When I say the phrase “Marvel movies,” you probably think of the movies in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Iron Man and Thor and Doctor Strange and the rest. But Disney doesn’t have the rights to every Marvel character. Sony is making stuff like Morbius and Venom; those are technically Marvel characters, but iconically, Marvel Studios can’t make movies with them. Then there’s 20th Century Fox, who for years made movies starring X-Men characters, all of whom originated in Marvel comics.
Disney has since bought 20th Century, so Marvel Studios can finally incorporate the X-Men into the MCU. But before that, we got some weird movies it’s hard to make sense of now. For instance, remember The New Mutants, the horror-themed X-Men offshoot about a bunch of a young heroes being kept at a secret facility?
The movie was filmed in 2017 but didn’t get released until 2020. It got really bad reviews, and because it got released in the midst of a pandemic, few people saw it.
The New Mutants may be “the worst Marvel movie ever made”
That said, the movie has a pretty impressive cast. You’ve got Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton playing Cannonball, current Hollywood golden child Anya Taylor-Joy as Magik, and Game of Thrones star Maisie Williams — Arya Stark herself — as Wolfsbane, who can turn into a wolf.
Despite the rancid reviews, Williams told GQ that she has nothing but “extremely fulfilling” memories of the movie. “We were all these young starlets who’d had a taste of that world,” she said. “I can’t remember what publication it was, but someone said it was the worst Marvel movie ever made. I still feel kinda proud of that!”
At a glance, The New Mutants does look like it’s among the worst-reviewed Marvel films in existence. Even a much-reviled film like X-Men Origins: Wolverine is reviewed slightly better.
Still, way to turn a negative into a positive! Williams has been in plenty of great projects; why not embrace infamy on this one?
Maisie Williams steps out at the Met Gala
In other news, Williams appeared at last night’s Met Gala, where the theme was America: An Anthology of Fashion.
Does this look fit that theme? Who cares; she looks great:
You can currently see Williams as punk rock icon Jordan in the FX series on Pistol, which you can stream on Hulu.
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