The New Mutants Likely to Stick With Theatrical Release Plan

While there is speculation to the contrary, The New Mutants is unlikely to end up going straight to Disney+ or Hulu. The horror-based X-Men spinoff film has been the victim of a long (to say the least) sequence of delays over a host of reasons — reshoots that never happened, the Disney purchase of Fox, and most recently the shutdown of theaters over COVID-19.

There were rumors back in April of last year that the film might go to Hulu instead of getting a theatrical release. Those rumors proved false when a new release date (now vacated) was set and Uproxx reports that for a few reasons, Disney will likely be inclined to give the film a theatrical release date.

According to the site, Disney is contractually required to give all Fox films that were in post-production or ready for release at the time of purchase. In order to change that, Disney would have to get writer-director Josh Boone and the cast to agree to an alteration in their contracts. Even if that is done, there’s a further concern that HBO has premium TV rights to all 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studio) films until 2022.

As such, the likely plan seems to be that the film finds a new release date. It was most recently set for April 3rd before the theater shutdown forced that move. Disney has not yet announced their plans.