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Disney announces a new Star Wars movie, and delays Marvel's Phase 5 and Phase 6 plans as well

It's all change for the Disney release schedule for the next few years

Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker
Image credit: Lucasfilm

When it comes to Disney, everything is moving. According to Variety, The Walt Disney Company has announced a significant reshuffle of its upcoming releases, with multiple Marvel movies changing dates, future Avatar movies being delayed, and the addition of an entirely new Star Wars movie three years from now.

The new Star Wars movie, which has been scheduled for December 18, 2026, is seemingly in addition to two already scheduled Star Wars movies, which were previously announced for May 22, 2026, and December 17, 2027. It’s unclear as of now as writing whether or not Disney intends for three Star Wars movies to be released in a two-year window, or whether there will be further date changes; it’s also unclear just what these three Star Wars movies actually are, although three new movies were announced at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London earlier this year, without titles or release dates. The logical assumption would be that each of the 2026 and 2027 movies will match up with these new announcements, although when it comes to Star Wars, assumptions have a way of being subverted; remember the 2020 announcement of Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron movie, which would go on to be cancelled a couple of years later…?

(There are, of course, a number of Star Wars movies in the works in various stages.)

Outside of Star Wars, Disney has also significantly revised the Marvel release schedule: Captain America: Brave New World has been pushed from May 3, 2024 to August 26 of that year, which in turn pushes Thunderbolts from July 26 2024 to December 20, 2024. Blade has moved from September 6, 2024 to February 14, 2025, with Fantastic Four moving from its original February 14, 2025 date to May 2, 2025. That was the original release date for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, which has now been pushed out an entire year, and will now be released on May 1, 2026.

What this means for the scheduled, yet untitled Marvel movies dated for July 25, 2025, November 7, 2025, and February 13, 2026, is unknown right now. Presumably, they were intended to take place between The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars — which has now been moved until May 7, 2027 — but if The Kang Dynasty has been pushed out a year, does that mean every other Marvel movie just pauses for twelve months…?

It’s not all bad news, though; Deadpool 3 has reportedly been moved up on the schedule, coming out six months earlier on May 3, 2024 in the old Captain America: Brave New World slot.

Other changes include Avatar 3 being pushed to December 19, 2025, which has a knock-on effect of pushing Avatar 4 to December 21, 2029, and Avatar 5 to December 19. 2031. Yes, that’s right: 2031. Additionally, the live-action remake of Moana has been added to the schedule for June 27, 2025.


Keep up to date with all the upcoming superhero movies on our calendar of upcoming releases.

Graeme McMillan

Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.

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