It’s not enough that The New Mutants got pushed back to a later date, again. But there are reports that that 50 percent of the film will have to be reshot. While reshoots are just a part of the filmmaking process, it doesn’t bode well when half of the film has to be done over again. However, there is a good reason why Fox wants these reshoots. It appears that The New Mutants is not scary enough for them. There are also reports that the film already had Jon Hamm cast as Mr. Sinister. The keyword being “had,” as plans for that have apparently been scrapped. But it looks like they have already settled on a replacement.

More on the reshoots and the new villain here below.

Collider was the first to report on the reshoots. According to their report, the film wasn’t scary enough, and the studio wanted more of that. So in order to punch up the scares, a new chapter was added to the mix. After director Josh Boone turned in a cut that he was happy with to Fox, the studio saw that it needed to be more scary so that it could be tonally different than any of the other X-Men films, like Deadpool and Logan.

But here’s where it gets a little bit confusing. While The Tracking Board says there was no creative differences between director Josh Boone and 20th Century Fox, they say that Boone and co-writer Knate Lee wanted to make a horror movie, but the studio didn’t want to go “full horror.” They wanted something that was “cross between Stephen King and John Hughes.” It took some time, and some compromises, but everyone got on board with the new vision for the film.

But after the success of IT, Fox changed their tune.

So when they released a trailer that was focused on the scares, it was well-received. Now that Fox feels differently about the film, Boone and Lee might actually get to make the film they want. As of now, the second half of the film is a lock. It’s the first half they have to work on. If there is any tonal confusion, you might have to chalk it up to the lack of a strong producer on set. That’s because Simon Kinberg was busy directing X-Men: Dark Phoenix, another X-Men film that has to undergo reshoots, but for completely different reasons – the film has a high-profile cast, and it’s hard to get everyone together. So the only time they can do that is in September, which is why the film is now being released in February.

But that those weren’t the only changes Fox had in mind. Originally, Jon Hamm was to appear as Mr. Sinister. Boone was so close to making that happen that he had already filmed the material that lead to the reveal. However, Fox backed off, and now they have settled on “Antonio Banderas playing an unspecified villain (one who isn’t expected to be Mr. Sinister) in the New Mutants tag.” The mutant Warlock, who could turn any organic matter and beings into techno-organic matter, was also a part of the original script, but he was deemed too expensive of a character to put on screen.

The New Mutants is scheduled to hit theaters on February 22, 2019.

[Source: Collider | The Tracking Board]