Uh oh, maybe we should be worried about Fox’s X-Men slate…well, anything that isn’t Deadpool 2. Just a couple of months ago they pushed back New Mutants, which was expected to open this year, well into 2019. And apparently the move wasn’t enough to fix whatever issues Fox is seeing because it’s now been bumped even further, while X-Men: Dark Phoenix has suffered a delay of its own.
Josh Boone’s superhero horror The New Mutants has been moved from February 22nd 2019 to August 2nd 2019. Remember, it was originally due to open…oh, right about now, but was delayed with new reshoots to take place to add a brand new character. It’s possible Fox just wants to fine tune the movie’s tone since this won’t be your traditional superhero flick, but they have to realize all of this shuffling leaves a bad taste in fans’ mouths.
Next up, X-Men: Dark Phoenix has shifted from this fall to February 14th 2019. This one’s weird because Fox seemed generally happy with it and had begun an early promo push. We haven’t heard anything about major troubles during production, either, which leads me to believe this move, probably both, are about something else.
Is it possible Fox is readying for the Disney deal to go through? While they’ve been setting up projects at a rapid clip like nothing was going to happen, it’s starting to look like a done deal and it could finalize in a few months. Once that happens Disney/Marvel will probably want to sort things out for themselves.
A few other moves of note: the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody has actually been moved up to November 2nd 2018. The film stars Rami Malek as the Queen frontman, with Dexter Fletcher directing after Bryan Singer was unceremoniously dumped from the project.
Finally, James Mangold’s Logan followup, The Force, has been completely jettisoned from the schedule. Uh oh. The gritty cop drama is based on a book by Don Winslow and David Mamet was to have penned the screenplay at one point. I’m thinking this still happens but probably not for a long time yet.
