Disney, who at this point can control the release schedule of the entire film industry, upended a lot of scheduling cards today as it announced a slew of film releases and date changes for nearly all of their franchises. The announcements started with release date plans for two Star Wars movies, rolled into a slew of Marvel movies including Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, and even netted a release date for Fede Alvarez’s new Alien movie on August 16, 2024. The reasons for the date changes weren’t given, but most likely it has to do with the ongoing WGA writers strike as multiple films have had to go on pause in their productions because of it.
Possibly the most exciting of the announcements is the rescheduling and setting of dates for the return of Star Wars to the big screen. The franchise had been on hiatus from movie theaters after Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker sucked, but Disney is coming back hard with two Star Wars movies landing within five months of each other for 2026. Lucasfilm moved its previously scheduled December 2025 film to May 22, 2026, and then it surprisingly added a second Star Wars movie to the year with a release date of December 18, 2026. This is in addition to another Star Wars movie still scheduled for December 17, 2027. That’s an aggressive release schedule for a franchise put on ice in part because it was getting flooded with too much content and an industry still in the grips of a major strike.
Just what these films are isn’t clear, but they’re probably two of the films announced at Star Wars Celebration this year. Most likely the May 2026 movie will be the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey as that is the movie that is reportedly furthest along at the moment. The second film could either be Dave Filoni’s film focusing on the conclusion of his Disney+ shows’ storylines or James Mangold’s film. There’s also the Taika Waititi movie still in the works, though that one is especially unlikely given the radio silence on it.
