THE NEW
MUTANTS

AN X-MEN HORROR FILM

HOW THE NEW MUTANTS WAS PITCHED

Fox finalised a deal in May 2015 for Josh Boone to direct from a script he wrote with Knate Lee. Boone described the film in May 2017 as a genre film inside the X-Men world:

“We are making a full-fledged horror movie set within the X-Men universe.”

Josh Boone, May 2017

He added: “There are no costumes. There are no supervillains.”

A DISUSED HOSPITAL IN MASSACHUSETTS

HOW THE FILM WAS SHOT

Principal photography ran from 10 July to 16 September 2017 in Boston and nearby towns under the working title Growing Pains, with the main location the Medfield State Hospital. The budget was $67 million to $80 million and Mark Snow wrote the score. The cast includes Maisie Williams as Wolfsbane, Anya Taylor-Joy as Magik, Charlie Heaton as Cannonball, Alice Braga as Dr. Cecilia Reyes, Blu Hunt as Mirage and Henry Zaga as Sunspot.

FOUR DATES AND A PANDEMIC

WHY THE RELEASE TOOK THREE YEARS

The film was first dated 13 April 2018, then moved to 22 February 2019, to 2 August 2019 and to 3 April 2020. Disney completed its acquisition of Fox in March 2019, and work stopped during the deal. Disney removed the film from the schedule on 12 March 2020 because of COVID-19, then announced the 28 August 2020 date.

Boone said on 28 August 2020 that there was “a year and some change where we really didn’t hear much at all,” and that after the merger the team was “cleaning up the mess of the merger and the impact it had on us.”

THE FIRST BIG OPENING OF THE PANDEMIC

HOW THE FILM OPENED AND WHAT IT EARNED

The film opened to $7,037,017 in the US across 2,412 theatres, when roughly 60% to 70% of US theatres were open. That was the biggest debut for a film since the pandemic began in the US, and it took another $2.9 million overseas. It went on to earn $49.2 million worldwide, of which $23.9 million came from the US, and became the lowest-grossing film in the X-Men series.

THE REWATCH

A 36% CRITICS SCORE AND A MIXED METASCORE

Rotten Tomatoes lists a 36% critics’ score from 136 reviews and a 55% audience score, and its consensus calls the film “less than the sum of its super-powered parts.” Metacritic gives it 43 from 20 critics.

In the Marvel Marathon it is catalogued as an X-Men release and sits in the Marvel movies in release order guide between Spider-Man: Far From Home and Black Widow, and in the X-Men movies in order guide between Legion Season 3 and Deadpool & Wolverine. It is not in the MCU guides.