Co-writer Knate Lee says The New Mutants still includes a lot of Marvel movie firsts, in spite of all its delays. A spinoff of Fox's X-Men films, The New Mutants has infamously seen its release date pushed back no less than four times. Originally delayed for reshoots in 2017, the movie was later delayed a second time due to the Disney-Fox deal. When the purchase was finalized in March 2019, The New Mutants was then re-scheduled for April 2020 and Disney began its marketing in January. Of course, that was months before the COVID-19 outbreak led the studio to pull its spring films off the calendar, New Mutants included.

As frustrating as these delays have no doubt been, the minds behind The New Mutants have made the best of the situation. As director Josh Boone recently pointed out, there's a lot less pressure on the film to perform well after Dark Phoenix bombed last year, and even Boone's co-writer Lee feels the delays may've been a blessing in disguise.

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In an interview with Empire (one conducted prior to The New Mutants being delayed because of the coronavirus), Lee said "In a weird way, I think the delay's been good for us. Last year, I saw the most epic, grand-scale superhero movie ever [in the form of Avengers: Endgame]. You can't go bigger than that." He went on to explain how the timing is right for a superhero film like The New Mutants, saying:

"So, it feels like the perfect time for a superhero movie that's more intimate and claustrophobic. And we still have so many 'firsts': we're the first Marvel horror, we're the first to feature a gay relationship. Even though we're late… we still beat everybody."

New Mutants Movie Cast

Lee raises a fair point; after Endgame brought nearly every character in the MCU together to battle Thanos, audiences might appreciate a change of pace when it comes to their superhero movies. Far from being a massive crossover, The New Mutants takes place in a secret facility and follows five young mutants who're trapped there against their will. A loose adaptation of The Demon Bear Saga by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, the film draws inspiration from horror-thrillers like The Shining and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, making it the first modern Marvel movie to really do so. As Lee pointed, it also features a same-sex romance between two of its main characters (Wolfsbane and Mirage), which is something no other Marvel film has done.

Of course, depending on when The New Mutants is actually released, that may no longer be the case. Sony's Morbius is still scheduled to open in July and could end up beating The New Mutants to the punch, when it comes to being the first recent Marvel horror film. Similarly, Marvel Studios' The Eternals is confirmed to include the first gay superhero and onscreen kiss in the MCU, so The New Mutants won't be the only upcoming superhero movie to feature a queer couple. Even so, the film has the potential to be one of the more unique additions to its genre when(ever) it arrives.

NEXT: New Mutants' Delay Means Fox's X-Men Franchise Lasted 20 Years

Source: Empire Magazine [via Digital Spy]

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