According to Comicbook.com, Disney just delayed a bunch of upcoming films.
Disney is having a rough go of things. It was only a few years ago when it looked like Disney was going to own everyone's collective imagination after the shrewd acquisitions of Marvel, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Fox. In addition to purchasing IPs left and right, when the company rolled out its Disney Plus platform in 2020, the House of Mouse felt like Thanos of the entertainment industry.
Flash forward to the present, and it has been revealed that Disney Plus has lost the company billions of dollars as well as 4 million subscribers this year. Shortly after that, CEO Bob Iger started a round of intense layoffs that cut 7,000 jobs. Disney's former infallible cash cow in the Marvel cinematic universe has earned a slew of negative reviews for phases four and five, as well as a few surprisingly weak box office returns. And let's not forget Lucasfilm's recent string of struggles with the ratings for Andor and reviews for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, showing a depressing trend for the once powerful studio.
Disney has seemingly directly reacted to the uncertain future by shifting a number of blockbuster projects over the course of the next decade. Among them are the next three Avatar films.
- Avatar 3 moves to December 19th, 2025
- Avatar 4 moves to December 21st, 2029
- Avatar 5 moves to December 19th, 2031
Avatar finds itself in a unique position. As of December 2022, producer Jon Landau revealed that they have already shot "95%" of Avatar 3 as well as the "first act" of the fourth film. Beyond that, the pentalogy has all three remaining scripts completed. It's unclear as to how much Avatar 3 is being impacted by the WGA strike and a potential SAG-AFTRA strike.
The galaxy far, far away is also pivoting. While no specific titles are known at this point, the next three Star Wars theatrical releases are moving to new dates.
- Untitled Star Wars movie moves to December 19th, 2025
- Untitled Star Wars movie moves to May 22nd, 2026
- Untitled Star Wars movie moves to December 18th, 2026
Beyond those two blockbuster franchises, Disney has also delayed seven upcoming Marvel films. This includes both Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars, which will now arrive in May 2026 and May 2027, respectively.
