The New Mutants International Promo Casts Doubt on August Release Date

20th Century Studios may be hedging on The New Mutants’ release date again. Fans have noticed that new promotional materials released in Taiwan lack the film’s August 28th release date, even after previously released promos included it. Instead, the latest promo says only “Coming Soon.” This change sparked speculation that Disney may be reconsidering the release date after Tenet‘s indefinite delay, despite doubling down on it during San Diego Comic-Con at Home. The studio finished production on The New Mutants in 2017, the same year as the film’s original release date. The studio then delayed the movie for reshoots that never happened, and now it is caught up in the coronavirus pandemic-induced cycle of delays. Fans wondered if Disney may 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.”

And yet, 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, then who knows what else 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 Max or HBO Now. Disney is unlikely to go that route as, without another release, the studio hasn’t 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 into an awkward hurdle on The New Mutants‘ path to 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.

(h/t MCU Cosmic)