Disney Just Cleared Its Entire Movie Slate Through May Due to Coronavirus
This year was always going to be a relative let-down for Disney, since 2019 boasted Avengers: Endgame, The Rise of Skywalker, The Lion King and Aladdin, to name just a few surefire behemoths. But, nobody could have predicted that a global pandemic would force the company to essentially wipe its slate of movies clear for the foreseeable future. Mulan and Black Widow are just two of the highest-profile films that Disney has delayed, and the company has stopped production on its other upcoming live-action films.
Of course, Disney isn’t the only studio that’s been affected by the spread of COVID-19, which has infected at least 200,000 people worldwide and likely many more who haven’t been tested yet. The next James Bond film, No Time To Die, was the first blockbuster to move its premiere date (it’s currently slotted for a November 25 release). Universal, meanwhile, is the first major studio to experiment with same-day VOD and theatrical releases, as Trolls World Tour will hit the big and little screens simultaneously. So far, Disney hasn’t made the decision to premiere any of its postponed films on Disney+, although it did make Frozen 2 available to stream three months earlier than intended, and Rise of Skywalker available for purchase ahead of schedule too.
To help guide you, here’s a list of all the movies that Disney (and its various properties, like Fox) have already postponed. Disney has also suspended production on several in-progress films and live-action shows, so it’s quite possible that some of them won’t be ready in time to premiere on their originally scheduled dates—assuming things are even back to normal, by then. (Some experts estimate that social distancing could be necessary for more than a year.)
Mulan
Original release date: March 27
Disney bet big with Mulan, its live-action remake of the 1998 animated classic. The film boasted an all-Asian cast, and was specifically tailored to Chinese audiences’ tastes so that the retelling of the classic Chinese myth would be a big hit overseas. However, the spread of COVID-19, which began in China in late 2019, prompted Disney to abandon its plan to release the film on the same day internationally. It was only later, on March 12, that Disney scrapped the U.S. release date as well. A new release hasn’t been set yet.
The New Mutants
Original release date: April 3
This X-Men film has already had a rough history—this is the fourth time that New Mutants has had its premiere rescheduled. It was first supposed to hit theaters on April 13, 2018, but a series of reported reshoots, Disney’s acquisition of Fox, and now coronavirus have all prompted it to switch dates. Disney announced that The New Mutants would not be opening on April 3 at the same time it announced Mulan was getting the bump, and there’s no new release date yet.
Antlers
Original release date: April 17
This Guillermo Del Toro-produced horror-thriller was also delayed in the same wave as Mulan. The film, an adaptation of a short story called The Quiet Boy by Channel Zero creator Nick Antosca, does not yet have a new release date. (If you want to read that short story, though, it’s available on Guernica and it’s very good).
Black Widow
Original release date: May 1
Disney initially held off on postponing the release of the first of two MCU movies planned for 2020, Scarlett Johansson’s highly-anticipated stand-alone. But, yesterday, as the pandemic worsened, they pushed back the premiere of Black Widow to an as-yet-unspecified time. Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Rachel Weisz co-star in this entry, which takes place between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.
Personal History of David Copperfield
Original release date: May 8
This Dev Patel-led Searchlight Pictures release, a comedic take on Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, had its release date postponed on the same day as Black Widow had its premiere moved.
Woman in the Window
Original release date: May 15
Finally (for now, at least), Disney has also postponed the release of Woman in the Window, a thriller starring Amy Adams. The film, from 20th Century (formerly 20th Century Fox), was based on a 2018 book of the same name. There’s—surprise!—no new release date yet.
Halted productions, and the future
While it’s possible that Disney will postpone the release of additional films if the pandemic continues to worsen (Artemis Fowl on May 29 and Pixar’s Soul on June 19 would likely be the next to go), COVID-19 has already prompted Disney to stop production on its live-action films and shows. On Friday, the studio announced that, due to an abundance of caution, it had halted production and pre-production on several films, including the live-action Little Mermaid, 2021 MCU release Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings, and the Home Alone remake, among others. Filming in New Zealand for the four Avatar sequels—the first of which was supposed to premiere this December—has also been stopped.
The Disney+ live-action series that are currently in the works also had their production suspended. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was halted first, because it was filming in Eastern Europe where COVID-19 spread early, but Loki and WandaVision have joined it. Filming on The Mandalorian Season 2 appears to have wrapped, so it’s possible that work on the sophomore season could safely continue.
It’s unconfirmed to what extent these pauses in production will delay the eventual release of Disney’s upcoming slate of movies and TV shows. It’s also possible—although not confirmed—that the need to re-slot films like Mulan and Black Widow into the release schedule once things are back to normal will necessitate moving other release dates around regardless. Disney, along with all of us, just has to wait and see where this crisis leads.
And ten other things to watch, read, and play to help you lean into the dread.
Originally Appeared on GQ
