Another day, another report that will leave you scratching your head as to what the heck Fox is doing with The New Mutants.
To briefly recap, the X-Men spinoff film was initially expected to arrive in cinemas in just a few weeks, on April 13th. However, due to some shuffling behind the scenes, it was pushed back to February 2019. Then, it was delayed again to August of that same year thanks to some major ongoing reshoots.
As has been known for a while now, the reason for these reshoots that have forced The New Mutants back nearly a year and a half is because of that well-received first teaser trailer. As it amped up the horror elements of the movie to great effect, Fox ordered that the production go back in front of cameras to make sure the content better matches up with the preview.
Following other reshoot horror stories such as Justice League, this decision has got fans grumbling. What’s worse, it seems that the studio potentially had a great movie on their hands in the first place. The Tracking Board has reported that test screenings for The New Mutants rated as highly as Deadpool, which we know became a bit of a phenomenon. In fact, after the studio saw how well audiences reacted to the initial cut, they didn’t think reshoots would be necessary. It was only once that first trailer dropped that they decided to go back and re-work a good portion of it.
While this might cause some to bury their heads in their hands and despair, some more intel has come forward today to suggest that maybe reshoots are a good idea, after all. Previously, we’d heard that director Josh Boone clashed with Fox over the additional filming. However, The Tracking Board says that any fighting between the two parties happened at the beginning of the process and the reshoots might actually allow Boone to deliver something much closer to what he initially envisioned.
“Those close to the director said he always felt a bit neutered during principal photography, as he was forced to tone down the violence in order to avoid a dreaded R-rating. And because Boone was contractually obligated to shoot what was in the script, there was only so much he could do despite his and Lee’s best instincts. Sources say that while the second half of New Mutants is basically locked at this point, the first half of the film needs some work, and that Boone will likely add a bunch of scares that didn’t initially appeal to Fox execs. He and Lee might even stand a better chance of getting what they want now than they did during the initial development phase. “
While we wait for The New Mutants to arrive on August 2nd, 2019, we at least have Deadpool 2 to look forward to (May 18th). That’s another Fox project that’s undergone extensive reshoots, so if it turns out to be a hit, it could bode well for Josh Boone’s upcoming spinoff.