The long term delays for The New Mutants may have inadvertently helped the film’s marketing ahead of its April 2020 release date. The New Mutants is based on characters from Marvel Comics and is to be a horror film within the superhero genre. As was the case with the X-Men film franchise, The New Mutants was owned by Fox before Disney took over.
The horror film, directed by Josh Boone, went into the early stages of development in 2014. Early drafts of The New Mutants planned to incorporate major X-Men characters like Professor X and Storm but those ideas were later scrapped. The concept was then refocused to center on five young mutants – Wolfsbane, Magik, Cannonball, Sunspot, and Mirage – trapped in a facility against their will as they learn more about their abilities. Filming began in 2017 with the studio aiming for a spring 2018 release date but the film would find many bumps in the road ahead.
Based on the positive reaction to the horror elements featured in the initially released trailer for The New Mutants, Fox wanted reshoots to make the movie even more terrifying. The topic of reshoots pushed back the release date multiple times, forcing the film into developmental hell. Disney’s acquisition of Fox also complicated matters as they weren’t too impressed with Boone’s project. Since Disney took over, the focus shifted back to Boone’s original vision for New Mutants, with ample horror and connections to the X-Men movies removed. Disney is sticking with the April 2020 debut, two years after the original release date, but the hype for The New Mutants is perhaps higher than ever. It’s very possible that the various delays in issues that the Marvel movie has faced actually increased interest in The New Mutants.
Could The New Mutants Be Disney’s 2020 Sleeper Hit?
Disney has a big year coming up with the release of anticipated titles like Onward, Mulan, Black Widow, Jungle Cruise, and The Eternals. With their ownership of the Fox package, Disney will also be in box office control with The Woman in the Window, The Empty Man, The King’s Man, Deep Water, and plenty of others that might attract more mature audiences. Many of the movies mentioned will look to dominate the box office but The New Mutants should be added to discussion as Disney’s sleeper hit this year.
The buzz surrounding the film is larger than it was when the movie was first in development in 2017. Moviegoers and Marvel fanatics have been curious about the array of changes that came about since Boone first took The New Mutants into development. There’s a notable eagerness to see the final product even though Disney doesn’t seem to have a lot of confidence with the release. Those feelings, however, haven’t stopped Marvel from giving the project their blessing. It also doesn’t hurt that many of the stars of the film have only grown in popularity since the project came together. Viewers were excited to see stars like Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones), Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), and Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things) tackle comic book characters and the time is finally here.
The budget for The New Mutants is reportedly half of what it cost to make the box office bomb Dark Phoenix for Disney-owned Fox. This means that Disney doesn’t have much to lose with the release of the edgy X-Men spinoff. The fact that viewers will be walking into theaters with lower expectations might work to their advantage. When viewers are pleasantly surprised by something, they are more likely to voice their thoughts which results in word of mouth. This tactic along with the on-going curiosity could be Disney’s best accidental marketing tactic. All it took was years of reshoots that never happened.
Next: New Mutants Trailer Breakdown: 26 Story Details & Secrets You Missed
- New Mutants Release Date: 2020-08-28
