You can get away with a hell of a lot under a PG-13 rating, and it seems that X-MEN spin-off THE NEW MUTANTS will be pushing that rating to the absolute limit. I wonder who gets to utter the solitary f**k? Director Josh Boone spoke with Empire Magazine recently and said that the film will probably be the "hardest PG-13 ever made. I mean, we’ve pushed it. The horror is pretty dark, but there’s also an emotional core, too. If I can scare you and make you cry: that’s the goal." Sounds good to me, and although 20th Century Fox has proven successes with R-rated superhero flicks like DEADPOOL and LOGAN, you don't necessarily need an R-rating to bring in big scares.
The release date of THE NEW MUTANTS was recently pushed back ten months, and the reasons for the delay are reportedly due to the studio wanting to beef up the horror-aspects of the film. Josh Boone had previously said that THE NEW MUTANTS would be "a full-fledged horror movie set within the X-Men universe," and that they were "trying to do something very, very different," but it seems that Fox wanted to go further in the wake of the success of IT and GET OUT. Although the delay is a little upsetting, especially considering how close we were to the release, if it results in a better film, then it'll have been worth the wait. If you're hoping for members of THE NEW MUTANTS to be sporting their comic-book costumes in the film, well, you're out of luck. Josh Boone confirmed to Empire that "There are no costumes. That alone makes it different. They can’t be with the other kids at the X-Mansion. They’re too f**ked up. They’ve all killed people, whether intentionally or unintentionally."
Assuming THE NEW MUTANTS is a success, it's likely that we'll see more horror-infused entries in the X-MEN franchise as Josh Boone originally brought the concept to Fox as a "trilogy of films," all of which are based on Bill Sienkiewicz and Chris Claremont's run on the series (The New Mutants vol. 1 #18–31, 35–38).
These are all going to be horror movies, and they're all be their own distinct kind of horror movies. This is certainly the ‘rubber-reality’ supernatural horror movie. The next one will be a completely different kind of horror movie. Our take was just go examine the horror genre through comic book movies and make each one its own distinct sort of horror film. Drawing from the big events that we love in the comics.
THE NEW MUTANTS is set for a February 22, 2019 release.