‘The New Mutants’: Disney’s Release Options on Fox’s Last ‘X-Men’ Spin-Off Revealed
The New Mutants was left in a very special kind of conundrum due to Fox’s decision to massively delay the film for reshoots that still have not happened, and might not even happen, now that Disney are in charge of the company. What might happen to the project? Let’s take a look.
At this point, The New Mutants is now more well-known for being screwed over by corporate acquistions and bizarre release date shifts than it is actually being a superhero movie willing to try something new… A situation that could have been avoided if Fox had elected to release the movie on-time, or actually scheduled and completed the reshoots on time like they had originally planned to. Maisie Williams, one of the lead actresses in the film, voiced her confusion with the movie’s release plan with a rather colorful answer.
So, what to do with the troubled project? According to Collider, Fox ended up treating the situation that they had made for themselves with the movie like it was somebody else’s issue to deal with. That somebody being Disney, who are allowing Marvel to oversee the very early stages of planning their own X-Men movies with no connection to the previous ones, and don’t really have a stake in the film aside from it being a project that they inherited. Collider note that there are five scenarios that this seemingly-orphaned X-Men spin-off could undergo:
- Release the film as-is in theaters. As it stands, the film is currently contractually-obligated to see a traditional theatrical run, and if Disney were to take any other option with the film, they will have to renegotiate the contracts with the cast and crew (who are, admittedly, probably ready to move on from the movie at this point). Neither Disney nor Fox have reached out to anyone involved with the film at this time. If the movie is to hit theaters, then it could be placed in a “dump month” period to just get it out there, with a bare-bones marketing campaign, if Disney so choose.
- Release the film as-is on Hulu. This is Disney and Fox’s designated “mature content” platform, and with The New Mutants aimed at an older audience than the fare of Marvel Studios, it seems like this would be a natural fit for the film, after figuring out the situation with the contracts of the cast and crew. With Hulu largely seen as a “television first, movies second” service, the movie could be presented as a big deal in that it may very well be the first film to be released exclusively for the streaming service; especially knowing that part of the Disney-Fox deal is meant to develop films with Hulu in mind.
- Release the film as-is on Disney+. Basically the same scenario as the above, but a little different. This is the less likely of the two streaming options for the film to call home, due to it having a family-friendly image, as well as not being a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (which will have a big presence on the streaming service). If Disney want to keep all the Fox-made X-Men movies on Hulu (which would be a smart move, so that the R-rated films – which will not be on Disney+ – could exist on a single platform), then it would make that much more sense to save The New Mutants for the older streaming service.
- Don’t release the film, ever. This option is almost certainly not happening for a multitude of reasons. Fox already put tens of millions of dollars into the film, and there’s no sense in not trying to get some kind of return on it. Furthermore, it would be a pretty bad look for everyone at Disney to not release the film in any capacity, especially so soon after the acquisition of Fox; a lot of talent worked on this film, including talent that may be in the running to find new jobs at Marvel Studios one day. The movie is not described as being a disaster akin to Fant4stic, and in all honesty is probably at least “just okay”, so releasing the film won’t do a thing against the franchise’s brand image. So yeah. The New Mutants is seeing release in some way, shape, or form.
- Do the reshoots and figure things out from there. We already know that Avengers: Endgame is going to rake in tons of money, so perhaps setting a few million of its profits aside to make a few necessary changes to an initial cut to fit director Josh Boon’s vision wouldn’t be the worst idea in the world. It likely would not take a substantial amount of time or money to make a few adjustments to make the movie better, and in spite of all the delays toward actually filming additional photography, the end result could either be a modest box office success, a modest loss, or a draw to bring people to one of Disney’s major streaming services.
The problems facing The New Mutants are problems that could largely have been avoided with better management in place, but it doesn’t seem like it’s worth dwelling on that too much now. There are a lot of people who would like to see closure of some kind on this project, and the sooner it’s released, the sooner that Disney can shift its focus toward making use of all of its new Marvel assets gained by the Fox acquisition.
The New Mutants will (allegedly) be released in theaters on August 2, 2019.
Grant Davis is a freelance writer who has covered entertainment news for more than seven years. His articles have frequently appeared in Star Wars News Net as well as as other entertainment-related websites. As someone who grew up on Star Wars and comic book movies, he’s completely thrilled with the current era of genre entertainment.
