THE NEW MUTANTS: 10 Biggest Takeaways From This Morning's Star-Studded Press Conference

Earlier today, 20th Century Studios and Walt Disney Studios invited us to attend the global press conference for The New Mutants where we got to hear from the key players from the long-awaited final film in Fox's twenty-year X-Men saga.

Director Josh Boone (The Fault in Our Stars) and the entire principal cast of Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones), Anya Taylor-Joy (Glass), Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things), Henry Zaga (The Stand), Blu Hunt (The Originals), and Alice Braga (I Am Legend) were in attendance. 

While it was mostly light on spoilers, take a look below as we break down the biggest takeaways from this morning's press conference, and be sure to check back in closer to the release as we bring you some exclusive content from the cast and crew of the upcoming Marvel blockbuster!

1. No Reshoots!

• Despite the rumors and unsubstantiated speculation, no reshoots ever actually took place. The film we’re getting in theaters next week is the same version they shot in 2017 and the exact cut Boone and the cast always wanted fans to see.

2. Haunted Hospital Leads To Excellent Chemistry

• Unlike most modern superhero movies, The New Mutants was filmed on location at Medfield State Hospital outside of Boston (coincidentally also where Shutter Island was shot), and it sounds like the cast’s relative isolation from the rest of the world was a big factor in them bonding as friends and developing chemistry over the course of the shoot.
• Among the many things they did in their downtime, one of their most memorable outings was a late night trip to the movie theater to see Baby Driver, with a freshly licensed Charlie Heaton behind the wheel. While they wouldn't get into specifics, Anya was quick to joke that it was the first and last time they all let Charlie drive. 
• In addition to Josh Boone, Henry Zaga also had tons of New Mutants comics in his room, which were shared amongst the cast for research.

3. Wolfsbane & Mirage Romance Is The Heart of the Movie

• Following Stuck in Love and The Fault in Our Stars, Josh Boone is tackling another teenage romance, this time involving a pair of superheroes: Wolfsbane and Mirage, played by Maisie Williams and Blu Hunt, respectively. 
• Maisie, who was still filming Game of Thrones at the time, and Blu actually met during their initial screen test, which turned out to be quite a memorable experience as they were asked to act out a key scene where their characters are laying out watching the stars. 
• Hunt even joked, "I think I knew I got the part as soon as we kissed! It was real!"

4. The Demon Bear Is Coming

• According to the cast, Josh Boone is a walking encyclopedia on all things X-Men and the Demon Bear storyline has always been one of his favorites, staying with him from when he was a kid.
• He always hoped that he'd be able to adapt the story if he ever became a successful filmmarker, and obviously did get his chance to tell the tale, but not until The Fault in Our Stars proved to be a gargantuan hit for 20th Century Fox. 

5. The Cast Grew Up

• It's been three years since they finished the film, so naturally, Father Time has aged up the entire cast to their mid-twenties, and it looks like the last three years have brought serious perspective to some of their performances.
• Blu Hunt explained how The New Mutants was her first major leading role and taught her a lot about acting and the industry. She felt very in tune with her character Dani when filming because she was a very uncomfortable young woman playing a very uncomfortable teengar at the time, and now, with the added perspective, she feels she'd bring something much different to the role if she gets another chance to play the part.
• Maisie Williams and Henry Zaga shared similar sentiments, saying they also felt pretty uncomfortable playing these characters that are so unlike themselves.

6. Magik May Steal The Show

• As evidenced by the trailers, Anya Taylor-Joy's performance as Magik may very well steal the show as she will be heavily involved with some of the film's most crowd-pleasing moments, and after hearing from Taylor-Joy, it seems like this will almost definitely be the case.
• She admits to getting a bit confused with Magik's origin and how things went down with Limbo, but says she absolutely loves the character. She - and the rest of the cast - did emphasize that while the film does honor the comics, the actors ultimately had to stay true to the script in order to play their parts to make sure everything remained cohesive and made sense for anyone not familiar with their comic origins. 

7. Lockheed's Origin

• Lockheed is indeed in the film, but his somewhat convoluted history has been simplified to make things a whole lot more straightforward for moviegoers not familiar with the comics, so his origin will be tied into Magik's (Anya Taylor-Joy) rather than to Kitty Pryde. 
• Boone explains, "I'd say [The New Mutants] are very much like the characters in the comics. But I'd say we had to make sense of a very convoluted Marvel history that a lot of these characters had and their entanglements with other books and everything else. Lockheed would be a prime example. We made Lockheed much more tied to [Magik] directly in terms of her backstory and everything, because the way she gains this dragon in the comic is, you know, this dragon came from space. Kitty Pryde got it. Eventually it really became Illyana's [...] For us, it was just like, I don't know how to do the space backstory."

8. Magma Was Considered, But Ultimately Scrapped

• While each character will have their comic-accurate backstories, Boone did have to take some liberties to ground and streamline the story to ensure the movie stayed character-driven, and one thing he ultimately had to scrap was the inclusion of Magma.
• When he was initially writing the film, he found her Nova Roma origin to be just a little too difficult to explain without sacrificing backstory for the the other key characters. 

9. Kitty Pryde Is A Big Fan-Favorite Amongst The Cast

• Kitty Pryde may not be in the film, but that didn't stop the iconic X-Men character from making a lasting impression on the cast, especially Anya Taylor-Joy, who found herself enamored with her adventures after reading numerous X-Men titles while researching her part.

10. This Will Be The Final Release Date! 

• At long last, The New Mutants is finally coming to theaters next Friday, August 28. 
• They all assured us that this will be the final release date and that we shouldn't expect any more changes moving forward. Boone says it'll be out in every theater available in the United States, which is about 80% of them, and it will also open everywhere internationally. 
• It'll also be available at home eventually, but he stopped short of saying whether it could debut sooner on digital or Disney+. 

20th Century Fox in association with Marvel Entertainment presents “The New Mutants,” an original horror thriller set in an isolated hospital where a group of young mutants is being held for psychiatric monitoring. When strange occurrences begin to take place, both their new mutant abilities and their friendships will be tested as they battle to try and make it out alive.