By Movies, right? So many of them. With Disney apparently buying the whole freaking industry at this rate, there will be a comical number of films coming out under their many labels. After their purchase of 21st Century Fox, Disney’s schedule of films became more of a puzzle, cleaning house of a number of projects in development. That puzzle appears to have been solved, with Disney unveiling their full post-Fox line-up of films.
With franchises like the MCU, Star Wars, and now Avatar and X-Men now under their belt, you can bet that Disney will do everything to capitalize on those properties. It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that Marvel Studios will continue to have two to three films every year, but while their release dates are set up until 2022, we are unsure exactly which of those titles will be. The projects that currently have creators behind them are Black Widow (which nabbed David Harbour), the Angelina Jolie and Kumail Nanjiani-starring The Eternals, Shang-Chi, and now Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, so time will tell which slots those films will take.
Fox’s X-Men series is being sunset off—Dark Phoenix will meet its June 2019 release date, while The New Mutants has once again been delayed, this time to April 3, 2020. For reference, the trailer for the latter movie came out in October of 2017, with an original release window of April 2018. Think back to how different a person you were back in October 2017. Also, Gambit is nowhere to be found, so Disney may have finally smothered the Channing Tatum project in its sleep.
Yes, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker may be the last of the Skywalker saga, but no one’s ever really gone. Disney has reserved three spots for future Star Wars films coming every other holiday season starting 2022 (making for a three-year break from theaters), and presumably none of them are a Boba Fett film. Whether they’re Rian Johnson’s movies or something else is entirely unknown. The Avatar sequels have been moved around, and will now come in between those Star Wars films every other year, ensuring that every holiday season from 2021 to 2027 (staring with Avatar) will be a giant box office bonanza for Disney.
Also worth mentioning is the delay of Sir Kenneth Branagh’s Artemis Fowl adaptation, which now joins the club of movies I think will never actually come out. Less of an extreme delay is the James Gray-directed and Brad Pitt-starring sci-fi movie Ad Astra, moving from this month to September. As announced previously, production on the Fox film Mouse Guard has been canceled. And while I have searched long and far for them for nearly two minutes, I was unable to find release dates for Noah Hawley’s astronaut drama Lucy in the Sky and Taika Waititi’s imaginary Hitler comedy Jojo Rabbit, both being Fox Searchlight joints.
Cathleen Taff, President of Theatrical Distribution, Franchise Management, and Business & Audience Insights at The Walt Disney Studios, which could very well be the longest and most monotonous title in the industry, released the following statement:
“We’re excited to put in place a robust and diverse slate that lays the foundation of our long-term strategy, bringing together a breadth of films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, Fox, Fox Searchlight, and Blue Sky Studios to create an extraordinary collection of cinematic experiences for audiences around the world. With a strong summer already in place, we are eager to carry that momentum forward over the coming years thanks to a creative wellspring of bold and imaginative stories coming from our world-class studios – including several new chapters of two revered franchises, Avatar and Star Wars.”
In other words, get ready to give them your money.
The full schedule, which may or may not give you some form of vertigo, is below.
Aladdin: May 24, 2019
Dark Phoenix: June 7, 2019
Toy Story 4: June 21, 2019
Stuber: July 12, 2019
The Lion King: July 19, 2019
The Art of Racing in the Rain: Aug. 9, 2019
Ready or Not: Aug. 23, 2019
Ad Astra: Sep. 20, 2019
The Woman in the Window: Oct. 4, 2019
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil: Oct. 18, 2019
Ford V. Ferrari: Nov. 15, 2019
Frozen 2: Nov. 22, 2019
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: Dec. 20, 2019
Spies in Disguise: Christmas 2019
Underwater: Jan. 10, 2020
Untitled Kingsman movie: Feb. 14, 2020
Call of the Wild: Feb. 21, 2020
Onward: March 6, 2020
Mulan: March 27, 2020
The New Mutants: April 3, 2020
Untitled Disney Marvel: May 1, 2020
Artemis Fowl: May 29, 2020
Untitled Pixar movie: June 19, 2020
Free Guy: July 3, 2020
Bob’s Burgers: July 17, 2020
Jungle Cruise: July 24, 2020
The One and Only Ivan: Aug. 14, 2020
Death on the Nile: Oct. 19, 2020
Untitled Disney Marvel movie: Nov. 16, 2020
Ron’s Gone Wrong: Nov. 6, 2020
Untitled Disney animation movie: Nov. 25, 2020
West Side Story: Dec. 18, 2020
Cruella: Dec. 23, 2020
Untitled Disney Marvel movie: Feb. 12, 2021
Nimona: March 5, 2021
Untitled Disney live-action movie: March 12, 2021
Untitled Marvel movie: May 7, 2021
Untitled Disney live-action movie: May 28, 2021
Untitled Pixar movie: June 18, 2021
Untitled Indiana Jones: July 9, 2021
Untitled Disney live-action movie: July 30, 2021
Untitled Disney live-action movie: Oct. 8, 2021
Untitled Disney Marvel movie: Nov. 5, 2021
Untitled Disney animation: Nov. 24, 2021
Avatar 2: Dec. 17, 2021
Untitled Disney Marvel movie: Feb. 18, 2022
Untitled Pixar movie: March 18, 2022
Untitled Disney Marvel movie: May 6, 2022
Untitled Disney live-action movie: May 27, 2022
Untitled Pixar movie: June 17, 2022
Untitled Disney live-action movie: July 8, 2022
Untitled Disney Marvel movie: July 29, 2022
Untitled Disney live-action movie: Oct. 7, 2022
Untitled Disney live-action movie: Nov. 4, 2022
Untitled Disney animation: Nov. 23, 2022
Untitled Star Wars movie: Dec. 16, 2022
Untitled Disney live-action movie: Feb. 17, 2023
Avatar 3: Dec. 22, 2023
Untitled Star Wars movie: Dec. 20, 2024
Avatar 4: Dec. 19, 2025
Untitled Star Wars movie: Dec. 18, 2026
Avatar 5: Dec. 17, 2027
New Mutants, Ad Astra, other Fox films get new release dates post-Disney merger [EW]