i want you to hit me as hard as you can Over the span of two decades and a dozen movies from
relatively modest adamantium clawed beginnings to a time-hopping ensemble epic to profanity-laced
R-rated carnage the mutants of Marvel's X-Men became the most successful property in history
for Fox but rather than leading the series in a promising new direction The New Mutants
instead faced creative differences corporate disruption constant delays and a global crisis
and ultimately brought Fox's X-Men movie franchise to a quiet close switch on Cerebro and concentrate
as we find out what the [ __ ] happened to this In 2014 the X-Men movie series had its biggest
achievement to that point with Days of Future Past combining two generations of the sprawling
mutant cast into one box office blockbuster that same year fox had another hit with the adaptation
of romantic drama The Fault in Our Stars that movie's director Josh Boone also happened to be
a longtime marvel comics fanatic especially the X-Men and its various titles like The New Mutants
together with his writing partner Knate Lee Boone assembled an illustrated pitch for a trilogy of
New Mutants movies with each presented as a unique kind of horror movie X-Men producer Simon Kinberg
in the studio agreed that the concept could provide an interesting new twist for the mutant
franchise and by May of 2015 Boone had a deal to make The New Mutants a reality this first movie
would loosely adapt the demon bear saga from early New Mutants comics a famous story arc from writer
Chris Claremont and artist Bill Sienkiewicz where a monstrous other dimensional entity
preys on the young students at Charles Xavier's school Boone was also a hardcore fan of horror
fiction particularly the work of Stephen King and wanted to apply some of those sensibilities to the
X-Men cinematic universe as development progressed over the next couple of years the script would go
through many drafts and many hands along with Boone and Lee there were allegedly at least a
half dozen other writers involved including Boone's The Fault in Our Stars screenwriters
Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber all trying to find the story's balance and appease the studio
while Boone and Lee had wanted to dive deeper into horror Fox preferred to soften the terror and make
more of a young adult thriller like The Breakfast Club meets The Shining eventually everyone was
in agreement on the general tone but there were some additional complications in the X-universe
early versions of the script intended to have the story set in the 1980s after the events of X-Men
Apocalypse with James Mcavoy's Professor Xavier and Alexandra Shipp's Storm playing major roles
as mentors to the new students but when Apocalypse was released in may 2016 it was a financial and
critical disappointment compared to the monumental success of Days of Future Past and the R-rated
Deadpool which clearly demonstrated that the world of mutants could go in a radically different
direction and still be embraced by audiences opting to distance The New Mutants from Apocalypse
the timeline was reworked to an undisclosed period with the adult leadership role now filled by Dr
Cecilia Reyes an X-Men comic character with the mutant ability to project force fields
as for the young mutants themselves the filmmakers selected a core team of five favorites Wolfsbane
Mirage Sunspot Cannonball and Magik all of whom were part of the classic demon bear storyline from
the early comics the first actor aboard was Maisie Williams right when Game of Thrones was really
hitting its peak of popularity as Arya Stark was undergoing her assassin training in Braavos
Josh Boone knew he wanted Williams to play Rahne Sinclair the sensitive shape-shifting mutant
Wolfsbane and he persuaded her to join the project even before an initial script had been finished
hot off the critically acclaimed horror movie The Witch and M Night Shyamalan's thriller Split
Anya Taylor Joy was chosen to play surly Russian Illyana Rasputin the teleporting mutant called
Magik in the comics Illyana is the younger sister of Peter Rasputin better known as the
metallic mutant strongman Colossus Boone had originally planned to include a scene in The
New Mutants featuring Colossus particularly after his prominent appearance in Deadpool but it was
ultimately trimmed from the script for budgetary and narrative reasons for the role of Sam Guthrie
the awkward blast-powered mutant Cannonball Boone's The Fault in Our Stars actor Nat Wolff
was considered before Charlie Heaton of the smash netflix series Stranger Things landed the part
Henry Zaga who had done a season of MTV's popular Teen Wolf series and netflix's 13
Reasons Why scored the role of Roberto da Costa the solar enhanced mutant Sunspot this new movie's
version would disregard the iteration of the character from Days of Future Past
finally after an international search the key role of Native American mutant Danielle Moonstar went
to relative newcomer Blu Hunt who had appeared on the CW's Vampire Diaries spin-off series The
Originals the quintet of super-powered teens was complete Rosario Dawson who had her own Marvel
history from playing Claire Temple on the various netflix shows was initially attached to play Dr
Reyes when she moved on from the production Alice Braga was instead cast as the supervisor with
mysterious motives rather than taking place at the familiar school for gifted youngsters of the
previous X-Men movies The New Mutants would be set at Millbury Hospital a sort of holding facility
for young mutants recovering from traumatic experiences related to their powers during their
treatment there they start to find themselves haunted by their greatest fears brought to life
the Fox movie began filming in April of 2017 with a planned release date in April of 2018.
most of the shoot occurred in Massachusetts at Medfield State Hospital an abandoned asylum that
had also been used in Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island Boone was a big fan of A Nightmare on Elm
Street 3 Dream Warriors using it as a touchstone for his vision of The New Mutants cinematographer
Peter Deming would help contribute to the unsettling tone thanks to his own experience from
work on Evil Dead 2 The Cabin in the Woods and 3 of the 4 Scream movies during production Boone
was reportedly frustrated with having to dial down the horror elements in order to meet the studio's
contractually required PG-13 certification but he still hoped to push the boundaries of the
rating the director also prioritized the use of practical effects whenever possible to retain
the aesthetic of the 80s horror movies that had inspired him artist Bill Sienkiewicz even visited
the set serving as an unofficial consultant for the story and characters he had originally
brought to the printed page all things considered principal photography on The New Mutants actually
went reasonably smoothly it wasn't until after filming wrapped that the drama really began
at the beginning of September 2017 while Boone was still capturing the final days of shooting the
R-rated adaptation of Stephen King's It arrived in theaters the movie was an immediate box-office
phenomenon earning 700 million dollars worldwide and becoming the most successful horror movie of
all time with dollar signs dancing across their eyes the studio that was previously reluctant to
embrace the filmmaker's desired horror aspects suddenly shifted position at whiplash speed
a month later Fox released a teaser trailer for The New Mutants that totally leaned into
the horror angle set to an eerie rendition of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall part two
the trailer was filled with disturbing imagery including the haunted wall sequence that didn't
even make it into the movie's final cut the early glimpse presented The New Mutants as a
dark tale of terror that just happened to feature characters from Marvel comics audiences and X-Men
fans seemed impressed the trailer promised something unexpected and distinctly different
a hardcore superhero horror movie the problem that wasn't the movie Boone had actually made
because Fox hadn't let him so the studio wanted reshoots to make the movie significantly scarier
there were rumors that it would require substantially more than the standard pickups
that are baked into most productions with as much as half the movie supposedly getting re-shot
and new characters being included the release date was moved from April 2018
all the way out to February 2019 allowing for necessary scheduling and additional photography
there was another wrench tossed in the gears and it was thrown by Hollywood's proverbial
800-pound gorilla in late 2017 Disney announced their intention of acquiring Fox and its assets
while that kind of colossal business deal would cause disruption under any circumstances
it raised particular questions about the future of the X-Men movie franchise since the purchase
meant that the characters could finally become part of the proper Marvel Cinematic Universe
as the merger continued behind the scenes The New Mutants was delayed yet again this time losing its
February 2019 release date to X-Men sequel Dark Phoenix and moving out further to August of 2019.
the cast was continually asked about the intended reshoots and unrelated interviews
and had no information to provide even producer Simon Kinberg was unsure of the movie's plans
stating in may of 2019 that they still hadn't figured out exactly what the reshoots would entail
or when they would be able to reschedule with the increasingly in-demand cast
when the dust began to settle after the acquisition Disney announced that The New
Mutants would be released on April 8 2020 two years after it was originally scheduled
variety claimed the studio was quote unimpressed with the movie and didn't anticipate much box
office potential of course they also were not thrilled with the dismal performance and fan
response for Dark Phoenix when it released in summer 2019. through all the conjecture and
fluctuation the much discussed reshoots never did take place Boone finally got to finish the
movie he had set out to make or at least the more subdued Fox mandated version there had been rumors
that a post-credits scene would involve actor Jon Hamm appearing as Mr. Sinister the leader
of the nefarious Essex Corporation revealed in the movie to be the employer of Dr Reyes
producer Simon Kinberg later refuted that stating that sinister would have instead been introduced
in Channing Tatum's Gambit movie which had its own production turmoil before eventually
disintegrating after Disney's consumption of Fox but there was another ending tease that came
closer to reality Boone had planned to introduce Roberto da Costa's father to be played by Antonio
Banderas setting him up as an antagonist for the sequel a second New Mutants movie would have also
featured the Hellfire Club the body possessing mutant Karma and the techno-organic alien Warlock
when the X-Men were still part of Fox the idea had been to intersect the New Mutants sequels
with Xavier's established group in the main X-Men titles ushering in a new era of mutants and after
the Disney deal there had been speculation that the movie could be detached from its X-Men origins
and potentially serve as the introduction of mutants to the Marvel Cinematic Universe
ultimately nothing quite that interesting happened instead as the spreading coronavirus pandemic was
shutting down businesses in early 2020 the movie was pulled from its April release since there
wouldn't be any theaters open to show it while Disney and other studios began unloading their
pending movies to streaming services and video on demand some wondered why The New Mutants wasn't
meeting the same fate but a condition of the Fox merger was that the movie was contractually
obligated to receive a theatrical release and so it waited almost three years after it finished
filming The New Mutants finally arrived on screens on August 28 2020 right in the middle of the
ongoing worldwide health crisis unsurprisingly its box office performance was weak finishing
with 24 million dollars domestic and 44 million worldwide on a budget reported to be 67 million
critical and fan response was also mixed although years of added anticipation probably didn't help
but the movie did manage to distinguish itself as an unorthodox superhero movie
infusing the familiar comic book genre with supernatural horror overtones
sure it raises some questions like the bizarre strategy of a single person running a facility
designed to evaluate extremely dangerous mutants or how a girl who can teleport allows herself to
be placed in solitary confinement or why nobody seems to associate sudden strange happenings
with the arrival of a mutant with undetermined abilities but let's be honest logic is rarely
the primary consideration in comic book movies for the director and cast a lot happened in the
extended stretch of time while they waited for their efforts to be seen by the world
Maisie Williams put Game of Thrones behind her as the HBO series came to an end and abruptly
faded from the pop culture landscape Josh Boone fulfilled his dream of adapting Stephen King's
epic novel The Stand to a mini-series and included Henry Zaga in the critical role of Nick Andros
Charlie Heaton is now on his fourth season of netflix's wildly successful Stranger Things
and Anya Taylor Joy has become renowned from her work in material like Emma and The Queen's Gambit
as she prepares to play young Furiosa in George Miller's Mad Max prequel but with The New Mutants
the world of mutants as we know it is now in the past fans of the X-Men related movies and comics
now patiently wait to see how these superpowered beings will emerge in their new home in the Marvel
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