Just when it seems like the saga of The New Mutants is finally about to end, another chapter reveals itself and we continue to the wait for Fox’s final X-Men production. After being pulled from Disney’s release slate in the wake of COVID-19, and briefly showing up on an Amazon digital pre-order page, all signs pointed toward The New Mutants getting dropped online with a digital release. However, Disney continues to believe in the X-Men project and remains focused on putting it into movie theaters. On Wednesday, the House of Mouse officially dated The New Mutants for a theatrical release on August 28th.
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Over the course of the past couple of years, The New Mutants has had several different release dates. It was initially slated for April 2018 before Fox pushed it to February of the following year. Then it was August 2019. When Disney purchased Fox, it eventually moved The New Mutants to its seemingly permanent release date on April 3rd of this year. The pandemic changed that, forcing New Mutants to move once again.
The New Mutants is the last of the X-Men movies produced by Fox to be released, following 2019’s lackluster Dark Phoenix. Disney’s purchase of Fox means that the X-Men characters are now legally able to be used in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and there’s a good chance that those characters will be recast upon entering the franchise. From the get-go, fans worried that this spelled out bad news for New Mutants, regardless of how the film itself actually turned out.
That said, Disney’s persistence on releasing The New Mutants in theaters has to be seen as a good thing in the eyes of fans. Those who have been waiting for years to see The New Mutants on the big screen will finally get their chance.
Of course, there is a scenario where theaters are still closed in August and The New Mutants is forced back yet again. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Are you excited to see The New Mutants in theaters? Let us know in the comments!