The Walt Disney Co. has further postponed its next mega-movies from Marvel, including Black Widow, while also postponing Steven Spielberg's West Side Story a full year in the company's latest recalibration due to the pandemic.
Ten of Disney's top films shuffled release dates Wednesday, uprooting several of the company's major fall releases. The Scarlett Johansson Marvel movie Black Widow, last set for November 6, heads to May 7 of next year.
Instead of opening next month, Kenneth Branagh's murder mystery Death On The Nile moves to Dec. 18. That was the date set for West Side Story, but Spielberg's musical will instead debut in December 2021. Disney didn't entirely abandon the season. The Pixar release Soul remains on the calendar for late November
The Empty Man, a horror release from the former 20th Century Fox, is moving up from December to October 23.
Given the interconnected nature of Marvel releases, the latest delay of Black Widow had a domino effect on other films. Destin Daniel Cretton's Shang Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, starring Simu Liu as the martial arts hero, is now slated for July 9, 2021, instead of May 7. Chloé Zhao's Eternals, with Angelina Jolie, Gemma Chan and Kumail Nanjiani, moves from February to Nov 5, 2021.
"Marvel made the right and responsible decision, ” Nanjiani said on Twitter. "There’s a pandemic. Nothing is more important than health and lives. I can’t tell people to go to a movie theatre until I feel safe going to one.” – AP
Already a subscriber? Log in
Get 20% OFF The Star Digital Access
Cancel anytime. Ad-free. Unlimited access with perks.
