Fox Marvel Movie Shake-Up: ‘New Mutants’ Delayed, ‘Deadpool 2’ Moved Up, ‘Gambit’ Loses Director

So a whole lot happened over the last 24 hours in the world of Fox's Marvel mutant movie lineup. Shockingly X-Men: Dark Phoenix remains—as of publishing time—untouched by this news, but three other films under Fox's Marvel umbrella are getting major release date changes and more. The Hollywood Reporter brings us the news on all the affected films...

Deadpool 2

Avengers: Infinity War will now only have two uncontested weekends to rule the box office roost as the Deadpool sequel has moved up two weeks, from June 2 to May 18. Part of me thinks this is Fox giving Disney the out it needs to bump Solo: A Star Wars Story back to December, as it will now open on Deadpool 2's second weekend and Infinity War's fourth.

Who knows how this all shakes out, but since we're allegedly going to see a trailer for Solo on Monday, I suppose we'll get our definitive answer soon enough. 

The New Mutants

Apologies to any fans actually looking forward to this one, but it's getting bumped WAY back. The first outright horror movie set in the Marvel Universe was slated to be released on April 13, 2018, but has now been pushed all the way back to February 22, 2019. The article claims this was done to avoid piling up mutant movies at the overseas box office or something, but clearly they feel this is a trainwreck that needs to be salvaged by studio interference, something Fox has yet to do successfully. Just look at Fant4stic... better yet, don't.

Gambit

Despite having nothing but star Channing Tatum attached since the beginning of this film's development, it has managed to weather several pre-production storms and not get bumped altogether. Now it looks like Gore Verbinski is out as director and the film is getting pushed back. Originally scheduled to be released on Valentine's Day 2019, it's now being bumped to June 7, 2019 because...

"studio insiders believe the project, which is described as having a heavy comedic tone revolving around a heist, will do better as a summer Marvel movie."

Well that reeks of using a whole lot of air freshener to cover up the smell of a dead horse. I honestly think it's time to can this one for good, especially if there's even a hint of truth in that statement. Nobody's asking for this movie. Nobody wants this movie. Let it die an honorable death.