Fox’s last X-Men film finally has a release date. 20th Century Fox announced on Twitter that The New Mutants will hit theaters on August 28th, 2020.
Provided theaters are actually open, that is.
The New Mutants has endured a punishing existence between the end of production and its eventual release in theaters. Directed by Fault in Our Stars‘ Josh Boone, work on the film started in 2017, with an initial release date of April 2018. The story follows a group of teenagers who discover that they are mutants while locked up in a secret facility, and features Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) as Rahne Sinclair / Wolfsbane, Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch) as Illyana Rasputin / Magik, Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things) as Sam Guthrie / Cannonball, and Blu Hunt (The Originals) as Danielle Moonstar / Mirage. The studio released a teaser for the film in October 2017, showing off the film’s horror elements.
we’re back pic.twitter.com/e2ZeKYAEBy
— 20th Century Studios (@20thcentury) May 13, 2020
The production was reportedly stressful and endured some rewrites mid-production after X-Men: Apocalypse‘s lackluster reviews. But once the film was finished and cut, Fox opted to make some additional reshoots to shift the tone of the film, and accordingly shifted the release date to February 22nd, 2019.
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Also during this time, Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, which caused its own set of complications. The reshoots apparently didn’t happen, and Disney announced that the film would hit theaters on April 3rd, 2020. In March, Boone revealed that the film was complete. It looked like the film would see the light of day. Disney even released a new trailer in January, showing off that the film did indeed exist and was scheduled to hit theaters.
Then the Coronavirus pandemic hit, shutting down theaters and prompting studios to move their spring films out of the way. The New Mutants lost its release date, along with Mulan, and others. Its new release date in August seems to indicate that Disney thinks that people will be comfortable going back to theaters. Hopefully for everyone involved, that’ll be the last, last release date on the schedule.
