Josh Boone Calls Making THE NEW MUTANTS a “Traumatic” Experience: “We Made Half the Movie We Wanted”
Back in 2020, The New Mutants was supposed to inject new life into the X-Men franchise with a darker, horror-inspired spin-off that promised something different.
But, for Josh Boone, the film’s writer and director, the experience of bringing it to the screen turned out to be anything but what he hoped for. Boone recently opened up about why making The New Mutants was a “traumatic” and “unfulfilling” process.
From the start, The New Mutants faced an uphill battle. It arrived right as Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox reshaped Marvel’s cinematic landscape, and its eventual release during the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t help.
Even before audiences saw it, the movie had already been delayed multiple times, shuffled between studios, and plagued by rumors of reshoots that never actually happened.
When The New Mutants finally hit theaters, it was met with disappointment. Despite early excitement from fans and a few promising trailers, the final film, a loose adaptation of The Demon Bear Saga, landed awkwardly. Critics were harsh, and it currently holds a 36% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Boone, who co-wrote and directed the movie, recently reflected on the emotional toll it took. Speaking with The Direct, he said:
“I was one of the writers on New Mutants. 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.”
Boone’s words paint a pretty clear picture of a production derailed by corporate chaos and bad timing. While it wasn’t a perfect movie, I did enjoy it, and I liked the characters it introduced. I especially liked the concept of an X-Men-like horror thriller.
As for whether Boone would ever return to these characters, he said:
“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.”
For fans, The New Mutants will always be one of those “what could have been” stories as a film with potential that never got the fair shot it deserved. And for Boone, it’s clear the scars from that experience still haunt him.
What did you think of The New Mutants? Did it deserve a better fate?