Fox pushes back releases of X-Men: Dark Phoenix & New Mutants

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Anyone who was devasted when NEW MUTANTS first got pushed back to 2019, but then calmed down after remembering we still had a new X-Men movie on the docket for 2018, should be ready to have a bad morning. Studio 20th Century Fox has just switched up the release dates of several of their movies, and among the shifts are X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX and NEW MUTANTS, both of which have been bumped back several months.

Per Variety, the upcoming superhero movies are just two of the movies subject to release changes by the studio. DARK PHOENIX, the latest X-Men movies with James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender and more has been pushed back three months from it's November 2, 2018, slot to February 14, 2019. The movie will now come out a week after THE LEGO MOVIE 2 and Sony’s planned SILVER AND BLACK movie (which could itself get bumped). It will have three weeks in theaters before Marvel's CAPTAIN MARVEL hits theaters March 8, 2019.

As for NEW MUTANTS, the movie has been pushed back a sizeable six months from February 22, 2019, all the way to August 2, 2019. This is the second major bump for NEW MUTANTS, with the movie originally set for next month, but some time ago was pushed back to its now former February 2019 release. Word is the bump(s) have been to add some new scenes, characters and to flesh out the tone.

Another movie getting the shifting treatment is the Freddy Mercury biopic BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY starring Rami Malek, which has actually moved up one month to DARK PHOENIX’s old date, November 2 from its original December slot. The movie was originally being directed by Bryan Singer, but in December he was fired after news broke he failed to return to set after Thanksgiving break for “personal health” reasons, only for it to come out from the cast and crew that he had been displaying bad behavior on set. Cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel had even been coming in to finish the director’s work in the past.

We've heard the stories as to why NEW MUTANTS was shifted, which included so they could add a new character. Chances are it's getting pushed yet again for the same reason, as well as to accommodate X-MEN.  On the surface, the push of X-MEN may seem like a curious one, but the reality is probably much simpler than any fiction people are coming up with. Chances are its purely a competition thing. X-MEN would've opened November 2, going into a heavily crowded month filled with movies like THE GRINCH, FANTASTIC BEASTS 2, CREED 2 and WRECK-IT RALPH 2. That's an intense playing field. As of now, the February release gives it virtually no competition until CAPTAIN MARVEL comes out. Considering X-MEN: APOCALYPSE disappointed at the box office, Fox is probably hoping to make as much money as they can with this one. 

X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX now comes out February 19, 2019, and NEW MUTANTS will arrive August 2, 2019.