Josh Boone's New Mutants has finally released in theaters, but will New Mutants 2 ever come to pass? The last of the live-action X-Men movies produced before Disney's acquisition of Fox's entertainment assets, New Mutants has had a notoriously difficult time making its way into theaters. In the three years since production took place in the summer of 2017, New Mutants has undergone nearly half a dozen release date changes and was originally slated to go through heavy reshoots, prior to the Disney-Fox deal. More recently, it's been reported that Fox disliked Boone's initial cut so much, they seriously considered reshooting the entire film from scratch.
After being delayed from its most recent date last spring by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, New Mutants finally opened in U.S. theaters this weekend. The first wave of reviews haven't been flattering either, with critics painting it as being one of the worst installments in Fox's X-Men franchise, on the level with last year's generally-derided Dark Phoenix. Combined with the fact that theaters in major markets like New York and Los Angeles are still closed due to health concerns, New Mutants is facing an uphill battle to make back its $80 million budget.
For these reasons, the odds of New Mutants 2 actually happening are looking slim to nil at the moment. Nevertheless, it remains a possibility (slight it may be) for the time being, which begs the question: how soon could it come out?
With the X-Men now under Marvel Studios' umbrella, the House of Ideas is reportedly planning to reboot the mutant superhero property as part of the MCU. If they were to produce New Mutants 2, they might prefer to continue keeping the franchise separate from the rest of the MCU, to avoid creating any confusion about the characters and their (lack of) connection to the rebooted X-Men movies. In either of those events, New Mutants 2 wouldn't hit theaters any sooner than 2022.
Originally, Boone pitched New Mutants as being the beginning of a trilogy, so he already has a plan in mind for where he would go in a sequel. The filmmaker has confirmed he wants to add Warlock and Karma to the eponymous team in New Mutants 2, with Emmanuel da Costa (the father of New Mutants member Roberto da Costa aka. Sunspot) serving as the sequel's main antagonist. He'd even cast Antonio Banderas to play the latter character in a post-credits scene for the first New Mutants movie, but the sequence was scrapped.
All theoretical talk aside, Disney is unlikely to make New Mutants 2. With New Mutants only projected to open with $10 million at the U.S. box office, it will have to perform much better internationally just to break even. Moreover, from a creative perspective, there's not really a place for the film at the studio post-Fox purchase, what with the rest of the X-Men brand (Deadpool aside) being rebooted anyway. Between that, its numerous delays, and now bad reviews, New Mutants continues to be a problem movie for Disney, and they're clearly dumping it in theaters right now (during the middle of a pandemic, no less) to be done with it, much like they sent the belated Artemis Fowl directly to Disney+ earlier this year. There've been plenty of long-delayed films in the past that've gone on to become successful, but sadly it looks like Boone's comic book adaptation won't be joining that club.
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