As this absolute dumpster fire of a year draws to a close, it can safely be said that the current hottest trend in Hollywood is studios stepping up to the microphone to state the blindingly obvious: basically all of their projected movie release dates are changing around because the pandemic’s brought productions to a halt and it’s still unclear when it’ll be safe to go to theatres.
By pushing Dune’s release date back from December 18 of this year to October 1, 2021, Warner Bros. created something of a problem for itself, as October 1 was originally meant to be the the day Matt Reeves’ The Batman hit theatres. According to the Hollywood Reporter, the studio has now resolved to push The Batman all the way back to March 4. 2022.
The Batman won’t be the studio’s only comic book movie fans have to wait a bit longer to see than originally anticipated, as The Flash has now been bumped to November 4, 2022 (originally June 3, 2022); Shazam! Fury of the Gods has been bumped to June 2, 2023 (originally November 4, 2022); and Black Adam’s been moved off the calendar entirely. Interestingly, the premiere for Lana Wachowski’s upcoming fourth instalment in The Matrix franchise has been pushed up by a hair to Dec. 22, 2021 from April 1, 2022 — but all of this is working on the assumption that things will go according to Warner Bros.’ carefully laid plans, which might not end up being the case.
[referenced id=”1516555″ url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2020/10/report-denis-villeneuves-dune-has-been-moved-to-2021/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/06/nnvkwnasezp7gxoisqww-300×168.jpg” title=”Report: Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Has Been Moved to 2021″ excerpt=”The spice isn’t flowing quite yet. Collider is reporting that Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Dune has been postponed to October 2021, making it the latest film to see a delay because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.”]
Drastic as these delays might seem on paper, they make perfect sense given the degree to which the covid-19 pandemic has brought the industry to its knees on multiple fronts, and there’s no telling if and when things are going to get back to being anything like “normal.” There isn’t really all that much that the studios can do at this point other than to let the public know that these movies are all going to come out…eventually, but much of when these productions can truly kick off at a clip is simply out of the studios’ hands.
[referenced id=”1514488″ url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2020/09/the-rocks-black-adam-will-be-joined-by-aldis-hodge-as-dcs-hawkman/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/26/sgb1c7equfcod0duawp8-300×169.jpg” title=”The Rock’s Black Adam Will Be Joined by Aldis Hodge as DC’s Hawkman” excerpt=”Actor Aldis Hodge is going from fighting The Invisible Man to becoming Hawkman. Hodge is in final negotiations to play the flying DC superhero, a member of the Justice Society, in the upcoming Black Adam movie starring Dwayne Johnson. Jaume Collet-Serra is directing with a cast that also includes Noah…”]
Editor’s Note: These release dates are yet to be adjusted for Australia, but should land within the same week locally.