Disney Postpones ‘Mulan’ and ‘French Dispatch’ Indefinitely, Moves All ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Avatar’ Films Back One Year
The release calendar is suddenly very different. No doubt kicked into action by the recent removal by Warner Bros. of Christopher Nolan’s much-hyped “Tenet” from the current schedule, Disney has now announced a slew of changes to its own calendar, including its own removal of dates for heavy-hitters like Niki Caro’s “Mulan” and Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch.” Both films are now listed as “unset” on the studio’s calendar, moving off August and October dates, respectively. “Mulan,” once set for a March release, has been steadily pushed back in recent months, moving from July to August, before this current removal.
That’s hardly all, however, as Disney has also moved back no less than six hotly anticipated franchise offerings, with all three planned “Avatar” sequels moving back a year (the first will now arrive in December of 2022, along with a trio of planned new “Star Wars” features, which will now roll out in 2023, 2025, and 2027. In June, “Avatar” director James Cameron and his crew re-started production on the epic adventure in New Zealand, despite drawing some ire from NZ brass.
Also of note: despite Disney currently holding a robust schedule of upcoming Marvel titles — including both “Black Widow” and “The Eternals,” both of which received new release dates earlier this year — today’s list of changes does not include any mention of MCU properties. Today’s announcement even came just as an “at-home” Comic-Con panel was kicking off for “The New Mutants,” another Marvel title that has been shoved around the release schedule, but is still targeting an August 28 release date. Today’s changes also do not include any mention of Pixar titles, like Pete Docter’s upcoming “Soul” or the four untitled Pixar features that have staked out dates through 2023.
The studio has also made some slight changes to other new features, with Kenneth Branagh’s “Death on the Nile” moving back two weeks, along with “The Personal History of David Copperfield” sliding out of mid-August and into a late August run. Ridley Scott’s Ben Affleck- and Matt Damon-starring “The Last Duel,” which had to stop production as the pandemic broke out, now moves from a December release to an October 2021 date.
The full list of changes to the Disney release calendar is available below.
THE EMPTY MAN (20th) previously dated on 8/7/20 moves to 12/4/20
THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD (Searchlight) previously dated on 8/14/20 moves to 8/28/20 (Limited)
MULAN (Disney) previously dated on 8/21/20 is now Unset
DEATH ON THE NILE (20th) previously dated on 10/9/20 moves to 10/23/20
THE FRENCH DISPATCH (Searchlight) previously dated on 10/16/20 is now Unset
THE LAST DUEL (20th) previously dated on 12/25/20 (Limited) and 1/8/21 (Wide) moves to 10/15/21
ANTLERS (Searchlight) is now dated on 2/19/21
UNTITLED 20TH CENTURY (20th) previously dated on 10/1/21 is removed from schedule
UNTITLED 20TH CENTURY (20th) previously dated on 10/22/21 is removed from schedule
UNTITLED DISNEY LIVE ACTION (Disney) previously dated on 11/19/21 moves to 12/17/21
AVATAR 2 (20th) previously dated on 12/17/21 moves to 12/16/22
AVATAR 3 (20th) previously dated on 12/22/23 moves to 12/20/24
AVATAR 4 (20th) previously dated on 12/19/25 moves to 12/18/26
AVATAR 5 (20th) previously dated on 12/17/27 moves to 12/22/28
UNTITLED STAR WARS (Disney) previously dated on 12/16/22 moves to 12/22/23
UNTITLED STAR WARS (Disney) previously dated on 12/20/24 moves to 12/19/25
UNTITLED STAR WARS (Disney) previously dated on 12/18/26 moves to 12/17/27
