It feels like we’ve been writing about The New Mutants forever, or at least a few years. The horror-superhero-YA film shot in 2017 and has been delayed multiple times, but ahead of the film’s imminent release next month (for real this time we swear) director Josh Boone talked with Entertainment Weekly to set the record straight on the long-awaited film.

The biggie: “Everybody said we did reshoots! We’ve never done reshoots,” Boone told EW. “And I’ll tell you this: if there hadn’t been a merger, I’m sure we would’ve done reshoots the same way every movie does pickups. We didn’t even do that because by the time the merger was done and everything was settled, everybody’s older.”

That’s contrary to pretty much everything we’ve heard through the grapevine for this film. With delay after delay, and comments and rumors from those ever-elusive industry insiders, and even misinterpreted statements by stars like Maisie Williams, all of us just assumed that the first cut of the film was a disaster that needed to be re-shot, but Boone disputes that.

The film, which takes place in part of the X-Men universe, was filmed in August 2017, under the Fox banner … and four months later, news surfaced that Fox would be bought by Disney, placing many of the Marvel properties owned by Fox but not within the larger, Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe in limbo. Then began the many delays of the film’s release.

Boone himself heard nothing for over a year, waiting in limbo while the details of the merger were worked out. He moved on to other projects, like the CBS All Access adaptation of The Stand … right when Disney decided they wanted him to complete editing The New Mutants. “When they called me right before I went to go make The Stand and said, ‘Would you come finish the movie?’ I said, ‘I would f—in’ love to come finish the movie!”

And finish they have, adding and completing many visual effects including Illyana Rasputin/Magik’s (Anya Taylor-Joy) dragon sidekick Lockheed and additional elements of her powers. Also, they were able to finish, you know, the second half of the movie.

One of the film’s stars, Maisie Williams, was just as concerned as us when it came to the delays and rumors around the film. Williams confessed to EW that she often knew just as much or even less than journalists who questioned her about the release. She “was nervous when they were talking about reshooting or re-editing that it was gonna be very different, but honestly, it’s exactly what we set out to do.”

She knows that because the cast has finally seen it, in a screening held for them with Boone in New York. Williams assures EW that it’s very much in line with the creepy, decidedly un-cheerful tone of the trailer and material. “It’s not a happy, upbeat superhero comedy film. It’s definitely very dark,” Williams said.

We can’t wait to see it. Literally. We’ve been waiting a really long time.

(via Entertainment Weekly)

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