You would think that after a week of bad press for “The New Mutants,” which included director Josh Boone defending the film’s whitewashing of an Afro-Latino character, reports of Fox nearly throwing the entire thing in the garbage to start over, and reviews calling it “the worst ‘X-Men‘” movie yet, the film would finally find some peace now that it’s finally in theaters.
You’d be wrong. The latest nail in the “New Mutants” coffin involves its worst review yet, coming from none other than “New Mutants” co-creator Bob McLeod.
READ MORE: ‘New Mutants’ Reviews Are Terrible, Probably Because It’s The Worst ‘X-Men’ Movie Yet
McLeod, who co-created the “X-Men” spin-off with Chris Claremont in 1982, took to Facebook to air his grievances with the film. “I was very excited when I heard they were making a ‘New Mutants’ movie,” McLeod writes. “I thought making it into a horror movie was perhaps an interesting idea, but not at all how the characters should be introduced to the public at large. But, hey, my characters in a movie! I never would have thought that would actually happen.”
McLeod goes on to list some superficial changes the film made to his characters, which is nothing new in Hollywood. “I was disappointed that they didn’t give Dani braids, although I like Blu Hunt.” He also confesses disappointment in Maisie Williams‘ character wasn’t a redhead with spiky hair, or that Charlie Heaton‘s character wasn’t tall and gawky, but says he still liked the actors in those roles.
“But mainly I was very disappointed that Roberto isn’t short and dark-skinned,” McLeod added, referring to claims about the film’s colorism and its whitewashing of Afro-Latino character Roberto, played by non-Black Brazilian actor Herny Zaga in the film, whose experiences with anti-Black racism inform his powers. “Yet another example of Hollywood white-washing. There’s just no excuse. So basically, #JoshBoone erased everything that I contributed to the way the characters look.”
As if that wasn’t bad enough, McLeod points out that his last name is misspelled in the film’s credits, crediting someone named “Bob Macleod” instead. “They couldn’t even be bothered to check the spelling of my name sometime in the last three years,” McLeod writes. “And that can’t be fixed. That will be on the movie forever. I think I’m done with this movie.”
Read his full post below: