The New Mutants Star Maisie Williams Says Delayed Film Doesn’t Deserve Its “Bad Rep”

Questions have surrounded The New Mutants ever since it was first delayed from its initial release date years ago, while rumors about the quality of the film caused fans to speculate about whether the film would ever be released at all. There were murmurs about reshoots and rewrites attempting to change the film, add new characters, and even make it scarier. But it sounds like none of those rumors panned out, as The New Mutants is now just a couple of months away from hitting theaters and will be the same version that filmmaker Josh Boone always intended.

Now Rahne Sinclair actress Maisie Williams is speaking out about the rumors surrounding The New Mutants, explaining that the delay came down to the acquisition 20th Century Fox by Disney.

“It’s been a long time coming, we shot it many years ago, but I’m really proud of it finally coming out,” Williams said during Sky’s Up Next event. “It was a lot to do with the merger, I think it [the film] had a really bad rep and people thought there was going to be something wrong with it, but I honestly think it was just really badly affected by something that was out of our control.”

Williams went on to praise the content of the film, explaining that it’s unlike other superhero movies that have been released in recent years.

“There’s so many things about it that are progressive and new for a story of this kind,” she said. “We’ve seen so many superhero films and I think New Mutants really prides itself on being more of a thriller… we’re not heroes, we’re kids that are trying to figure it all out and I think that’s really relatable to the young people of today.”

Before the purchase by Disney, Fox was embracing the X-Men movies branching out into different genres with films such as Logan and Deadpool finding success at the box office. Boone explained that these wins opened the door for him to pitch a horror-influenced X-Men film.

“It’s funny, [the studio] so emboldened by Deadpool and Logan and stuff that they really let us… I can’t believe they’re letting us make this movie,” said Boone. “If you knew all the stuff in it, I still am like, ‘Do they know how f-cked up this movie is?’ It is, but we’re trying to make something that would make you scream just as much as it’ll grab your heart and make you cry. Truly, I’ve shown a couple of scenes to people where everybody who saw them cried and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to make people cry.’ So be excited, because that would be something that hadn’t been done before, I think, for most horror movies.”

The New Mutants premieres in theaters on April 3rd.

[h/t RadioTimes]