Disney Delays Its Summer Blockbuster, Dramatically Altering Its Future Movie Slate

The nightmare is over. After months of fighting, the actor and the studios have finally come to an agreement. SAG-AFTRA now joins the WGA in heading back to work. And so that’s it. Hollywood will return to work, and everything will return to normal, right?

Related: Are We Witnessing the End of Disney’s Marvel? 

Not exactly. After months of fighting, there is still some bitterness on both sides, especially by the actors toward Disney CEO Bob Iger, who was critical of the actor’s strike.

But making movies is a lot like piloting a large tanker ship. Once it stops, it takes some time to get it going again. And now, Walt Disney Studios is finding out just how difficult it is to get things going again.

Disney has already announced that it was delaying its live-action Snow White starring Rachel Zegler. But that had less to do with the actor’s strike and more with the multiple controversies the movie has faced over the last year. 

But now, the effects of the SAG-AFTRA strike are starting to come into focus for Disney. Disney Studios announced yesterday that it would delay its biggest summer blockbuster, drastically altering Disney and Marvel’s release schedule for the next year and a half.

Disney will delay Deadpool 3, Captain America: Brave New World, Marvel’s Thunderbolts, Blade, and Mufasa: The Lion King. The change in Deadpool 3 has sent ripple effects through Disney’s release schedule and has now left Memorial Day weekend and much of May vacant of a Disney or Marvel film.

In the past, Disney has used the first weekend in May to launch its first blockbuster of the summer, using that weekend to debut Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) in the past two years. Disney’s only big release for May will be 20th Century Fox’s Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. 

Deadpool 3 has moved from May 3, 2024, to July 26, 2024, the slot that Captain America once occupied: Brave New World, which has now moved to February 14, 2025. This move has caused a ripple effect in the release dates for Marvel’s new films. Marvel’s Thunderbolts has moved from December 20, 2024, to July 25, 2025, and the Blade reboot has moved from February 15, 2025, to November 7, 2025.

Ironically enough, of the films Disney has chosen to delay, only Captain America has already completed shooting before the strike. Deadpool 3 began production but was shut down during the strike, and Thunderbolts and Blade have not started production. With the delays, Deadpool is now the only Marvel Studios film to hit theaters in 2024.

Besides delaying its Marvel slate, Disney Studios also delayed its live-action prequel to The Lion King (2019), Mufasa: The Lion King. It will now move from July 5, 2024, to December 20, 2024, the slot once occupied by Marvel’s Thunderbolt. Disney also chose to vacate two dates, July 25, 2025, and November 7, 2025.

Disney did not make any announcement regarding the new Star Wars films due to be released in 2026. Pixar will release its latest film in June 2024, Inside Out 2. Disney also did not make any announcement regarding the future of Jonathan Majors role in the MCU. Majors was arrested for domestic violence earlier this year.

We will continue to update this story at Disney Fanatic.