The Worst X-Men Movie Is Coming To Disney+
The New Mutants will soon be coming to Disney+.
The X-Men made their big screen debut 22 years ago with the release of the flagship film in 2000. Its sequel, X2 was released in 2003, while the third installment of the original trilogy, X-Men: The Last Stand made its way to theaters in 2006. The movies brought the iconic mutants to life, turning Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Patrick Stewart’s Professor X into legacy characters. After each project outgrossed its predecessor, several spin-offs were released with varying levels of success. It ended with 2020’s The New Mutants which will soon be heading to Disney+.
Billed as a horror thriller, The New Mutants is directed by Josh Boone from a script he co-wrote with Knate Lee. The story follows five young mutants who are just discovering their abilities while being held in a secret facility for psychiatric evaluation. When strange occurrences begin to take place, both their new mutant abilities and their friendships are tested as they battle to make it out alive. It was as released as a standalone film and served as the 13th installment in 20th Century Studios’ X-Men film series.
Boone and Lee first began work on the film after the former wrapped The Fault in Our Stars. The duo pitched The New Mutants as a trilogy to X-Men producer Simon Kinberg. In early 2015 they were officially signed on to the project. Once the casting process was complete, filming began in Boston, Massachusetts’ Medfield State Hospital in 2017. Although the film was aiming for a 2018 release, it was delayed by reshoots and Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox. After the deal was finalized, the movie was completed without reshoots.
But while most entries in the X-Men franchise were adored, The New Mutants was not one of them. The film received generally mixed-to-negative reviews and was deemed a box office failure after only grossing $49 million against a production budget of almost $80 million. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film still holds a poor 35% approval rating, with the general consensus describing the spinoff as less than the sum of its super-powered parts. The audience score is only slightly better at 56%. As a result, any plans for a sequel were squashed.
Interestingly, Bob McLeod who co-created The New Mutants with Chris Claremont in 1982, recently shared his thoughts about the film. Speaking to SlashFilm, he said the horror slant was an interesting way to bring in viewers who wouldn’t normally care about the story. “I wasn’t totally against that,” he said. “I didn’t think it was the best way to go. But I was just happy that they were making a movie from something I worked on.”
However, McLeod did take issue with The New Mutants’ character design. “I don’t see anything that I contributed to the book in the movie, except maybe more girls on the team,” he explained. “I mean, none of the characters look the way I designed them to look.” In a previous interview, McLeod added that he wished the movie contained a stronger origin story for the characters to win over new franchise fans who hadn’t read the comics.
But, now that the property rights for the X-Men have reverted back to Marvel, the franchise is probably in for a major overhaul which will erase The New Mutants from memory. While the studio has been pretty secretive about their plans for the X-Men, an indication of their arrival in the MCU was revealed toward the end of the Ms. Marvel season finale. After Kamala successfully cements her place as a superhero after an epic fight with Agent Deever, the story takes an unexpected twist.
While talking to her BFF Bruno about his research into her DNA, we learn that there may be some kind of “mutation” in her genetic makeup. This is why Kamala is the only person in her family who can access The Noor. As the pair continues their conversation, the familiar X-Men tune briefly plays in the background. For now, Marvel hasn’t revealed any other news about the iconic mutants. But the studio will probably steer clear of any links to the maligned New Mutants film.
Meanwhile, The New Mutants will be added to the Disney+ streaming service on October 14. The film features a stellar cast that includes Anya Taylor-Joy as Magik, Charlie Heaton as Cannonball, Maisie Williams as Wolfsbane, Henry Zaga as Sunspot, and Blu Hunt as fallen Mirage.
