The saga of The New Mutants has now reached positively Claremont-esque proportions. The troubled superhero flick, which Disney is sorta saddled with after the acquisition of Fox, has long been a problem child with reports of rewrites, reshoots, on-set conflicts, and just the overall feeling that it’s a disaster in the making. While it does appear to be getting some kind of release next April, a new rumor says Disney have overhauled the move in a way that fundamentally changes the characters and its ties to the X-Men.
The rumor from FandomWire says the latest cut of New Mutants removes any ties to previous X-Men movies and any references to the characters as “mutants”. They say this was done in case Kevin Feige decides to make the movie part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That suggests when the X-Men do arrive in the MCU that they won’t be referred to as mutants, or perhaps he wants the word to only debut when they do. The New Mutants characters will instead be just teens with superpowers trapped in a secret facility where experiments are conducted. You would also think a name change might be in order, right?
Despite all of the shit this movie has taken up until now, we can’t forget that we haven’t seen anything of it other than a horror-themed trailer. I don’t count out Feige to find a way to edit the move in a way that makes it salvageable for the MCU. The cast alone, which includes big stars such as Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, Charlie Heaton, and Alice Braga, makes this a movie you simply can’t give up on. The assumption shouldn’t be that Dark Phoenix was a failure, so The New Mutants must be one, too.
If I were Disney/Marvel, I’d chop up The New Mutants into an event series and drop it on Disney+. I think there’s a greater chance for success and potential for growth.
