Multiple blockbusters have been delayed due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with Warner Bros. doing most of the shuffling.
The studio has pushed a number of its tentpole franchise films. Godzilla vs. Kong has been pushed from its November 20, 2020 release date and will now arrive in cinemas on May 21, 2021 instead. This isn’t the first time the MonsterVerse mash-up has shifted its release date; the film was originally was scheduled for March 13, 2020 before being bumped to November 2020.
The studio has also delayed the highly anticipated Matrix 4, which originally occupied the May 2021 date Godzilla vs. Kong just took over. The film – directed by only Lana Wachowski, not in collaboration with her sister Lilly as the first three films were – will now hit cinemas on April 1, 2022.
On the superhero front, Wonder Woman 1984 has been pushed for the second time, from its already-rejigged August release date to Friday, October 2. The film would have been released this month in a normal year.
Warner Bros. has also finally delayed Christopher Nolan‘s Tenet, which was holding onto its release date with dear life. Fortunately for the film, this delay is only two weeks, from July 17 to Friday, July 31. The studio is still hoping the film is the first major blockbuster to arrive once cinemas re-open, but they’re giving themselves a little extra time just to be sure.
The National Alliance of Theater Owners predicts that 90% of cinemas worldwide will be open by mid-July, so the original Tenet release would have been cutting it a little close.
Away of Warner Bros., Universal has also delayed the Tom Hanks sci-fi drama Bios, a post-apocalyptic tale about a man, his dog, and a robot who become an unlikely family unit.
The film has been pushed back from an October release this year to April 16, 2021. Hanks plays a robotics engineer and one of the few survivors of a cataclysmic solar event that has left the world a wasteland.
So 2021 loses The Matrix 4, but gains Godzilla vs. Kong and Bios, confirming itself as an absolutely stacked movie year; if everything is back to relative normalcy, that is.
#Peace.Love.WarnerBros
