The New Mutants director Josh Boone confirms the long-awaited film will be rated PG-13 instead of R. Capping off Fox’s long-running X-Men franchise, The New Mutants follows five teenagers who are just uncovering their abilities while being held in a secret government facility. The first trailer, released back in 2017, promised a genuinely thrilling X-Men tale, coming across as more of a horror film than a typical comic book movie. Its cast includes Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones), Anya Taylor-Joy (Glass), and Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things).

The New Mutants has endured a difficult journey to the big screen. It was initially set for release in 2018, but ended up being pushed back several times due to the Disney-Fox deal and a need for reshoots. For a while, there was no news on The New Mutants’ progress, and it looked like Disney might shelve the film as Kevin Feige’s Marvel Studios looked to incorporate mutants into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Feige did confirm that the X-Men would eventually join the MCU, but as of right now The New Mutants is not considered a part of that shared universe. The New Mutants finally gained some traction as it was given an April 3 release date. A new trailer is expected on Monday.

SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY

On Instagram, Boone confirmed The New Mutants is rated PG-13, which was then additionally confirmed by New Mutants comics artist Bill Sienkiewicz. In a Tweet, Sienkiewicz offered some praise for the film, saying, “The atmosphere, mystery, & tone of Josh’s direction makes it work.” Check out his full Tweet below:

The scary nature of the first trailer led many to wonder if New Mutants would earn an R-rating. While most Marvel movies that have come out of Disney stick to PG-13 ratings, Fox was known to stray a little higher when certain movies, like Logan and Deadpool, called for it. The filmmakers most likely wanted to keep New Mutants as a PG-13 movie to pull in younger viewers, especially since the main characters are teenagers.

The first trailer was definitely terrifying, and it will be interesting to see if the second matches its thrills or tries to play it a bit safe. It would be smart for the second trailer to be just as intense as the first so it can distinguish itself as a different kind of superhero flick. Right now, public perception toward The New Mutants is a bit wary thanks to its many delays, but an excellent trailer can change audience’s opinions and get people excited about the film again. Boone has previously stated the film being released in theaters is his original version, which seemed to further alleviate fans’ worries. Hopefully this time it will actually make its assigned release date.

Source: Bill Sienkiewicz/Twitter

Key Release Dates
See also  Poppy Playtime's Mommy Could Get More, Scarier Legs, Says Game Theory
  • New Mutants (2020)Release date: Aug 28, 2020
The Batman’s Best Villain Change Is Falcone (Not Penguin Or Riddler)

About The Author


Rachel Labonte
(3423 Articles Published)

Rachel LaBonte is one of Screen Rant’s core news editors, as well as a feature and movie review writer. A graduate of Emerson College, she majored in Media Arts Production while specializing in screenwriting. She’s been a writer ever since high school when she realized she was rather good at it and joined as many entertainment news clubs as she could while in school. Most notably, she wrote for Emerson’s website Emertainment Monthly, and one of her film reviews won an Evvy (Emerson’s student awards) for Best Review. Her deep love of movies led to her working at a movie theater for five years, which she loved despite the angry customers. An avid reader who constantly buys books before reading the ones she already owns, Rachel is a huge fan of superheroes (especially of the Marvel variety) and wizards and will likely never be able to catch up on all the movies/TV shows she longs to watch.

More From Rachel Labonte