The New Mutants is one of the past decade's most poorly received Marvel movies, but even the writer and director, Josh Boone, had some poor things to say about it. 20th Century Fox (which was poked fun at in Deadpool & Wolverine) tried making a Mutants-themed horror flick with The New Mutants, which featured characters from the comics team of the same name. Unfortunately, the movie only received a 36% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics. Fans shared that sentiment, as the film only has a 55% audience score.
The New Mutants writer and director Josh Boone recently slammed his 2020 film, saying it was "unfulfilling." In a recent interview with The Direct while promoting his upcoming movie, Regretting You, Boone pulled back the curtain on how harrowing production was for The New Mutants.
Specifically, the writer and director admitted that making the movie was "so traumatic." It was released during the COVID-19 pandemic, which significantly impacted its box office numbers. The film also had to deal with 20th Century Fox being sold to Disney around that same time, which Boone also mentioned was a reason the movie "took so many years" to make and was "so unfulfilling:"
"It's so hard because it was so traumatic. The studio was sold, and we hit a pandemic... The studio was sold during the shooting, and then the pandemic happened when they decided to release it. And it just was such a — I had a wonderful time. I love the cast so much, but making that... It took so many years, and it was so unfulfilling, ultimately."
The Direct mentioned to Boone that Marvel Studios will be exploring Mutants more in the near future of the MCU, asking him if he would ever be interested in making a return to the comic book movie world and revisit a potential Mutants project.
Boone admitted that he "didn't really get to make the movie [he] wanted" with The New Mutants, and, because that film went through so many issues, "[he'd] rather just never do it again:"
"We didn't really get to make the movie we wanted to make. We made half the movie we wanted to make. And the release was so compromised by the pandemic... I'd rather just never do it again, just to be honest."
Mutants have already been introduced in the MCU through characters like Deadpool, Wolverine, Charles Xavier, and even Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel). However, following the conclusion of the Multiverse Saga, which will end with the release of Avengers: Secret Wars, Marvel Studios is expected to fully dive into Mutants properly.
As of writing, an X-Men film is in the works at Marvel Studios with Jake Schreier attached to direct his second MCU flick (he previously directed Thunderbolts*, which was extremely unsuccessful for Marvel financially).
Will the MCU Create Its Own New Mutants Movie?
Since the X-Men and Mutants have not been featured much throughout the MCU's history, Marvel Studios will likely focus heavily on the X-Men team for some time during Phases 7 and 8, at least. The X-Men are the most important and well-known Mutant team in Marvel, so the studio will likely want to establish them before doing anything else.
However, since the next saga in the MCU will be the Mutant Saga, it would not be a stretch to theorize that the New Mutants will make an appearance sometime soon. It is possible that characters who make up the New Mutants could be established in Phase 7, and possibly even in the X-Men movie.
It will probably be at least Phase 9, which is already in development, before a New Mutants team is put together. However, when it is, it would not be a surprise if a New Mutants movie were announced at Marvel Studios. Like Boone's film, it would probably showcase characters like Magik, Sunspot, Wolfsbane, and Mirage.
Unfortunately, though, as Boone stated, he will likely not be attached to a New Mutants movie at the MCU since his experience working on his own film was not good.
