‘Aquaman 2’, ‘Shazam 2’ Delayed by Warner Bros. Discovery, ‘Evil Dead Rise’ Going Theatrical
More shakeups are happening at Warner Bros., as the studio has pushed Aquaman 2 into Christmas 2023 and Shazam 2 into March 2023.
Deadline was first to report the news, confirming that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will now hit theaters on December 25, 2023, with Shazam! Fury of the Gods grabbing its March 17, 2023, release. This puts the Zachary Levi-led superhero tentpole back in 2023 after spending some time on a Christmas 2022 release date, five days away from Avatar: The Way of Water. According to Deadline, the reason behind Aquaman‘s delay is that it needs more time in post-production.
This makes a lot of sense, as these are movies that rely on VFX for practically every shot of the movie, and given the current bottleneck effects houses are suffering due to the pandemic, it is logical that they decided to give it a little more time to breathe. It is also worth noting the movie will now come out a full year after its original release date, and is, once again, coming out after The Flash (which is keeping its June 23, 2023, release date for now). This is especially relevant as WB opted to replace Michael Keaton in a post-credits scene in the movie for Ben Affleck as test audiences were confused about what Keaton was doing in the DCEU continuity.
Borys Kit, from The Hollywood Reporter, tweeted out that, right now, the studio doesn’t have enough cash to release more than two high-budget movies this year (that may have prompted Shazam‘s delay). Those movies are Black Adam and Don’t Worry Darling, hitting theaters on October 21 and September 23 respectively.
More release shakeups at the David Zaslav-led studio include Calmatic’s low-budget House Party and Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise moving from HBO Max to a theatrical rollout, on December 9, 2022, and April 21, 2023. The Nun 2, from Michael Chaves, will now come out on September 8, 2023, and Salem’s Lot has gone to a TBD release date next year. Apparently, WB is also intending to release a yet-untitled event film on February 10, 2023.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
