The New Mutants

Initially set for release in 2018, director Josh Boone's teenage X-Men spin-off was delayed until 2020 following reshoots, Covid-enforced shutdown and the fallout from Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox. The movie takes place in a spooky asylum where five young mutants - a changeling, a psychic, a human cannonball, a sword-wielding sorceress and a walking solar battery - are monitored by a lone doctor. Boone sources the chilling Demon Bear storyline drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz in the 1984 comic book, while his cast's collective CV includes Game of Thrones, Stranger Things and The Queen's Gambit - the latter's Anya Taylor-Joy steals the show as a haughty hex-slinger. The intention to explore a mash-up of haunted-house horror and young-adult drama instead of spandex pyrotechnics is a worthy one, but this swansong to Fox's X-Men franchise sadly fails to deliver on its premise.