The COVID-19 pandemic has put a hold or delay on many things, especially movies. But, it seems The New Mutants has been struggling to release long before the coronavirus came along. Will we ever see it?

Sometime last week, a number of highly anticipated films were delayed. Disney plays a huge part since many of the movies are coming from the company, including the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, such as Black Widow, Marvel’s The Eternals, and Thor: Love and Thunder. Other non-superhero movies, such as Mulan, Jungle Cruise, and the fifth Indiana Jones film were also delayed. We’ve even seen the live-action adaptation of Artemis Fowl skipping theaters entirely and moving straight to streaming on Disney+. However, there’s one movie missing from all of these news stories and it’s The New Mutants.

Being created under FOX prior to being bought out by Disney, The New Mutants was supposed to release two years ago, but was plagued by many delays due to so-called “reshoots” and other production struggles. It has received a number of potential release dates, but there was a time where there were no updates about the film. Some fans even thought the movie would never see the light of day. Finally, it was slated for an April 3, 2020 release date, which got me pretty excited since I enjoyed most of the trailers. Then, along came COVID-19, which has basically put everything on hold.

Now, I know it isn’t Disney’s fault that this happened, but it seems, at least for The New Mutants, that fans are beginning to lose interest in this movie altogether. Well, at least I am. Sure, it’s an X-Men movie and although a lot of the FOX X-Men movies have been awful there have been many gems that I truly love, especially Logan and X-Men: Days of Future Past. But, unless it ties into the MCU in one way or another, which I doubt, then what’s the point of this movie? Is it going to be a “one and done” film where all the characters established in it will never return to this world again?

At this point, I think this movie will benefit the most from an MCU tie-in, but I feel it may be a little late for that, especially if it’s truly done filming. Maybe it’s best Disney goes an entirely different route with this movie. The question has always been whether or not the movie will release in theaters. At this point, I don’t really think so. I could be wrong, of course, but it also depends on how long this whole pandemic situation lasts. I believe the most likely scenario is the movie launching on streaming platforms, those either being Hulu or Disney+.