Early drafts of The New Mutants positioned Storm as the teens' jailer. Josh Boone's horror superhero film has endured quite the journey to the big screen. Initially scheduled for release in 2018, The New Mutants was delayed multiple times over the years, with the Disney-Fox merger being the biggest reason for its woes. Finally, Disney scheduled The New Mutants for earlier this year, but even that proved to be too hopeful, as the coronavirus pandemic banished it to summer. After all this time, The New Mutants is finally poised to arrive in theaters on Friday, August 28.
The New Mutants centers on five teens being held in a secretive facility for psychiatric monitoring. When strange occurrences threaten their safety, they must use their burgeoning powers to fight for their survival. The New Mutants represents the end of an era, as it's Fox's last X-Men film. Despite taking place within the same universe as the studio's other films, The New Mutants is largely devoid of connections to it. However, early drafts of The New Mutants featured Professor X and Storm, and now a new report has shed more light on the latter's role.
According to Vulture, Boone's initial draft of The New Mutants (which was co-written by Knate Lee) saw Storm take on a role akin to a prison warden. This didn't fly with those who read this draft, as it took a well-known, beloved X-Men character and turned her into, essentially, a villain. "She was their sadistic jailer," a source told the publication. "It felt like the kids were being tortured. If the X-Men are holding [the young mutants] there, it can’t feel different from the mental furniture that audiences bring into the theater knowing that the X-Men are good guys. Storm like that made no sense." Boone did not respond to Vulture's request for a comment, though previous comments from the director revealed Storm would've been in the position of Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga), the teens' primary caregiver.
While Storm's actions in those early New Mutants drafts aren't clear (and likely will never be), it's probably fair to say that audiences wouldn't take too kindly to this depiction of Storm. It very much goes against the way she was already portrayed in the previous films, and it wouldn't have made much sense to have a hero become someone who is cruel to other mutants. Of course, it's difficult to say what Boone's intention behind this was without hearing from him directly, or even reading the script. However, based on the mere concept, it doesn't sound like a smart choice.
After years of speculation and waiting, fans will finally have the opportunity to see The New Mutants this weekend. Whether they do or not is entirely dependent on whether movie theaters are open in their areas, and whether people feel safe enough to do so amid the ongoing pandemic. For our part, Screen Rant isn't reviewing The New Mutants at this present time, but for those who are very curious, they will likely jump at the chance to see this movie that's taken so long to come out. Just know: You won't be seeing Storm in this completed cut, and that might be for the best.
Source: Vulture
