The New Mutants: Josh Boone Explains Scrapped Trilogy and X-Men Crossover Plans

The New Mutants seems unlikely to get a sequel regardless of how successful it might turn out to […]

August 20, 2020, 1:13pm

The New Mutants seems unlikely to get a sequel regardless of how successful it might turn out to be. Not only was the film produced years ago but it was made under an entirely different movie studio’s banner than the one which is now releasing. Fox made this X-Men movie but before it was released, Disney acquired the studio and all of its assets. As a result, The New Mutants is finally hitting theaters years after its original release date and despite having plans for sequels already in mind, those will likely never see the light of day. Director Josh Boone, a massive fan of Marvel Comics, shared his ideas for second and third New Mutants movies while talking to ComicBook.com ahead of the film’s release.

“There still are references to the X-Men universe,” Boone explains. “It’s just like we made this at such a strange time in the circumstances under which we made it was strange, which was, we didn’t know there was gonna be a merger till we finished shooting. So we made the movie thinking it was the first of three. And then eventually we dovetail with [Simon Kinberg]’s X-Men movies. And eventually they’d come together like in a big Marvel type way. But you know, that’s not what happened. And it’s like, everything sort of got flipped upside down where it’s like, we had to do a really good job this last time I went into the edit, making sure it didn’t feel too much, like there were too many loose ends to be followed up on in another movie. So most of the little bit of work I did when I came back was to make sure that those tendrils were fixed.”

While those crossovers are unlikely to ever happen at this point (barring Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige’s mind cooking up some sort of multiverse event which could call for the Fox era’s X-Men casts to reprise their roles), X-Men fans can still look forward to their fair share of Easter eggs and references. “You got ’em. There’s some in there,” Boone promises. “They’re usually the characters making fun of X-Men characters and, or being a reverence about them.”

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Typically, filmmakers are tight lipped about sequels as things often change behind the scenes and a combination of not wanting to spoil stories or set expectations for things which can change over time mean such information is best withheld. Boone, however, was very open about what the New Mutants trilogy could have looked like.

“What we sold to Fox was really a comic book [Knate Lee] and I had made, that showed what all three films would be,” Boone revealed. “So it’s like the first one was always a rubber reality horror movie based on Demon Bear. The second one was always an alien invasion movie based on a Warlock and his dad coming to earth and all that. And then the third one was gonna be Inferno and be more of like a demonic supernatural horror movie. We’ve finally crossed over with the X-Men movies like it does in the comics for Inferno and all that. That was sort of the dream.”

Do you want the X-Men franchise to continue or are you ready for a Marvel Studios reboot? Are you comfortable heading out to watch in a theater? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Twitter and Instagam.

The New Mutants hits theaters where theaters are open on August 28. Tickets are on sale now.