MOVIE NEWS – “I wouldn’t do it again.” Anya Taylor-Joy was one of my favorite mutants in a Marvel film its director now calls “traumatic.” Superheroes, pandemic, and failure: the tale of The New Mutants, Fox’s last mutant movie that even many Marvel fans missed.

During the chaotic period when Disney was absorbing 20th Century Fox and its IP, while a global health crisis unfolded, Marvel rolled out a new mutant feature. The New Mutants showcased rising names — led by Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, and Charlie Heaton — but a tangled production and ill-timed release meant few saw it properly. Among those who did, affection is scarce. Director Josh Boone doesn’t look back fondly either. As a fan, neither do I.

A Mutant Horror Pitch With a Promising Cast

Debuting in 2020 after a punishing gestation, The New Mutants promised a different flavor of superhero cinema: a teen-horror hybrid drawn from X-Men lore, echoing Stranger Things with a darker tone than most Marvel films of the era. The story followed young mutants confined to a mysterious facility overseen by Dr. Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga): Danielle “Dani” Moonstar (Blu Hunt), Rahne Sinclair / Wolfsbane (Maisie Williams), Illyana Rasputin / Magik (Anya Taylor-Joy), Samuel Guthrie / Cannonball (Charlie Heaton), and Roberto “Bobby” Da Costa / Sunspot (Henry Zaga).

In an oppressive setting, they learned to confront and master their powers as a sinister truth surfaced: the hospital sought to weaponize them for the Essex Corporation, the same entity tied to X–23’s cloning in Logan. At heart, it was a horror-tinged coming-of-age tale with teen romance — Dani and Wolfsbane’s relationship added emotional weight and representation. Yet the film still flopped.

On a craft level, the cinematography and production design often nailed a claustrophobic tension. Magik’s Limbo ties and the Soulsword occasionally delivered frames true to the comics, and Taylor-Joy gave unexpected leadership shades to a character rarely centered on screen. None of it could save a release that landed at the worst time — and tried to distance itself from its greatest strength: the Marvel universe.

A Forced Landing

Intriguing as it was, The New Mutants didn’t click with critics or audiences. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 36% from critics and 55% from viewers, highlighting the split between appreciating Boone’s intent and feeling it fell short. The box office was bleaker: launched mid–COVID with minimal marketing amid the Disney–Fox merger, it grossed just $49 million worldwide. Not a Fantastic Four (Trank)–level disaster, but far from enough for an ambitious start or to seed a long-planned New Mutants saga.

In an October 2025 interview with The Direct, Josh Boone spoke candidly about a “traumatic” process: “It’s so difficult because it was so traumatic. The studio sold out during filming, and then the pandemic happened when they decided to release it… I loved the cast, but it took years and was ultimately so unsatisfying.”

He added that he never got to make the film he envisioned: “We didn’t really make the movie we wanted — maybe half of it. The release was so compromised by the pandemic… Honestly, I’d rather never do it again.” Delays, tonal whiplash, nixed reshoots, and Fox–Disney pressures all converged. Boone had larger plans — Mister Sinister (with Jon Hamm rumored), plus Karma and Warlock for sequels — but they evaporated like tears in rain.

As someone who loves the ’80s New Mutants comics, it’s hard to watch so much potential become such a narrow, tentative film. On the page, the team repeatedly matched the X-Men, blending epic stakes with horror and teen drama.

Instead, the movie landed as a souped-up Stranger Things riff with heavy horror seasoning, shrinking the epic scope and character depth. Performances — Taylor-Joy’s Magik and Williams’s Wolfsbane — were standouts, but the whole remained constrained. The missed-opportunity vibe lingers; the ingredients were there for a trilogy that could have bolstered the X-Men brand.

Painfully, the flop likely slammed the door on Taylor-Joy’s Magik returning. She brought charisma, mystique, and leadership to one of Marvel’s most compelling mutants — a combo the MCU shouldn’t waste. Then again, after Deadpool & Wolverine slipped in Gambit, nothing seems impossible in the multiverse. Marvel keeps knitting eras and licenses together; maybe Magik returns under better terms, closer to the comics’ spirit and scale.

Despite production woes, delays, and muted marketing, The New Mutants remains a curious footnote for X-Men and mutant fans. It offers memorable beats, a darker tone, and an exploration of teen relationships — including LGBTQ+ representation — that pushed the superhero genre ahead of its time, evolving threads only brushed by late first-cycle X-Men films. For a revisit or first watch, it’s on Disney+ alongside the wider X-Men catalog.

Source: 3djuegos