In moves that may come as a surprise to no one, Walt Disney Pictures has pushed the Fox film The New Mutants back once again from its summer release date of August 2, 2019 to April 3, 2020, where it currently has no competition. They have also pulled Channing Tatum’s Gambit film completely from their schedule, as they have for three Untitled Fox Marvel projects previously dated for June 26, 2020, October 2, 2020 and March 5, 2021. Those untitled dates could have been originally earmarked for projects like Drew Goddard’s X-Force and Noah Hawley’s Dr. Doom that now appear to have no future under Disney rule.
RELATED: Director Gore Verbinski has pulled out of the Gambit movie
Gambit tore through a number of directors in development (Rupert Wyatt, Doug Liman, Gore Verbinski) while struggling to get off the ground for years. The last we heard was Tatum himself was angling to make his directorial debut on the project, which he would have also headlined as Remy LeBeau from a script by his longtime Free Association production partner Reid Carolin (Magic Mike, Magic Mike XXL).
Meanwhile for director Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) this will mark the fourth release delay for The New Mutants, originally meant to drop on April 13, 2018 and then delayed to February 22, 2019 before landing the summer 2019 date it just lost. It has been reported that the reshoots intended to make the film scarier have not yet taken place, and there is strong word that the film will never see play in cinemas and will go straight to streaming service Hulu.
RELATED: The New Mutants Might Be R-Rated, Depending on Reshoots
New Mutants stars Anya Taylor-Joy (Split, The Witch) as Magik, Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones, gen:LOCK) as Wolfsbane, Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things) as Cannonball, Henry Zaga (13 Reasons Why) as Sunspot, and Blu Hunt as Mirage.
The New Mutants adapts the monthly comic book series of the same name that launched in 1982. Created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, The New Mutants follows on a group of teenage mutants as heroes in training in the Marvel Universe. The feature is expected to be a departure from the sci-fi-action spectacle of other X-Men films and is instead being described as a “Stephen King meets John Hughes”-style horror movie.
In November 2017, ComingSoon.net exclusively revealed a leaked concept animatic from the film, which features Wolfsbane, Magic and Cannonball facing Demon Bear.
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
