For a long time there, we weren’t sure if The New Mutants was ever going to see the light of day. Though filming was completed back in 2017, extensive reshoots were planned for last year but they never materialized. Now that they own Fox though, Disney isn’t giving up on the young adult-oriented mutant Marvel movie and has re-listed it for a spring 2020 release date.
But this final entry in the Fox X-Men franchise might actually evolve into the first product of the merger with the Mouse House. We Got This Covered has been informed that The New Mutants could end up being part of the MCU. Apparently, the upcoming reshoots will remove all links to the classic X-Men universe, with producers trying to get Marvel Studios’ president Kevin Feige to include the characters in the MCU going forward.
This is a huge deal, as it could mean we’ll see Fox properties being placed in the MCU far sooner than we expected, with Feige himself previously warning that it would be about five years before he got around to introducing the X-Men. It sounds like it’s a fact that The New Mutants will at least cut ties with the previous films though, so it’s all up to Feige whether he wishes to include the likes of Anya Taylor-Joy’s Magik or Maisie Williams’ Wolfsbane in future MCU entries.
X-Men exec Simon Kinberg has previously confirmed that the pushed-back release date means the reshoots will finally happen later this year. We were already told to expect references to the wider X-universe – such as a post-credits scene featuring Jon Hamm as Mister Sinister – to be removed, but who knows whether the plan to make it more of a horror movie, akin to the trailer that earned a lot of positive buzz, is still going ahead.
In any case, The New Mutants at last arrives in theaters on April 3rd, 2020. But will it be the final nail in the coffin of the X-Men universe, or an exciting new chapter in the MCU? Only time will tell.
