Poor The New Mutants.  The original release date for the movie was April 13, 2018. Then it was scheduled for February 2019. Then they pushed it to August 2, 2019. Now it’s been pushed back yet again. In a press release announcing a huge slate of release date changes, Disney has revealed that The New Mutants will be released on April 3, 2020, almost a full two years after it was originally intended to hit theaters.

Josh Boone’s adaptation of the X-Men comics was intended to be a horror-spin on the superhero genre with a group of young mutants getting their powers and being more dangerous because of it. However, the project already had a rocky production because there didn’t seem to be agreement on how hard the horror should be. The film was originally intended to be PG-13, but then word surfaced that the reshoots were going to make the film straight horror.

And now the film is going to be delayed even further because it has a tricky time fitting in with Disney’s portfolio. The studio is already flush with Marvel superhero movies, and the past X-Men franchise is about to be off their plate once Dark Phoenix opens. Some had speculated that New Mutants might just be dumped onto a streaming service like Hulu or Disney+, but it appears that Disney still wants to release it theatrically.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if this changes as well. The Marvel brand is strong and Marvel Studios probably wants to control what “mutant” means going forward now that they’re back in control of the X-Men franchise. Since this wasn’t a property or a film that was produced under the Marvel Studios banner, I can easily see Disney having a change of heart and just putting New Mutants on streaming. But for now, it’s still bound for theaters.

Tune in next time when The New Mutants is pushed to 2021.

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Image via 20th Century Fox