The New Mutants is almost definitely going to be a standalone feature; it was shot all the way back in 2017, and has since had a long list of different release dates before being booked in for the end of next month. Considering the likes of Tenet and Mulan are now undated, that seems like wishful thinking, and it was predicted to disappoint even before COVID-19.
The New Mutants director Josh Boone actually pitched a trilogy back when Fox was still in charge, and in an interview with Slash Film, he detailed what that would have ultimately entailed.
"We had plans, obviously, to bring in new characters in the next movie – the character of Warlock was featured in all the early drafts of the script, but it was so expensive that we weren’t able to do it," Boone explains. "Basically, cutting him out of the narrative allowed us to make the film. So our plan was always to have Warlock come back in the next one and try to tell his story then."
"They were all supposed to be kind of separate horror genre films: the first one’s like a rubber reality horror movie, the second one was supposed to be an alien invasion movie with Warlock, and then the third one was going to take all these elements from the X-Men crossover from the late ‘80s and early ‘90s called 'Inferno' to be a kind of supernatural, apocalyptic horror movie. That was the plan."
Honestly, that sounds like a great approach, and it could have been really cool seeing the New Mutants fighting off a horde of demons in New York City. The likes of Madelyne Pryor and Mister Sinister showing up was probably a given, too, and Magik transforming into Darkchylde would've been great to watch play out in live-action.
Are you guys disappointed that we'll probably never see this trilogy for The New Mutants?