Comic-Con: The New Mutants Makes Fun of Delays, Doubles Down on August Release Date

To kick off their official Comic-Con@Home panel earlier today, 20th Century’s long delayed (and seemingly cursed) The New Mutants poked fun at itself before assembling its cast. The video began by showing the film’s original release date of April 13, 2018 before being struck out with a line. Every other release date for the film popped up and was written off as well including its two 2019 dates and its April 2020 date. A series of tweets popped up afterward about the various delays with highlights like “The red carpet will double as the 10-year cast reunion” and “Did we all just…collectively hallucinate The New Mutants?”

At the conclusion of the video the film’s current release date appeared on screen, stating emphatically that the film will arrive “In theaters August 28th, 2020.” After the text though another text bubble pops up on screen saying “Fingers Crossed.” You can watch the clip in the player above along with the full panel from this year’s digital Comic-Con event.

“There’s fans that have stolen every frame from all the trailers to try to put together the movie,” director Josh Boone said during the panel. “Which has been sort of amazing…All I know is when this is about to open again it’ll be like there’s an asteroid that’s gonna hit Earth.”

The panel concluded with news of an advanced screening of the film before it’s released in theaters, which Boone answered with “Wear a mask.” Those interested in entering this sweepstakes just have to tweet the hashtags “#NewMutantsComicComicAtHome” and “#NewMutantsScreeningSweepstakes” for a chance to enter. Boone bookended this announcement with a smile, adding: “You might just get to see it finally.”

Despite the tongue-in-cheek joke to start the panel, it’s really unclear if The New Mutants will actually be released in theaters on August 28. During the middle of the panel The Walt Disney Company announced a host of major changes to their release schedule with delays for three Star Wars films, all four Avatar sequels, and plenty of other movies. Perhaps the most noteworthy change though was that the live-action remake of Mulan has been removed from their release schedule completely and taken off its August 21, 2020 release date. This change really does not bode well for The New Mutants, which is still scheduled to arrive one week later.

Even if The New Mutants keeps that release date it’s possible that there won’t be a majority of theaters open to even play the film, as some chains have already said they’re holding off on re-opening after Christopher Nolan’s Tenet moved from its August 14 release date. Check back here for the next update on The New Mutants‘ release date, which will no doubt come soon.