspired Marvel to embark on this series in the early 1980s. Per IGN, at the time the X-Men were a big hit, so why not introduce... more X-Men? So The New Mutants introduced a younger cast of teens at Professor Xavier's school. The movie takes them out of this educational setting and finds them battling an evil doctor at a hospital/prison. 

Who is in The New Mutants

Think back to 2015; what was super popular then? Well, Game of Thrones for one thing. And Stranger Things for another. So Fox cast Maisie Williams, still very much Arya Stark back then, as the Scottish Rahne Sinclair, aka Wolfsbane, and the Netflix show's Charlie Heaton as Sam Guthrie, aka Cannonball. Anya Taylor-Joy, just off The Witch, was tapped as Magik, while Blu Hunt nabbed the role of Moonstar, and Henry Zaga was deemed Sunspot. Zaga's casting has been the source of a whitewashing controversy given that Sunspot is Afro-Latinx in the source material. In a recent interview with io9, Boone both accepted criticisms and was dismissive of them, saying, "It’s like maybe if Henry didn’t exist, I would have found somebody who was darker skinned who exemplified what I needed. But it was never about the color of their skin for me."

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Why did it keep getting delayed? 

Oh, just, so many reasons. Even before the date kept getting pushed back, The New Mutants was plagued with problems at the script stage, according to a story in Vulture. Reportedly, Boone repeatedly pushed back against the studio and the other writers who were brought in to polish the script.

"Josh and [co-writer] Knate [Lee] clarified the horror. Then [the Fox executives] bring in another outside writer. And then Josh went back again. There was this pattern where it would be Josh, then someone. Then Josh, then someone. Then Josh. That went back and forth," one source told Vulture. The initial two release date switcheroos were to make room for other X-Men properties on the schedule, Deadpool 2 and Dark Phoenix. New Mutants was supposed to undergo reshoots when Disney bought Fox, essentially giving the Mouse control of the property. It was finally supposed to be unleashed on April 3, and then coronavirus hit. (If you're looking for a full timeline, ET has you covered.) So why isn't it going to Hulu or Disney+ like, say, Mulan? Well, according to Vulture, there are possibly some contractual obligations that mean Disney has to put it in theaters. And if a studio wants to dump a movie as quietly as possible, why not do so in the middle of a global pandemic?  

Why aren't there many reviews? 

Simple: Disney decided not to screen it at all for critics. Even for ones in states where theaters are open. Typically when a studio doesn't make a movie available for review, it means the movie is, well... bad. This time the decision has elicited protests from places like The AV Club where film critic A.A. Dowd declared that the site would not be covering New Mutants because there is ultimately no safe way to do so. The Hollywood Reporter sent a writer in Paris. His assessment was it's... fine, which is slightly underwhelming given all this waiting. 

Where can you see The New Mutants?

In open theaters wherever they may be. For states like New York and California, that means drive-ins. Maybe eventually it will hit streaming. 

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Esther Zuckerman is a senior entertainment writer at Thrillist. Follow her on Twitter @ezwrites.