New Mutants Reshoots Still Haven't Happened, Could Be Rated R

It turns out that The New Mutants reshoots still haven't happened yet, but when they do, audiences should expect to see some intense scenes in the final product for the movie could end up being rated R. The upcoming blockbuster film was originally supposed to be one of three X-Men movies releasing in 2018 - marking the first time that 20th Century Fox released three X-Men films in a single year, whereas 2016 was the first time that two X-Men movies released in one calendar year - but, unfortunately, that didn't end up happening.

Shortly before the movie was supposed to release this past April, the studio pushed the movie back to the following February, thus giving the production team another 13 months (from the time it was delayed) to undergo reshoots that would reportedly make the movie scarier (and better, for that matter). But then Simon Kinberg's Dark Phoenix needed to be delayed, so it took New Mutants' February slot, with the latter film now slated to hit theaters in August 2019. However, the studio needs to complete the movie first, which apparently hasn't happened yet.

In an interview with Collider, executive producer Simon Kinberg revealed that The New Mutants reshoots still haven't gotten underway. While Kinberg knows when they expect to begin shooting the additional photography, those aren't details that he's willing to share at this time. Furthermore, he explained that, because it's a horror movie, it could potentially end up being rated R, though that's also something that he's not willing to commit to just yet.

“It’s the kind of movie that could go R, or it could be a hard PG-13. As I was saying before in terms of subgenres or the genre, it is obviously teased as a horror film, and most horror films these days are R-rated, but it stars a very young cast, so we’ll see. It really is what the movie wants to be. The studio is open to either rating… Traditionally, superhero movies are PG-13 other than Logan and the Deadpool movies, and generally, horror films are R-rated, so we’ll see where this one falls. It is a very scary, edgy movie.”

Earlier this year, it was reported that Fox plans on reshooting a significant portion The New Mutants, in addition to adding in two new characters. While that hasn't been confirmed nor denied, the studio would need to start filming soon in order to meet the film's new release date. But considering that it is mostly a horror movie and not anything like Dark Phoenix, the production team shouldn't have to spend too long in post-production on visual effects and the like.

As for the potential R rating, when people think of R-rated movies in comparison to PG-13 flicks, they typically think of vulgar language, excessive violence, and perhaps even nudity - of which the former two were used primarily in Fox's Logan and Deadpool movies. But just because New Mutants can hit an R rating that doesn't mean it will necessarily incorporate either of those things. The rating can also be issued for intense situations geared towards adults (such as those seen in horror movies), which is why Kinberg suggests it can even be a hard PG-13; something that many blockbuster movies - such as Venom and Suicide Squad, for example - are starting to do nowadays instead of going for an outright R rating. But fans will just have to wait and see what happens with both the reshoots and the MPAA rating for New Mutants.