With coronavirus cases surging in the U.S. and new hotspots breaking out around the globe, Disney announced major changes to the studio’s release calendar. Most notably, the epic shakeup of film debuts involves delaying its Star Wars movies and Avatar sequels by a year.
The studio still plans to dominate moviegoing around the holidays when theatres are hopefully able to reopen. Each year between 2022 and 2028, Disney will release a new Star Wars adventure or Avatar follow-up.
James Cameron’s long-delayed sequels to Avatar will now premiere every other December starting in 2022 as follows: Avatar 2 (2022), Avatar 3 (2024), Avatar 4 (2026) and Avatar 5 (2028). The second Avatar instalment, which was originally aiming to open in 2014, will debut 13 years after the first film.
Meanwhile, Disney will debut a trio of Star Wars movies around Christmas every other year starting in 2023. The first of three films will launch on Dec. 22, 2023, and two follow-ups will hit theatres Dec. 19, 2025, and Dec. 17, 2027. The studio has kept its cards close to its chest about what those films will entail.
The news comes as part of a huge shift in release dates unveiled by Disney as cinemas remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Mulan, a live-action remake of the classic cartoon, has been taken off release calendars.
It was supposed to hit the big screen on Aug. 21, a date that felt increasingly unlikely since global theatres haven’t been able to open to a significant degree.