Will The New Mutants Stream On Disney+?

Is the long-awaited swan song for the Fox-produced X-Men film series, The New Mutants, finally about to see the light of day?

Recently, Twitter user @ethxmarvel posted a video clip depicting what looks like a brand-new trailer for The New Mutants, intercut with title cards announcing a September 4 release date ... on the Disney+ streaming service instead of in theaters. If the footage is legitimate, it would be a massive development — but that's one extra-value-sized "if."

The New Mutants has experienced so many delays that one might be inclined to question if the film even exists — if it weren't for the fact that there have been a bunch of trailers released, the oldest one dropping way back in October 2017. From reported clashes between writer-director Josh Boone and the studio to scheduling conflicts with other superhero movies to reshoots that apparently never happened to the Disney-Fox merger, The New Mutants never encountered a speed bump that it couldn't hit at the exact wrong angle with jarring force. Since its first announced release date of April 13, 2018, The New Mutants has been delayed four times.

In May 2020, the Mouse House set a theatrical release date of August 28, 2020 for the film — a development that occurred smack in the middle of the raging COVID-19 pandemic, leading many observers to wonder what the heck Mickey was thinking. 

Now comes this latest alleged trailer. The video posted to Twitter appears to be shot on a smartphone as the clip plays on a TV. Said clip appears to be a New Mutants trailer we haven't seen before, and it appears to announce a September 4 release date, preceded by the Disney+ logo. We know we're using the phrase "appears to" a lot, and it's because there's no telling if this footage is genuine or the product of someone with a lot of time on their hands and editing talent to spare.

There are three primary reasons why the announcement-video-slash-trailer that surfaced on Twitter is likely phony. 

First: This may indeed be a new clip in its packaging, but the footage used in it isn't; it appears cobbled together from sound and visual elements of previous trailers. We were able to locate every shot in existing promo spots for The New Mutants, which is a bit of a red flag. Second, those title cards. They look jarringly out-of-place and hastily assembled, and the font is all wrong for Disney+. Last, but not least: There's been no official announcement from Disney, 20th Century Studios (as the subsidiary is now known), or anyone else indicating that The New Mutants will release directly to streaming. So far as we know, Disney still intends to attempt a theatrical release in August, although that could (and probably will) change.

What's that? You need more? Okay, sure: The Twitter user who posted the video followed up with a tweet saying, "Disclaimer: If it's fake I didn't make it so don't attack me thank [you]," and another explaining, "This isn't saying it's fake. It looks real to me but you know how the internet is nowadays. I just found it somewhere and posted it." 

It sure seems like The New Mutants dropping on Disney+ in just over a month would constitute a major announcement — one that the House of Mouse would probably not make by creating this pastiche of a trailer, shooting smartphone video of it playing on a monitor, and leaving it lying around on the internet for random social media users to find.

That being said, who knows? Perhaps this is a new viral marketing technique we aren't yet aware of. 

As of this writing, The New Mutants is still slated to release theatrically on August 28; we'll be keeping an eye out for any developments, and we'll keep you apprised.