Disney is reportedly still planning to release The New Mutants in theaters despite recently listing it as a PVOD preorder. At this point, it's fair to say New Mutants is one of the unluckier films in quite some time. Josh Boone's adaptation of the New Mutants comic books (which he co-wrote with Knate Lee) was originally scheduled to open in April 2018, but was later delayed for reshoots. However, those reshoots never happened due to Disney acquiring Fox, and the movie was pushed back two more times to April 2020. Finally, the coronavirus pandemic took a turn for the worse in mid-March, prompting Disney to pull New Mutants off the calendar.
Given the film's inability to hold onto a theatrical release date, it's long been speculated Disney will eventually decide to skip theaters and send New Mutants straight to Disney+ or Hulu. Alternatively, the movie could go directly to video on-demand, similar to what Universal did with Trolls World Tour in April and plans to do again with The King of Staten Island in June. Adding fuel to the fire, New Mutants even showed up recently as a PVOD preorder option on Amazon. But as it turns out, that was just a mistake.
In their weekly newsletter, THR's Heat Vision reports New Mutants was listed as a PVOD preorder by accident after Amazon's system automatically included it based on its most recent release date in April. According to the outlet's sources, Disney still intends to drop the movie in theaters first.
It's no surprise to hear Disney's staying committed to releasing The New Mutants in theaters for the time being. Tensions are high between studios and exhibitors in the wake of the pandemic; AMC Theaters recently declared it will no longer show Universal's movies after the latter confirmed plans to send more films directly to PVOD following Trolls World Tour, even after theaters reopen. And while the pair will undoubtedly work out their differences down the line, Disney would surely prefer to avoid stirring up more controversy by announcing a PVOD release for New Mutants right now. They've already confirmed plans to send certain movies straight to Disney+ in the future (starting with Artemis Fowl in June), but that was before the public clash between AMC and Universal. After that, the studio will probably be extra careful about announcing which features are skipping theaters and premiering exclusively on Disney+ instead.
Following the recent New Mutants image leaks, people seem all the more interested in getting to see the movie in a theater, anyway. The newly-unveiled screenshots (which showcase the visual effects used to bring Demon Bear and other monsters to life) are quite visually dazzling and suggest the film might yet prove to be worth all the delays and hold-ups. On top of that, The New Mutants isn't really a great match for the Disney+ brand anyway, being a PG-13 horror-thriller featuring superheroes. So, for now, everyone will just have to sit tight and wait for this one to find a new release date... again.
Source: THR