The saga of director Josh Boone’s The New Mutants would make an entertaining movie on its own. Originally filmed way back in 2017, the film has been beset by numerous delays and planned reshoots that ultimately never materialized. After the movie was acquired by Disney as part of their purchase of 20th Century Fox, the future of The New Mutants looked even more in doubt - Boone’s intent had been to create a horror coming-of-age film in the X-Men universe, and it seemed incredibly unlikely that Disney would be willing to have anything remotely like that in its carefully controlled Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Well, seemingly against all odds, it looks like The New Mutants is finally getting released this year. A brand-new trailer is apparently on the way as well, due to drop on January 6. That’s fine news, but here’s the icing on the cake: in a reply to a fan on Instagram asking if the version of The New Mutants Disney will be releasing this year is Boone’s original vision, the director responded, “I wouldn’t be promoting it here if it wasn’t.”

I’d been interested in Boone’s idea to turn The New Mutants into a horror-tinged superhero version of The Breakfast Club ever since it was announced approximately 150 years ago. Normally, when a movie’s release is delayed until several years after filming was completed, it signifies a disaster on the scale of Keanu Reeves’ Replicants. And Fox has famously mishandled their superhero franchises in the past, including the legendary debacle that was Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four. But unlike that scenario, in which the studio cast most of the blame on Trank’s allegedly unprofessional behavior, Fox’s problem with The New Mutants seems to be that Boone delivered the exact movie he promised and they were unsure what to do with it.

It’s a pretty big shock to think that Disney would take a perceived risk that 20th Century Fox was so reluctant to pursue, but according to the film’s director himself, that’s exactly what’s happened. Hopefully we’ll get even more information on The New Mutant’s impending release when the trailer drops next week. Until then, check out the original trailer below.