When it comes to production-related drama, few superhero movies have felt the wrath of uncertainty and unfounded information as much as director Josh Boone's THE NEW MUTANTS. Once originally planned for an April 2018 release, THE NEW MUTANTS was unceremoniously cast into the abyss of production hell, thanks, in part, to Disney's purchase of assets belonging to 21st Century Fox. Upon being banished to a limbo of which no one was sure the project would ever return, reports of the film undergoing reshoots began to surface. By that same token, many had speculated that the movie was to be drastically changed on account of Disney's new world order, though in the end, Boone was given the okay to present his X-project as it was originally intended.
Recently, Boone spoke with the fine folk over at Entertainment Weekly, telling them that reshoot rumors related to THE NEW MUTANTS have always been unfounded, and that he'd like to set the record straight on what actually transpired during the film's "will they or won't they" lead up to its April 3, 2020 release.
“Everybody said we did reshoots! We’ve never done reshoots,” Boone told EW over the phone in late February. “And I’ll tell you this: if there hadn’t been a merger, I’m sure we would’ve done re-shoots the same way every movie does pickups. We didn’t even do that because by the time the merger was done and everything was settled, everybody’s older.”
When Boone says "everybody," he's of course referring to the film's cast, of which is comprised of the actors Anya Taylor-Joy (THE WITCH) as Illyana Rasputin/Magik; STRANGER THINGS alum Charlie Heaton as Sam Guthrie/Cannonball; 13 REASONS WHY actor Henry Zaga as Roberto “Bobby” da Costa/Sunspot; and ANOTHER LIFE actress Bly Hunt as Danielle Moonstar/Mirage; GAME OF THRONES and THE NIGHTINGALE superstar Maisei Williams as Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane; and Alice Braga as Dr. Cecilia Reyes.
Williams recently sat down with EW to talk about the upcoming mutant-centric YA horror film, saying, “The movie is exactly the movie we set out to make. I was nervous when they were talking about re-shooting or re-editing that it was gonna be very different, but honestly, it’s exactly what we set out to do.” Williams then expressed her frustration with regard to seeing so many false headlines about the film, especially with her having first-hand knowledge about many of them being unfounded in every conceivable way. “I would be in press for something else and then [reporters would] ask me about [The New Mutants] and the last thing I heard was, ‘Nothing until we know something.’”
Boone then explained to EW that, for a time, the fate of the film remained unknown to him and his crew. “We had heard nothing because of the merger,” Boone remarked. “It was radio silence for about a year where we had no new information at all.”
About a year later, and in the midst of filming his adaptatation of Stephen King's The Stand for CBS All Access, Boone was contacted by Disney and was asked to return to the long-gestating project for editing, a job that Boone was more than thrilled to complete. “When they called me right before I went to go make The Stand and said, ‘Would you come finish the movie?’ I said, ‘I would f—in’ love to come finish the movie!’”
Once October of 2017 has rolled around, and the first trailer for THE NEW MUTANTS made its way online, Boone says that visual effects on the project had yet to be completed. "In the editing, we were probably 75 percent done," Boone explains. "We came back and finished it up. It took a couple months, and it was nice to be able to come back. Knate [Lee], my co-writer, and I, we hadn’t seen it in a year. We did a bunch of things here and there that we hadn’t thought about or noticed a year before.”
Obviously, aspects of the missing effects were for the mutants extra-normal abilities, such as Illyana’s demonic powers, as well as the debut of her dragon companion, Lockheed. “You see a little bit of him there," Boones says about Lockheed with regard to the film's latest trailer. "I wouldn't say too much more, but I was pleased with how we had him in the world and had him as part of Illyana’s story."
Wrapping up, Boone sounds as if he's poised to deliver the X-film that he and his crew had always wanted to make. Personally, I find this to be reassuring, as I've always thought that THE NEW MUTANTS looked to offer something different from previous films belonging to Fox's X-verse. “It’s very… thriller,” Williams says about the upcoming mutant-populated mindfuck. “I think the nature of a bunch of teenagers being trapped at a facility, all with individual powers which they don’t know how to use yet or even summon, that lends itself really well to suspense and scary cuts. It’s all done in a very honest way and it really does come from the characters and the situations that they’re in. It’s not a happy, upbeat superhero comedy film. It’s definitely very dark.”
All shall be revealed when THE NEW MUTANTS finally arrives in theaters on April 3, 2020. Here's hoping that fans arrive in droves to check this movie out, lest all the toil and trouble surrounding its production be all for naught.