Disney announces dates for new Star Wars movies, MCU Phase 4, and more
Disney, having consumed the past, present, and future of 20th Century Fox earlier this year, has plans for the next seven years. Have you thought about 2027? One of the biggest media companies on the planet has, because that’s when Avatar 5 comes out. Avatar 5!
In a major land grab, Disney announced on Tuesday all of its release day plans for the next seven years. Here’s the major news:
The next Star Wars movie arrives in 2022
After making clear that the Star Wars movies were “on hiatus” after this December’s The Rise of Skywalker, Disney confirmed with the release schedule that fans would get another sequel — or new trilogy kickoff — in three years. Whether that’s Rian Johnson’s trilogy or whatever Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are cooking up is unknown. But per Disney’s announcement, the film will kickoff “three new as-yet-untitled Star Wars films will release on the pre-Christmas weekend every other year beginning in 2022.”
Marvel has Phase 4 plans for 2020 and beyond
Marvel Studios’ post-Endgame releases are technically unknown, but we know Phase 4 movies include a Black Widow standalone, an adaptation of Eternals, a Shang-Chi movie, and Black Panther 2. Marvel has two 2020 movies on the calendar, slated for May 1, 2020 and November 6, 2020, and three untitled films planned for both 2021 and 2022. With writer-director James Gunn booked for Suicide Squad in the immediate future, expect Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 to take one of the late dates.
The next Disney live-action remakes are revealed
Disney packed 2019 full of animation-to-IRL conversions, even following Lion King with Maleficent: Mistress of Evil into the mix on Nov. 10, 2019. The schedule reveals what’s next: Mulan, set for March 27, 2020, and Cruella, a 101 Dalmatiens redux starring Emma Stone, dated for Dec. 23, 2020. Disney has eight “untitled live-action” projects sprinkled throughout 2021 and 2022, many expected to follow suit in adapting well-known animated works.
New Pixar movies remain a mystery
Pixar announced the company’s next, original project, Onward, in late 2018. Other than, we know nothing — and continue to know nothing. Based on the last decade of production, sequels to the animation studio’s hits seem likely. Inside Out 2? CoCtwo? Wall-F? 2020 will see two new Pixar films, followed by a single release in 2021, and another double serving in 2022.
The new Indiana Jones movie has a release date
Steven Spielberg announced his involvement with Indiana Jones 5 in 2016, with an expected release of 2019. That didn’t happen, but the director does intend to make the movie with Harrison Ford. It’s officially on Disney’s calendar for July 9, 2021.
Ferdia Shaw as Artemis Fowl
Walt Disney Studios
Artemis Fowl gets a release date shift
The highly anticipated YA adaptation from director Kenneth Branagh won’t hit theaters in 2019 as expected. After sitting in an August slot for more than a year, Disney has kicked the movie to May 29, 2020.
The New Mutants has a new release date ... again
The X-Men horror movie, shuffled around time and time again at 20th Century Fox, has yet another new release date, having been bumped from this August’s calendar. The movie, which stars Game of Thrones actress Maisie Williams, will bow on April 3, 2020, in theory.
The Kingsman prequel is still happening
A holdover from Fox, the announcement revealed that the third movie in Matthew Vaughn and Mark Millar’s series remains on track for a Feb. 2, 2020 release.
Blue Sky Animation will continue production on Nimona
Disney now owns Pixar, Walt Disney Animation, and Blue Sky, the company behind Ice Age and this year’s wild-looking Will Smith animated film Spies in Disguise. Thankfully, the studio will remain active after the acquisition; Blue Sky’s Nimona, an adaptation of Noelle Stevenson’s graphic novel, is slated for March 5, 2021.
Disney will release a new Avatar movie every two years through 2027
James Cameron’s plans to extend his CG spectacle into a five-film series holds after the Fox merger, with the first still set for Dec. 17, 2021. Whether the continued releases are dependent on the success of the sequel is unclear, but for now, we’ll return to Pandora every Christmas for the next decade, and with an ensemble of new Na’vi and human characters.