While movie theaters are opening back up across the country, studios have been much more reluctant to plow ahead with new releases. They tried to release a few films like Tenet and New Mutants but it appears most Americans are equally hesitant to get back to movie theaters.
So it’s not exactly unexpected that Disney announced another round of release-date changes on Wednesday. Unlike Hamilton and Mulan, nothing is heading straight to Disney+. Marvel’s Black Widow has moved from November 6 to May 7, 2021, a full year after its original release date. That pushback also affects Marvel’s Eternals, which has moved from February 12, 2021 to November 5, 2021 while Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings moves from May 7, 2021 to July 9, 2021.
20th Century Studios is also moving films around, with The King’s Man moving up from February 26, 2021 to February 12, 2021. Meanwhile, whodunit film Death on the Nile moves from October 23 to December 18 while graphic novel feature adaptation The Empty Man moves up from December 4 to October 23.
The highly anticipated remake of West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg, was originally slated for a release date of December 18 but now won’t be belting show tunes until December 10, 2021. Other films affected by the pandemic include Deep Water, moving from November 13 to August 13, 2021. Interestingly, Disney has kept new Pixar film, Soul’s, release date at November 20.
It seems clear that studios see the writing on the wall as we head into the fall, with scientists warning that many countries will see another spike in cases (something already evident in some European countries). Here’s hoping we actually get to see these films in 2021.
