20th Century Fox’s X-Men lineup for 2018 has been whittled down to one.
After losing The New Mutants to 2019, we now have word that Simon Kinberg’s X-Men: Dark Phoenix has officially been rerouted to February 14th, 2019 – the date once occupied by Gambit – where it will open in close proximity to Hellboy and M. Night Shyamalan’s atypical threequel, Glass. It’s bad news for Josh Boone’s New Mutants, too, which is now expected to drop on August 2nd, 2019 – 16 months later than first scheduled. Yikes.
Rumor has it that Fox plans to incorporate an additional character during The New Mutants reshoots (Warlock, perhaps?), all the while amplifying the underlying horror element that helps set it apart from its mutant peers. Hell, in the eyes of Josh Boone, the star-studded spinoff may prove to be one of the “hardest PG-13s ever made.” How’s that for a pull-quote?
Featuring the likes of Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things), Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones) and Anya Taylor-Joy of The Witch fame, The New Mutants tells the story of young individuals struggling to harness their newfound abilities. And at least according to Taylor-Joy, this postponement is no bad thing, as spending more time in the oven will allow Josh Boone’s spinoff to reach its true potential.
I don’t think it being delayed is a bad thing because it’s definitely more important to make sure that we get it right than rushing to make a date. So, hopefully, all of these reshoots and adding of the new character that will give the fans an altogether satisfactory, wonderful product.
For X-Men: Dark Phoenix, the four-month delay will ensure Simon Kinberg and his VFX team have ample time to render some of the movie’s wondrous visual effects – it is a cosmic epic, after all, one which stars the likes of Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence and Sophie Turner as the estranged Jean Gray.
When 2018 began, viewers had come to expect no fewer than three installments in Fox’s X-Men franchise: Deadpool 2, The New Mutants and the all-star Dark Phoenix. Now, only the former is expected to grace theaters before the year’s end – May 18th, to be specific – which is all the more disappointing when you consider just how diverse this slate really is. Even still, surely a delay is no bad thing? We’ll find out very soon.