'Star Wars' closes in on 'Avatar'
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James Cameron’s long-awaited and oft-delayed follow-up to “Avatar” has been pushed back another year. “Avatar 2” will hit theaters on Dec. 17, 2021 instead of Dec. 18, 2020 as originally planned. Its move means that “Avatar 3” will open on Dec. 22, 2023 as opposed to Dec. 17, 2021 while “Avatar 4” will bow on Dec. 19, 2025 instead of Dec. 20, 2024. The news comes as part of a larger shift in release dates unveiled by Walt Disney Studios. The company is shifting around the debuts of various films it inherited after buying the bulk of 21st Century Fox’s film and television assets in a $71.3 billion mega-merger.
As part of the great release date shake-up, Disney announced that three new untitled Star Wars films will start hitting theaters in 2022. There will be two other follow-ups in 2024 and 2026.
As expected, the Buena Vista company also shifted the release date for “Ad Astra,” an astronaut drama starring Brad Pitt. It now debut Sept. 20, 2019, pushed back after getting no promotion ahead of its original Memorial Day Weekend 2019 slot. Other 2019 switches include Fox title “The New Mutants,” now dated for April 3, 2020, and “Artemis Fowel,” a YA adaptation, now dated for May 29, 2020.
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