SCROLL THROUGH THE YOUTUBE
comments on your average Marvel movie
trailer and you’ll find a mixture of gushing
excitement and nerdish pedantry. The October
2017 teaser forX-Menspin-offThe New
Mutants, however, is a different story. This page
appears to have become a training ground for
stand-up comedians.
“Can’t wait to watch this...in 2030,” chuckles
one wag. “I quit smoking to live longer so I can
see this movie in 2060,” snickers another. A few
lines down, the conceit is stretched to breaking
point: “2079: Spider-Man retired, Snyder Cut
released, Keith Richards still alive...New
Mutantspushed back to 2080.”
Yes, if you’ve been following the trajectory of
The New Mutants— the 13th and final instalment
of theX-Menfilm series, concerning a group of
troubled teens struggling to control their powers
— you’ll know that its unique-sounding premise
(the first Marvel horror movie) has long been
overshadowed by its tumultuous journey to the big
screen. It’s blown straight past three slated release
dates (April 2018, February and August 2019).
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was
written beforeThe New Mutantswas
removed from the April release schedule
last month due to the coronavirus crisis.
Disney hopes to release it later this year.]
In a rain-battered New York City hotel in
January 2020, the fi lm’s director and co-writer,
Josh Boone, laughs wearily when Empire brings
up the protracted delay.
“We were in limbo for a long, long time,” he
sighs. “We didn’t know if the movie would ever
come out. I was reading stuff online about how
we were reshooting half of it, or it was going
straight onto Disney+... I’d be calling my agent,
like: ‘What the fuck?!’”
The past few years have seen the internet
frothing with speculation about the reasons for
the film’s postponement, citing everything from
drastic reshoots to the last-minute shoehorning
of Antonio Banderas into a post-credits
sequence (more on which later). The truth, as
is usually the case, is rather less colourful. But
we’ll get to that. Right now, for Boone, the
overwhelming sensation is relief that his fi lm
will be seen. “Honestly,” the 40-year-old says,
sounding more than a little emotional, “when
I got the call last summer telling me our movie
was coming out [in 2020], the way we wanted it
...it was one of the happiest days of my life.”AN HOUR OUTSIDE BOSTON, IN
August 2017, and Josh Boone is enjoying another
uncommonly happy day. On the other side of
America, conversations are beginning betweenDisney and Fox that will soon launch a thousand
YouTube zingers but, for the moment, the
director is blissfully unaware of that as he shows
Empire around Medfi eld State Hospital.
A sprawling former psychiatric hospital
in rural Massachusetts, Medfi eld is currently
doubling as The New Mutants’ primary location:
a sinister institute to house — in Boone’s words
— “kids that are too dangerous for Professor X’s
school”. These are the New Mutants.
“They’re misfi ts, outcasts and rebels,”
says Boone. “They don’t want to be X-Men:
they’re just scared, fucked-up kids. They’re all
guilty of murder — whether intentionally or
unintentionally. They’ve been sent here to
learn to control their powers.”
Opened in 1896 to treat mentally ill patients,
Medfi eld is 360 hectares of crumbling brick, fl aking
paint and rusting window grates. It’s been derelict
for decades, and whispers about the spooky
goings-on here down the years rumble throughout
cast and crew. “Whitey Bulger was here for a
while,” says Boone. “And the caretaker told us
about a kid called Jimmy who was brought here
after killing his parents. It’s a genuinely creepy
place...” Some of the unsettling graffi ti (“The Youth
Are Sick And There Is No Cure”) is the work of
the art department, but we’re assured that other
examples — the “666” and hangman’s noose carved
into the attic ceiling — are very much not.Blu Hunt’s
Danielle
Moonstar,
aka Mirage,
whose power is
creating illusions.