You don’t move a film like Black Widow to a day-and-date release in July without causing some ripple effects, and Disney wasted no time in making them public. So let’s get to the biggest one, which is that Cruella, which stars Emma Stone as a younger version of the Disney villainess, will now open in theaters and Disney+ Premier Access on May 28th.
Also seeing a major shift is the Pixar film Luca, which is being released similar to Soul in that it’ll be a straight Disney+ release only, no theatrical and no extra fee for subscribers.
Other changes include the Ryan Reynolds video game comedy Free Guy, which will open theatrically on August 13th. The King’s Man, the Kingsman prequel starring Ralph Fiennes, arrives on December 22nd. Deep Water, which stars Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas, heads to 2022 on January 14th, while Kenneth Branagh’s sequel Death On the Nile sets sail on February 11th 2022.
Also, now that Black Widow has taken its July slot, Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has found a new home on Labor Day weekend, September 3rd. Historically, that’s one of the worst weekend dates of the movie year. I don’t know if we should read anything into that or not, but the mighty Marvel machine is undefeated and historical trend rarely applies.
