The director of “The New Mutants” criticized his own film, calling the experience of making it ‘traumatic’

22.10.2025 Comment Views: 19

Josh Boone admitted he was deeply dissatisfied with both the film’s production and its final result.

Five years after the release, The New Mutants’ writer-director Josh Boone described the experience as “traumatic” and “unsatisfying.” In an interview with The Direct he recalled how the project ran into a string of setbacks — from the sale of 20th Century Fox to Disney to the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted the film’s theatrical rollout.

“It was incredibly hard. The studio was sold while we were still shooting, and when it came time to release the film the pandemic struck. I love the cast, but the whole process was utterly draining. We worked on this movie for years, and in the end the outcome was profoundly disappointing.”

Josh Boone

The New Mutants was originally envisioned as a horror-tinged entry in the X-Men universe — a fresh, darker take on mutant stories. After the studio ownership changed hands, however, the project lost its momentum. Boone admits he was only able to deliver a portion of what he had intended.

“We achieved maybe half of what we set out to do. Then came revisions and delays, and ultimately the film became a compromise.”

Josh Boone

The film premiered in August 2020 and was Fox’s last X-Men entry before the franchise’s rights transferred to Disney. With a production budget of around $80 million, it grossed under $50 million and holds just 36% on Rotten Tomatoes, marking it among the most poorly received comic-book films of the decade.

Source: iXBT.games

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