Despite having a stacked slate at D23 Expo that featured numerous announcements, Disney completely ignored The New Mutants. Following Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox, the House of Mouse has slowly taken to releasing the remainder of Fox's films. Now that Dark Phoenix has been released, New Mutants is the final X-Men film by Fox that remains to be seen by the public.
New Mutants was officially announced back in 2015, and for a while, things seemed to be going smoothly for the project. Josh Boone was set as the director for the film, with New Mutants originally intending to be released in 2018. The film also boasted an impressive cast, with the likes of Maisie Williams, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Stranger Things' Charlie Heaton all set to appear. Despite an intriguing trailer for The New Mutants that promised a "full-fledged" horror film, things quickly started to go downhill as the X-Men film was delayed multiple times. Now, to make matters even worse, the film was completely ignored at D23.
Disney made numerous announcements this weekend about films and TV shows that will be taking place within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but New Mutants wasn't one of them. Even though New Mutants doesn't take place within the MCU, fans were likely still expecting to hear something about the next X-Men movie. Considering the film has a supposed release date of April 2020, and with Disney now owning Fox's X-Men properties, it was strange that there was no mention of it. That being said, Disney didn't bother to mention anything about Fox's unreleased films at D23.
While Disney may not be too focused on The New Mutants right now, they do have plans to eventually bring the X-Men to the MCU. This news was revealed at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, but later reports indicated that the X-Men may not be seen in Marvel's Cinematic Universe until Phase 6. Disney will also eventually merge the other superhero properties they acquired from Fox into the MCU, such as Deadpool and The Fantastic Four.
With New Mutants now less than a year away, things aren't looking too good for the X-Men property. Disney seems to be neglecting the marketing campaign for the X-Men film about as much as they did with Dark Phoenix, and reshoots aren't even expected to happen. It also doesn't help that Disney is apparently "unimpressed" with New Mutants, which could lead to the X-Men film getting a Hulu release rather than a theatrical run. Unfortunately, Disney's plans for The New Mutants are very uncertain at this point, but having the film completely ignored at D23 likely irritated fans who have been looking forward to the movie for several years now.
