The anticipated and much delayed comic book adaption The New Mutants is still on course for its most recently scheduled release date of August 29, 2020, as confirmed during today’s New Mutants panel at the online Comic-Con@Home.
The panel opened with a tongue-in-cheek re-edit of the film’s trailer first stating New Mutant‘s original release date of April 13, 2018, then February 22, 2019, August 2, 2019 and April 3, 2020 before reinstating the current, previously announced release date of August 28, 2020. The film’s long list of postponements can mostly be traced to the purchase of its studio 20th Century Fox by Disney, which finally closed last year. More recent delays have been due to theater closures related to the coronavirus pandemic.
New Mutants director Josh Boone even joked at the film’s bad luck with continual postponements, statingat one point in the panel, “All I know is that when the movie is about to open, an asteroid will hit Earth and it will be like ‘Awwww!'”
The announcement that New Mutants was not changing its most recently announced release date put a stake throw the heart of a number of rumors that suggested today’s panel would feature a reveal announcing that the film’s theatrical release was being pushed back again. Other rumors have suggested that the film could possibly be shifted over to either of Disney’s two streaming services – Disney+ or Hulu. That rumor, of course, ignored the fact that contractually New Mutants has to first go to HBO for a run. Not that facts ever dissuade the fan rumor mill/click bait industry.
I have to admit that I have been rooting for New Mutants for a long time now. The changing release dates aren’t the film’s fault and the little bits that we have seen of it hint at a movie that is far different in aesthetic and tone than what we have seen in the X-Men franchise so far from Fox. And as this is now serving as the last film in that iteration of the comics characters before they eventually show up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it would be nice to this franchise end on a high note.
That said, I think they are being extremely optimistic in thinking that that August date will hold. While it does look as if some theater chains are now eyeing a mid-to-late August reopen, most other new studio product has abandoned the month and it looks as if releases set for September may start to fall as well. I would not be surprised at all if New Mutants does get moved further down the line again, but I am OK with that.
But for those others who have been waiting to see the film for some time, the panel did end with a glimpse of just the first few minutes of the movie, followed by a new trailer. You can watch in the embedded video below.
