Last week, Disney held a virtual press conference for The New Mutants. Hosted by Entertainment Tonight’s Ash Crossan, the press conference featured director Josh Boone and stars Maisie Williams (Rahne Sinclair/Wolfsbane), Charlie Heaton (Sam Guthrie/Cannonball), Anya Taylor-Joy (Illyana Rasputin/Magik), Henry Zaga (Roberto da Costa/Sunspot), Blu Hunt (Dani Moonstar/Mirage) and Alice Braga (Dr. Cecilia Reyes).
Famously delayed with a revolving carousel of release dates, The New Mutants is finally hitting screens this Friday and both Boone and cast were thrilled to talk about their movie, which now feels like The Little Movie That Could. Here are some of the highlights.
1. Fan Support Sustained Them During The Delays
Ash Crossan opened by mentioning the delays but that fan support had been unwavering throughout and asked the cast to talk about what that support meant to them. Maisie Williams spoke about the importance of finding an audience that was ride-or-die with them:
“It’s so wonderful, I think. Like, you know, there was a lot of uncertainty with this film and when it was going to get released. And to know that there was an audience that was still willing to wait as long as it took, and even through this pandemic, have been so supportive and, yeah, it’s just been really exciting. I can’t wait for people to finally see it.”
Josh Boone concurred, saying he’s been most delighted by all the incredible fan art that he’s received over the years. So many excellent pieces, in fact, that he has a dream of one day putting together a little book of New Mutants fan art.
“They’re my favorite fans because they actually don’t complain. They just do really cool artwork of the characters. So there’s probably, like, 100-plus pieces of artwork that fans have done that I’d still like to figure out a way to do a book of. Go get permission from everybody and do a book.”
Alice Braga chimed in with that fan support carrying over to events like this year’s virtual San Diego Comic-Con, sharing it was really special for her – for all of them, really – that they were the most-watched panel at that event.
2. Seriously, There Haven’t Been Reshoots, You Guys
For years – literally years, there have been various rumors regarding reshoots for the movie. Reports from everything to the majority of it needing to be reshot, to simply needing a few pickups, to not having a single scene reshot have made the rounds. Recently, Boone confirmed that latter option and expanded on it during the press conference when asked if the movie had undergone reshoots:
“We reshot the movie four or five times, like every scene in it – but no, I’m kidding! We never ever had it, we never did reshoots. We were supposed to do reshoots. In general, movies do reshoots or pickups, things like that. But because of the merger, once it was done, it was done. So we never went back and did reshoots. We were always using the same footage and the same material from the start of editing and all the way to the end of it.”
So there you go. Those rumors that it required extensive reshoots because the studio was unhappy with it simply aren’t true.
3. They Experienced Some Creepy AF Moments On Set
Unlike most big studio superhero movies that do most of their work on huge sets, The New Mutants was shot entirely on location at Medfield State Hospital, an abandoned psychiatric institute in Massachusetts. As you might expect of a location so steeped in a certain kind of bad energy, the cast and crew experienced a lot of creepy moments on set – like, a lot.
For Henry Zaga, it was all about the weird smell. “[T]here was something really creepy about the smell that just got into your soul before you thought about it,” he explained. Later in the press conference, he mentioned that it was fascinating but really disturbing to discover the history behind the rooms they shot in. “I remember in the attic that we shot in on the
first day, that was a place where somebody had hung themselves, they said,” he shared.
Braga said that while it was fun as the on-location shoot made it feel a bit like shooting an indie, the atmosphere was unsettling. “[F]ilming at night was kind of scary. I wouldn’t walk by myself. There was no way,” she explained with a laugh.
Boone jumped in and confirmed that multiple members of the cast had unsettling experiences while on the set, saying, “There were several crew members who had weird experiences there, had to be walked to their car at night because they were scared to walk there by themselves after they’d be in the buildings all day.”
But it was definitely the groundskeeper who brought the creepiest vibe. “He had some really awful stories to tell us,” said Zaga. Boone made everyone laugh with his recollection of one of his awkward encounters with the groundskeeper:
“Yeah, I remember him putting his arm around me and he was like, ‘See that basketball court over there?’ I was like, ‘Yeah?’ He goes, ‘You know, the state made that for little Jimmy when he came here.’ I was like, ‘Oh, they made it for a kid? That’s so sweet!’ And he goes [menacing voice], ‘…He stabbed his family.’ I was like, ‘Oh… that’s, uh, that’s not good.'”
4. Josh Boone Refuses To Share The Movies He Watched As A Teenager
The New Mutants is about a bunch of teenagers with superpowers, sure. But it’s also about teenagers going through the normal growing pains of trying to figure out who they are. Boone says The New Mutants is made for teens who feel like they’re outsiders and ones going through a tough time, explaining that, in general, that’s the spirit of much of his work. “I always say I make couch movies, which are, like, when I was a teenager and I was really depressed, I’d have like a certain movie I’d pop on and go lay on the couch,” he explained. “It made me feel better.”
However, when pressed and asked to share those movies, he laughed and dodged the question. “Oh, that’s embarrassing,” he laughed. “They were always movies with romance in them. The romantic comedies or things like that. I’m not going to admit to any of them!”
5. They’ll Never Get Into A Car With Charlie Heaton Driving Again
Seeing as how they were shooting on location, there wasn’t much to do in the small town where they were holed up. So the cast had a lot of bonding time to get close and become real friends. One of the few things they could do for entertainment was go see movies, so one night, they organized a trip out to see Baby Driver. Charlie Heaton drove, and, well…let’s just say they probably won’t ever get into a car with him again if he’s driving: He drove on the wrong side of the road, he forgot to turn the headlight on.
The cast teased him mercilessly, prompting him to defend himself. “I had just learned to drive! I literally had just got my license. And I’m British!” he protested, laughing. “I’d never driven at night before, you know. You do all your lessons in the day. And we were driving back. I had decided to take everyone to the cinema and try out my driving.”
“You did great, babe,” said Williams.
6. Dani And Rahne Are Giving Us Our First Fleshed-Out Queer Relationship In A Live-Action Theatrical Superhero Movie
Queerbaiting, where a movie or TV show hints at a queer relationship without ever explicitly stating it is one or letting it overtly develop, has become a widespread and much-criticized practice of Hollywood. Fans want meaningful queer representation in superhero movies and they should have had it yesterday.
Deadpool 2 with Yukio and Teenage Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and Netflix’s The Old Guard with Joe and Nicky, were both great and necessary steps for representation. But Deadpool 2 didn’t center their relationship or explore it in any way; for many, it felt less like true representation and more like checking a box. The Old Guard‘s relationship with Joe and Nicky was beautiful and complex, but it’s not what most would think of when they think of a comic book movie, a traditional capes and cowls superhero movie.
In contrast, The New Mutants will be the first live-action theatrical superhero movie from one of the Big 2 publishers (that would be Marvel and DC) that includes a queer relationship that is actually explored, fleshed-out and part of two characters’ arcs. Dani Moonstone and Rahne Sinclair develop a relationship over the course of the movie and it meant a lot to both actresses. Ash Crossan asked them to tell the audience about their connection, not just as characters, but as actors.
Williams said she and Hunt had met a few times prior, but the official screen test to gauge their chemistry together was stressful. “I’d done a couple of screen tests before, but this was the first I had to kiss a stranger in the screen test. And that’s always just a nerve-wracking experience,” she said.
Boone gave some context, and said that screen test was probably even a bit weirder than most. He shot them while they were laying down and pretending to look up at the stars, similar to how it was filmed in the actual movie.
For her part, Blu Hunt said that it was definitely stressful, but she felt like she got the part as soon as they did that screen test and she kissed Williams. “I think I knew I got the part as soon as we kissed, you know,” she revealed. “I was like, ‘That was real.'”
7. The Shooting Code Name For The Project Was ‘Growing Pains’
The cast and Boone discussed how it’s an action film, and it’s a horror-thriller, but, more than anything, it’s a character study of these teenagers becoming who they are. They’re uncomfortable in their own skin, sometimes literally, both with who they are a people and in terms of growing into their powers. Zaga mentioned the characters were all going through growing pains and that’s when Boone interjected: “That was our [project] code name,” before Williams and Taylor-Joy chimed in unison, “Growing pains!”
8. It’s More Grounded Than The Comics – Because It Has To Be
Even though Boone grew up loving comic books, especially Bill Sienkiewicz’s New Mutants run, it was impossible to adapt things from the comics to the screen directly. Thanks to the decades-long history of comic books that can lay the groundwork, not to mention the fact comic books can sometimes be out there, it required Boone staying true to the spirit of the backstory of the characters but modifying them in order for them to work on screen in a movie format. The story of Lockheed, Magik’s dragon, for example, was streamlined from its comic book history:
“Lockheed would be a prime example of that. We made Lockheed much more tied to [Illyana] directly in terms of her backstory and everything. Because the way [Illyana] gains this dragon in the comic is, you know, this dragon came from space. Kitty Pride got it, eventually, it really became Illyana’s.”
Boone also explained it’s why he chose to leave certain characters out. “It’s why we chose not to focus on a character like Magma, ’cause it’s like she comes from, like, an ancient Roman world that still exists in the Amazon somewhere now,” he explained. “And it was like, yeah, I’m not gonna do that,” he laughed.
The New Mutants hits theaters this Friday, August 28.
Check your local theater for showtimes and tickets for The New Mutants.
