Oh, The New Mutants. Originally slated to come in April 2018, then pushed to February 2019, then pushed again to April 2020, this little X-Men film has had a long journey. It finished shooting all the way back in 2017. A lot of new information has come out about it over the past couple of days, due to its impending (hopeful) release. The most recent piece of information? According to director Josh Boone in Entertainment Weekly, the film will feature a queer romance between Rahne Sinclair (Game of Thrones’s Maisie Williams) and Danielle Moonstar (Another Life’s Blu Hunt).
The Fox X-Men films were certainly no stranger to queer subtext, and the comics have often been seen as allegorical to the struggle for gay rights (among other struggles). The comics have also included various LGBTQ X-Men. But in the Fox films, a queer relationship was never actually seen. However, fans may be disappointed if they’re expecting it to be an overarching plot point. According to Williams, the two’s romantic connection “not something that is spoken about too much in the film.”
So, probably subtle enough that Disney can successfully slip it by some countries’ censorship boards, as they did with the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it lesbian kiss in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in China, and LeFou’s tiny gay moment in Beauty and the Beast. Will Rahne and Danielle’s romance feature in more than one scene and be more than just a token inclusion? Unclear. Boone certainly seems excited by it, as does Williams. The New Mutants has had such a troubled path to theatres that it’s good to still see any enthusiasm around it at all.
Another key piece of news came out about the film: despite rumors of reshoots after the Disney-Fox acquisition, they simply didn’t happen. They actually couldn’t happen, according to the cast and Boone, because the cast had gotten older in the interim.
The New Mutants has been pushed back so often that it’s possible this queer romance will slip past the radar of groups like One Million Moms, who probably wish Ike Perlmutter was still in charge of the MCU. That The New Mutants isn’t actually the MCU will probably help it stay out of the crosshairs.
The New Mutants is due in theatres on April 3rd.
