Per Variety, Warner Bros. is postponing their entire slate of upcoming releases with Wonder Woman 1984 as its top priority. The superpowered sequel will be (hopefully) heading to theaters August 14. The rest of its new release block, including the highly anticipated stage-to-screen adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights, has been postponed without a new premiere date as of now. Other temporarily shelved titles include the animated Scoob and James Wan’s thriller, Malignant.
There has been some concern as to whether or not Warner Bros. would follow the alternative path set by other Hollywood studios and release some of their titles via VOD or dedicated streaming services. With Wonder Woman 1984—previously scheduled to fly into theaters June 5 after being pushed back from its original November 2019 release—being the only film with a firm box office premiere, the option is still theoretically on the table for the remaining benched films. Diana Prince, however, was always going to get the big screen treatment.
“When we greenlit Wonder Woman 1984, it was with every intention to be viewed on the big screen and are excited to announce that Warner Bros. Pictures will be bringing the film to theatres on Aug. 14,” Toby Emmerich, Warner Bros. Pictures Group chairman, explained in a statement released on Tuesday. “We hope the world will be in a safer and healthier place by then.”
While the news of In The Heights’ postponement doesn’t come as a real shock, it’s still a substantial blow to a fandom that has had to watch the long-gestating project sit in developmental purgatory since 2011. This block of delays is the first major indication that studios are not totally confident that theaters will reopen in June, per original predictions.
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It’s going to cost a ton of money to update it to 1985.
Oh man, I hope it doesn’t get pushed back so far that it has to take place in 2017, the same year the first movie came out! It’d be awkward for Diana to have to explain why there’s a movie about her.
I would HATE to be the exec who first suggested moving it from November 2019.
I had the same thought! “I know it’s finished, but it’s a surefire summer tentpole! Can’t go wrong with June!”
“I mean have you SEEN the trailers for Rise of Skywalker? It’s bound to unite the fanbase and be the biggest hit of the entire series. How can we possibly compete with that?”
Lin-Manuel Miranda already semi-commented on this — They aren’t finished with the music. They now can’t work on the music. He doesn’t want it released unfinished. I’m sure that’s part of the issue with not giving it a release. I also suspect if they’re happy with it, a potential awards push especially for the Golden Globes wouldn’t be off the table.
In The Heights: who outside of New Yawk City gives a shit about this flick? (No one.)