In what can only be described as an act of sheer dominance, Disney announced a slew of release dates for upcoming films. And they weren’t satisfied to just highlight films coming out this year and next. No, they spilled the beans on their film slate all the way through 2027. That’s ridiculous. That’s ballsy. That’s excessive.
That’s Disney.
Let’s cut right to the chase: Disney DID reveal the dates for two of the biggest franchises: Star Wars and Avatar. Disney said it will release a new Star Wars film every other year on the weekend before Christmas starting in 2022. That means that after Rise of Skywalker we won’t be seeing a new SW film for three years. That feels…okay? Disney is being smart by slowing down the pace of those films. Too much of a good thing can be exhausting and make the movies seem less special. Surely the box office disappointment of Solo led them to this decision. Regardless, soak in all the Star Wars goodness you can this December because you won’t be seeing a galaxy far, far away for quite some time…aside from TV…and video games…and comic books.
Disney also confirmed the release dates for James Cameron’s anticipated (?) Avatar sequels. Those movies will start hitting screens in December 2021, one year later than expected. There are four — that’s right, FOUR — sequels in the works and we will get them every other year after 2021. So we will get an Avatar sequel one Christmas, then a Star Wars film for the next Christmas and so on and so forth until 2027. That’s a whole lot of blockbuster. Disney isn’t making it easy on movie theater employees.
I know people will be quick to make jokes about the Avatar sequels because the first movie came out ages ago and any excitement for the follow-ups seems to have died. But be careful doubting James Cameron, folks. The man has been written off multiple times before, only to come back stronger than ever and take the world by storm. Up until a few days ago, two of Cameron’s films were both the most successful and second-most successful films of all time. This is a guy you don’t want to bet against. It’s possible that the Avatar sequels might be huge failures but it’s also possible that they’ll smash records again and again. Stay tuned.
Here’s a list of ALL the Disney films announced today. That Fox merger sure seems like it’s paying off, huh?