The New Mutants: Fake Disney+ Trailer Footage Discovered in International Promo

The New Mutants footage that showed up in a fake Disney+ release ad has turned up in an international promo for the film. Released in Taiwan, and spotted by MCU Cosmic, the ad holds firm to the film's late August theatrical release date. It isn't clear how someone in Australia got ahold of the footage early to create the fake Disney+ release ad. While this promo maintains the movie will hit theaters in August, it looks like Disney pushed the release of The New Mutants in the United Kingdom into early September. However, that was likely to avoid competition with Tenet's international debut rather than having to do with the coronavirus pandemic.

The New Mutants wrapped production in 2017, the same year as the film's original release date. The studio then delayed the movie for reshoots that never happened, and later the film became caught up in the coronavirus pandemic-induced cycle of movie delays. Fans wondered if Disney could release The New Mutants straight to streaming or video-on-demand. Director Josh Boone explained why that's not an option.

"With most movies, you sign contracts that guarantee a theatrical release, so it needs to open to ever go digital in the first place," Boone says. "We just, too, would like to see people to see it in the theater. But it needs to obviously be at the right time when it's safe to go back."

But that was before Universal Pictures and AMC Theatre's unprecedented agreement. The once feuding studio and theater chain struck a deal that will allow Universal to release films to video on demand with a minimal theatrical release. If those two entities can come to such an agreement, perhaps anything is possible.

In the case of The New Mutants, there are additional complications. One is that HBO has a deal pre-dating Disney's purchase of 20th Century Fox that grants it exclusive first streaming rights to all Fox movies for the next two years. As long as that deal remains in place, The New Mutants must make its streaming debut on an HBO platform. Disney is unlikely to go that route as, without a theatrical release, the studio won't have made any money back against the movie's budget.

Another challenge is the portion of the Disney/Fox deal guaranteeing any Fox movie that was complete or in post-production at the time of the purchase would see a theatrical release. The clause guaranteed that Disney wouldn't put Fox's films on a shelf somewhere and forget about them, but the unforeseen circumstances of the coronavirus pandemic have turned that stipulation into an awkward hurdle on The New Mutants' path towards release.

Do you think The New Mutants will make its August 28th release date? Let us know in the comments section.

The New Mutants opens on August 28th.