Walt Disney Co. overhauled its schedule of film releases for the second time in two weeks, announcing delays of several pictures following the settlement of an industrywide contract dispute with striking actors.
The third Deadpool film, originally slated for theaters in May 2024, will be released instead in July, while the fourth Captain America picture was pushed from July of that year to February 2025, Disney said Thursday in an email.
The Screen Actors Guild reached a tentative deal with Hollywood studios this week, ending a months-long walkout and enabling stars to again promote new titles. Along with a strike by writers that was settled earlier, the dispute had largely halted production of movies and TV shows since May.
Thunderbolts and Blade, two movies in the Marvel superhero franchise, will move from December 2024 to July 2025 and from February 2025 to November 2025, respectively. Mufasa: The Lion King moves from July 2024 to December 2024, and two untitled films were removed from Disney’s calendar altogether.
Disney is among several studios, including Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures, that have rescheduled films in the wake of the labor unrest. The changes also coincide with disappointing results from Disney’s movie division, which suffered a loss in the fiscal fourth-quarter results that the company reported Wednesday.
Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger, who returned to lead Disney last November, said on a conference call with investors that he was spending more time addressing issues at the film studio.
On Oct. 27, Disney dropped a Pixar film from its calendar and delayed its live-action Snow White picture by a year, to 2025.
It’s the third time this year that the company’s made major changes to its release schedule, having earlier pushed back Star Wars and Avatar films to as late as 2031.
