Disney Movie Delays May Be Coming Due to WGA and SAG Strikes
When the covid-19 pandemic
delayed the releases of major movies
, there was nothing the studios could do to stop it. Genuine health risks meant theaters had to close and without theaters, there wasn’t anywhere to screen new movies. N
ow
movie delays are starting to happen
again—
o
nly this time,
the studios could very easily solve it by coming to terms with the striking
WGA and SAG-AFTRA
unions, but are deciding
not to.
Days after the
upcoming Zendaya film
Challengers
moved from September 2023 to April 2024, and news broke that
Warner Bros
. was considering delaying
some of its upcoming films,
such as
Dune: Part Two,
Bloomberg
reports that
Disney is having
those same conversations. First, it’s
already moved the upcoming
Frankenstein
-inspired film
Poor Things
starring Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Dafoe from September 8 to December 8. Beyond that, the Mouse is reportedly considering delaying several other upcoming movies such as the animated film
Wish
, the Taika Waititi comedy
Next Goal Wins
, and Jonathan Majors’
Magazine Dreams
(which
has a whole other set of issues too
).
Those four, along with
Haunted Mansion,
Gareth Edwards’
The Creator,
Marvel Studios’
The Marvels
, and Kenneth Branagh’s
A Haunting in Venice
, comprise the rest of Disney’s 2023 schedule—
b
ut it seems like, with
Mansion
being released
this week, new
Marvels
and
Venice
trailers just coming out, and
Creator
being promoted at the recent San Diego
Comic-Con, maybe not everything moves.
That’s a lot to take in but here’s the biggest thing to remember: t
he studios are digging in their heels. Even a consideration of delays to ready-to-release movies (which has only happened in two cases so far,
to be clear) is an
acknowledgment that the studios don’t see an end to the strike for at least a few months,
and that they know they need the film’s actors to promote the movies to have any chance of success. Which, you’d
hope
, would be an incentive to be like,
“Hey, let’s figure this out, make everyone happy, and get back to business.” Only, this is the opposite. It’s studios saying “We’d rather do nothing and lose more money than give actors and writers a fair deal.”
Oh, and let’s not forget, back in June
Disney already delayed almost all
of its 2024 and 2025 movies because of the writer
s’ strike. The company was already looking ahead with a “fuck the workers” mentality. Now it’s just trickling down, and there’s no sense of how long it will continue.
We’ll keep an eye on these dates to see if or when any of them move. But for now,
it seems
the biggest
corporations are
getting ready for the long haul.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest
Marvel
,
Star Wars
, and
Star Trek
releases, what’s next for the
DC Universe
on film and TV
, and everything you need to know about the future of
Doctor Who
.
