As we edge ever closer to the long-awaited (and long-overdue) release of The New Mutants later this year, recent discoveries have shed new light on the long, troubled road to the premiere of the X-Men spinoff.
Director John Boone revealed in a 2017 interview with Screen Rant that The New Mutants was supposed to have been part of the same timeline as X-Men: Apocalypse from 2016, “with [James McAvoy’s] Professor X in it.”
Though there wasn’t much revealed about the 2017 interview, that one line alone is pretty interesting, given the current circumstances surrounding the film.
Given its original April 2018 release, and the fact that Fox back then was still independent of Disney, it would’ve made perfect sense for the likes of Maisie Williams’ Wolfsbane, Anya Taylor-Joy’s Magik and the rest to have made their debuts then. And what fun it would have been if McAvoy’s Charles Xavier were actually in the picture, providing some light contrast to an otherwise dark, gritty and, in Boone’s words, “f*cked up” film.
Furthermore, given the how X-Men: Apocalypse set things up for a much more expanded universe, it would’ve been interesting to see a spinoff X-Men film featuring troubled teen mutants struggling to deal with their powers in another part of the world.
Now that X-Men: Dark Phoenix essentially retconned what Apocalypse set up and closed things off, it might’ve been a silver lining for new owners Disney to have given The New Mutants a new lease in life by dubbing it as a standalone movie (independent from even the MCU, it seems, but let’s see what surprises are in store for us when we actually get to catch it).
The New Mutants releases in theatres on 3 April 2020.
Marion has a serious RPG addiction. Sometimes it bleeds into real life; he forgets to sleep because he thinks he has a Witcher’s body clock. Forgive him in advance if he suddenly blurts out terms such as “Mind Flayer” and “Magic Missile”, because never once does he stop thinking about his next Dungeons & Dragons game.
Natalie
Trinity Sun
