Will wonders never cease—guess which film finally has a release date? After languishing in Disney’s clutches after being stuck in 20th Century Fox’s own development hell for more than two years after it wrapped production, The New Mutants will finally see the light of day, and in a wide theatrical release no less. The film, which many industry writers predicted would be shunted off to a service like Hulu or Disney+, will instead be released nationwide on April 3, 2020, almost exactly two years after it was initially scheduled to be released. Accompanying this news, we have a new trailer that is our first look at additional New Mutants footage we’ve had in quite a while.
The path New Mutants took to this moment was long and fraught with perils. Studio execs at 20th Century Fox initially clashed with director Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) about the film’s tone, but were then taken by surprise when its horror-themed first teaser trailer was well received. Wanting to then embrace that aspect of the film, they scheduled reshoots to add more horror elements, which never came into being, before the acquisition of 20th Century Fox by Disney threw a wrench into the works.
Fans were left wondering what version of the film we would finally see, if we ever saw it, but director Boone is now speaking up to let people know that this New Mutants release is still one he considers to be his own version of the movie—which he previously described as a “haunted house” film—albeit, with references to the rest of the Fox X-Men canon removed. The New Mutants will stand on its own, while simultaneously being the last vestige of the X-Men era that technically ended with the disappointment of Dark Phoenix.
As for the trailer itself, it gives us a bit more time with each of the principal cast members, from Maisie Williams’ shapeshifting character to Charlie Heaton’s paranoid teen or Anya Taylor-Joy’s icy Russian sorcerer. Check out the full trailer for The New Mutants below, and ponder where Disney will take the X-Men IP after this.