'New Mutants': Anya Taylor-Joy Has Very Awkward Response To "How The Movie Is Going"

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In this media-massaged world with PR training and handlers, actors rarely speak out of line. Regardless, we’ve seen lots of flubs (Jason Reitman unintentionally set off a lot of people this week, for example). Case in point: poor actress Anya Taylor-Joy, who’s a champ normally but is facing an unenviable task of press for a movie that’s been in trouble for months. Every time she’s asked about the long-delayed 20th Century Fox ‘X-Men’ spin-off “New Mutants,” she can’t say much, but she sticks to her talking points.

READ MORE: ‘The New Mutants’ Pushed Back Due To 50% Of The Film Needing Reshoots

“I love my character. I absolutely adore her, and getting to play her is super fun because she’s sassy and Russian and a little bit psycho,” she told Collider last year.

“[My character’s] a badass bitch from Hell and I love her,” she told Variety this past January.

READ MORE: Anya Taylor-Joy Admits ‘The New Mutants’ Delay Is “Frustrating”

Even as far back as 2017, she’s been saying variations of the same thing. This week, an interview with The Upcoming from a few weeks back was unearthed wherein Taylor-Joy, promoting “Glass,” was seemingly unprepared to speak about “New Mutants.”

Asked when the movie is coming (it’s currently scheduled for an August 2019 release), the actress paused, and instead of saying August, said, “it’s coming your way at some point.” She then retreated to her talking points. “[My character] is sassy af and mental and crazy and Russian and I love her.”

READ MORE: ‘New Mutants’ Still Hasn’t Begun The Massive Reshoots & Could End Up Being R-Rated

About the only other time Taylor-Joy veered off script was when she talked to us and said the wait for the reshoots was “frustrating.”

“Well, the only thing that I could say, without being in trouble, is that it being delayed is disappointing, frustrating in fact,” she admitted in a March 2018 Playlist interview. “Because we were all very excited for it to be released on April 13th, and I don’t mean just disappointing for me, but I’m sure there are a lot of other fans that were looking forward to seeing it.”

READ MORE: ‘Dark Phoenix’ Director Simon Kinberg Explains The Reshoots & Why Fox Delayed The Film For A Second Time

To recap, directed by Josh Boone (“The Fault In Our Stars“), the ‘New Mutants’ has had three release dates now. First set for April 2018, then February 22, 2019, and finally, the one expected this summer, August 2, 2019. All of these delays were said to be for extensive reshoots. ‘New Mutants’ originally shot from July to September 2017, Fox wasn’t entirely happy with what they saw (varying reports say the film needed to be scarier or perhaps there wasn’t enough ‘X-Men’-ness, but at this point, all we know is the studio wasn’t pleased) and then delayed the film for reshoots, noting that it was difficult to get the entire cast together again which delayed those actual new production start dates again.

READ MORE: Disney-Fox Merger: What Does It Mean For The Big Film Franchises?

Now, if it seems we’re making a mountain out of a molehill—and we can see why you might think so—that’s because ‘New Mutants’ is six months away from release and the reshoots are still pending. Originally, they were scheduled for September 2018, but those reshoots never happened.

Traditional marketing says a big mainstream movie’s trailer has to arrive six months out (yes, there was a teaser, but that was back in October 2017, so in marketing terms, it doesn’t even exist at this point) at the latest so we’re very likely looking at a few scenarios. A), a trailer comes out soon and the film comes out in August as-is (highly unlikely) B) ‘New Mutants’ is getting delayed again or C) ‘New Mutants’ is getting dumped onto a streaming service. That speculation isn’t as far fetched as you may think.

Because Disney will own Fox and ‘New Mutants’ likely before August—the Disney/Fox deal is expected to close mid-year—and then perhaps all bets are off.

Whatever the case is, it’s clear, the intended reshoots didn’t happen, a planned overhaul still hasn’t been made and the film is six months away from release. A betting man will tell you that the movie is not coming out in August.

It’s been said ‘New Mutants/ is akin to a horror movie, so perhaps a Halloween release could make sense. But that’s not going to fix the problem. If ‘New Mutants,’ which at one point was said to be re-inserting an entirely new character digitally, is reshot even a month from now, it’s going to need months and months for new post-production time and VFX, so a three-month delay to October isn’t going to make a difference.

There’s been speculation and rumors that ‘New Mutants’ could be dumped onto Hulu, which Disney will own the majority interest in after the Fox deal (Disney owns 30% and Fox owns another 30%, respectively) and even “X-Men” producer Lauren Schuler-Donner recently addressed this speculation, saying she “hoped” it wouldn’t be dumped on a streaming channel and that the movie deserved better.

But the writing appears to be on the wall, and it’s unlikely that ‘New Mutants’ would be able to suffer a fourth release date push without major media blowback and predictions about its death.

We’ll have to wait and see, but unless the movie comes out as-is in August, it’s almost guaranteed ‘New Mutants’ is going to face some kind of delay again, and or possible dump, in the next few months. And in fact, Disney owning Fox and “taking over” the narrative marks as good a time as ever to announce the movie’s ultimate fate. Stay tuned.