With their recent acquisition of 20th Century Fox, a year chock full of $1 billion-plus box-office hits, and the much-anticipated launch of streaming service Disney+ rolling out worldwide, we’re sure the execs at Walt Disney Studios are feeling pretty good about things right about now. So much so, in fact, that they’ve confidently announced a four-year schedule of release dates that reaches right up to the end of 2023.
There are a lot of as-yet-untitled movies on the list (via The DisInsider), including lots of spots for Fox-produced projects as well as several Disney animations and live-action films. But there are also spaces reserved for some of the House Of Mouse’s biggest franchises, teasing several big future releases.
First off, the elephant in the room: yes, The New Mutants is still on track to hit cinemas on 3 April 2020, meaning we’ll finally (finally!) get to see Josh Boone’s long-delayed superhero chiller – aka the last of the Fox-produced X-Men movies.
Speaking of superheroes, there’s also a whopping seven untitled Marvel movies on the cards, on top of the slew of Phase Four titles already in production – three films in 2022 and four in 2023. Presumably, some of those will be taken up with the announced but undated Ant-Man 3, Blade and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3, as well as a Captain Marvel sequel and maybe even an Avengers 5.
Moving away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Lucasfilm also has a couple of big-hitters in the mix. An Indiana Jones film has been scheduled for July 2021, suggesting that the mooted fifth franchise instalment could be entering production earlier than we thought (could it be the next project on Steven Spielberg’s plate after his West Side Story remake?), while an untitled Star Wars movie – potentially the first in Rian Johnson’s new trilogy – will hit cinemas on 16 December 2022.
In terms of mega-budget sci-fi spectacles, Disney has both Christmases either side of that covered, too, as it welcomes James Cameron and his giant blue aliens into the fold: Avatar 2 is on the list for 17 December 2021, with Avatar 3 scheduled for 22 December 2023.
We’ll bring you more on all of these new releases as we have it. In the meantime, you can read more about Marvel’s current Phase Four slate, as well as what the future of Star Wars has in store.
