“Deadpool 2” Pushed Up Two Weeks as “New Mutants” Moves to 2019 and Channing Tatum’s “Gambit” Gets a Summer Date

20th Century Fox

In surprising release date news, 20th Century Fox has pushed back the release of Josh Boone’s horror-tinged X-Men spinoff New Mutants by 10 months, moving it from April 13 to Feb. 22, 2019. That’ll come as a bummer to most Marvel fans, but hey, on the bright side, DEADPOOL 2 is moving up two weeks, from June 1 to May 18. That means it’ll have just one week to itself before Disney releases Solo: A Star Wars Story… unless Fox knows something we don’t following the Disney deal.

Elsewhere, Channing Tatum’s Gambit is moving back from Feb. 14, 2019 to June 7, 2019 following the abrupt exit of director Gore Verbinski earlier on Thursday morning. The studio reportedly believes the heist film will play better as a summer movie, but it’s going to be up against some stiff competition — The Secret Life of Pets 2 and the Charlie’s Angels reboot.

Deadpool 2 will now open against Sony’s Slender Man, which may decide to step aside, if it knows what’s good for it. And with the delay of New Mutants, the Ryan Reynolds-led sequel now won’t have to worry about another movie set in the X-Men universe coming in hot on its heels.

Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams and Charlie Heaton star in New Mutants, which will now open against the Blake Lively action-thriller The Rhythm Section. Word on the street is that after the film tested well but not great, the studio decided to actually embrace the film’s horror elements and beef up the scares in the wake of the success of It and Get Out last year.

 Jeff Sneider | Editor in Chief