Now that Disney has acquired 20th Century Fox, it was inevitable that a number of planned Fox releases in the next few years would either move around the schedule or disappear entirely. Sure enough, a press release today shed light on a few wondered-about films, a major title, and a fairly major revelation about upcoming Star Wars releases.
To the point of the latter, despite recent claims that Disney was going to pump the brakes on the franchise after this December’s The Rise of Skywalker, Variety reports that three new Star Wars movies have been added to Disney’s slate, for the dates of December 16th, 2022, December 20th, 2024, and December 18th, 2026. Whether these dates are being held for the rumored trilogies by Rian Johnson or Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, or something else entirely, remains to be seen. In any case, it’s evidence that apparently two years now denotes “time off” for a franchise.
The other biggest schedule move, in what now feels like a semi-annual tradition, is another major delay for James Cameron’s infinitely-in-production Avatar 2. The sequel to the 2009 blockbuster, previously slated for a December 2020 release has now been scheduled for December 17th, 2021. Accordingly, each of its three subsequent sequels have also been pushed back a year from their respective release dates, with Avatar 5 now slated for release in 2027.
Elsewhere in the release shuffle list, The New Mutants continues to be shoved around schedules, now pushed from this August to April 3rd, 2020. Disney’s adaptation of the Artemis Fowl books has also been pushed from August 2019 to May 29th, 2020. James Gray’s sci-fi epic Ad Astra was finally bumped from its not-happening release date this month to one in late September 2019. And Steven Spielberg’s version of West Side Story, one of the biggest Fox projects in development at the time of the sale, has been confirmed for December 18th, 2020, just in time for the heart of Oscar season.
Also, for those of you who might have followed the long, tumultuous saga of that standalone Gambit movie, the project has officially been removed from the upcoming release schedule, putting to rest one of the most cursed IPs in recent film history. For now.
Here’s the full updated list of Disney’s additions, changes, and removals for its upcoming schedule:
THE ART OF RACING IN THE RAIN (FOX) previously dated on 9/27/19 moves to 8/9/19
READY OR NOT (FSL) is now dated on 8/23/19
AD ASTRA (FOX) previously dated on 5/24/19 moves to 9/20/19
FORD v. FERRARI (FOX) is the updated title of previous UNTITLED JAMES MANGOLD PROJECT dated on 11/15/19
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER (DIS) is the updated title of previous STAR WARS: EPISODE IX dated on 12/20/19
SPIES IN DISGUISE (FOX) previously dated on 9/13/19 moves to 12/25/19
UNDERWATER (FOX) is now dated on 1/10/20
CALL OF THE WILD (FOX) previously dated on 12/25/19 moves to 2/21/20
THE NEW MUTANTS (FOX) previously dated on 8/2/19 moves to 4/3/20
ARTEMIS FOWL (DIS) previously dated on 8/9/19 moves to 5/29/20
THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN (DIS) is the updated title of previous UNTITLED DISNEY LIVE ACTION dated on 2/14/20, and moves to 8/14/20
DEATH ON THE NILE (FOX) previously dated on 10/2/20 moves to 10/9/20
WEST SIDE STORY (FOX) is now dated on 12/18/20
CRUELLA (DIS) is the updated title of previous UNTITLED DISNEY LIVE ACTION dated on 12/23/20
NIMONA (FOX) previously dated on 2/14/20 moves to 3/5/21
AVATAR 2 (FOX) previously dated on 12/18/20 moves to 12/17/21
UNTITLED STAR WARS (DIS) is the updated title of previous UNTITLED DISNEY LIVE ACTION dated on 12/16/22
AVATAR 3 (FOX) previously dated on 12/17/21 moves to 12/22/23
UNTITLED STAR WARS (DIS) is now dated on 12/20/24
AVATAR 4 (FOX) previously dated on 12/20/24 is now dated on 12/19/25
UNTITLED STAR WARS (DIS) is now dated on 12/18/26
AVATAR 5 (FOX) previously dated on 12/19/25 moves to 12/17/27
GAMBIT (FOX) previously dated on 3/13/20 is removed from schedule
UNTITLED FOX MARVEL (FOX) previously dated on 6/26/20 is removed from schedule
UNTITLED FOX MARVEL (FOX) previously dated on 10/2/20 is removed from schedule
UNTITLED DISNEY LIVE ACTION (DIS) previously dated on 10/9/20 is removed from schedule
UNTITLED FOX MARVEL (FOX) previously dated on 3/5/21 is removed from schedule
FOSTER (FOX) previously dated on 3/5/21 is removed from schedule
UNTITLED DISNEY LIVE ACTION (DIS) previously dated on 12/22/21 is removed from schedule
