The New Mutants releases dramatic opening scene during Comic-Con panel

The New Mutants has endured a series of delays, but instead of the expected further delay, the Comic-Con panel featured the dramatic opening scene.

The panel opened with an acknowledgement of the numerous delays that have hit the X-Men spin-off, with fans expecting that the panel would either confirm the Disney+ rumours or announce a new date.

Instead, we got the first scene from The New Mutants to wrap up the panel (around 24 minutes in) and some exciting new footage.

The opening scene sees Mirage (Blu Hunt) on the run from something, likely to be Demon Bear based on the opening voiceover:

"There's an old Native American proverb that says, 'Inside every person, there are two bears, forever locked in combat for your soul. One bear is all things good: compassion, love, trust. The other is all things evil: fear, shame and self-destruction'."

After the movie was delayed again from its April 3 release due to the current global situation, Disney had revealed that the movie would be released in its original form in cinemas on August 28.

It seems that is still sticking, despite the fact that the moment the panel started, Disney announced a whole raft of new delays, including pushing back every Avatar movie by one year and taking Mulan off the release calendar.

Earlier this year, The New Mutants writer Knate Lee spoke about how the delays to the movie weren't a bad thing and could turn out "good for us".

"Last year, I saw the most epic, grand-scale superhero movie ever [Avengers: Endgame]. You can't go bigger than that," he stated.

"So, it feels like the perfect time for a superhero movie that's more intimate and claustrophobic. And we still have so many 'firsts': we're the first Marvel horror, we're the first to feature a gay relationship. Even though we're late… we still beat everybody."

The original plan for The New Mutants was that it would launch its own trilogy and, who knows, maybe if it's a success on Disney+, those plans could be dusted off.

The New Mutants is still set for release on August 28.

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Ian Sandwell

Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor.  Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world.   After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.