By Chris Evangelista/Aug. 28, 2020 7:48 am EST
The Vulture report also has some early story details, including the reveal that the original script featured X-Men member Storm, and that she acted as a “sadistic jailer” to the teen mutant characters at the center of the film. The EW report, however, contradicts this. EW got their hands on an early draft from 2015, stating that it was originally more of a direct spin-off of X-Men: Apocalypse. It was set in the 1980s, and featured “characters like Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy), Hank/Beast (Nicholas Hoult), and Ororo/Storm (Alexandra Shipp).” In this version of the script, Storm has a pretty big role in the story. She’s still “struggling with PTSD from her days as a Horseman of Apocalypse and the loss of her powers.” She also “stumbles upon the remains of a Native American reservation in the opening scenes and discovers Dani [a main character played by Blu Hunt in the finished film] as the only survivor, thus segueing into the main Demon Bear inspiration for the movie.”
But EW adds that “reports suggesting that the script depicted Ororo as a sadistic jailer to the five teens do not match” the early versions of the script in their possession. Instead, Storm is appointed “caretaker of a school for new mutants set up at a rundown, abandoned hospital, complete with makeshift Danger Room made from X-Men hand-me-downs.”
As far as behind-the-scenes shenanigans go, the New Mutants story isn’t that disastrous. It just sounds like the studio more or less gave up on the film. They didn’t like the cut Boone delivered, wanted reshoots, but never got around to implementing them. And now, the flick is ready to find its way to select theaters. Boone and company had hoped this would be the start of a new trilogy, but obviously, that’s not happening. We’ll have to just make do with what we have now. And then maybe forget about it entirely.
