Breaking: Disney Announces Release Dates for Three New 'Star Wars' Movies and Four 'Avatar' Sequels, Eight Marvel Films By 2022, more...

Disney made some big announcements today about the release of upcoming movies! First, James Cameron’s long-awaited “Avatar” sequel has been pushed back another year. “Avatar 2” will hit theaters on Dec. 17, 2021 instead of Dec. 18, 2020 as originally planned. That means that “Avatar 3” will open on Dec. 22, 2023 instead of Dec. 17, 2021, “Avatar 4” will be released on Dec. 19, 2025 instead of Dec. 20, 2024 and “Avatar 5” will hit theaters on Dec. 17, 2027.

In this great release date shake-up, Disney announced a new trio of untitled “Star Wars” movies coming after “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” released this December. The first of the new three films will hit the big screen on Dec. 16 2022. The two other follow-ups will be released always in Christmas season on Dec. 20, 2024 and Dec. 18, 2026, meaning that Disnye will dominate the holidays season for the near future, alternating between “Avatar” and “Star Wars” films every year up to 2027, starting in 2021. In 2020, Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” adaptation will open on Dec. 18, while “Cruella” will launch on Dec. 23 right before the Christmas weekend.

Following its box office mega hit of “Avengers: Endgame,” Disney announced that eight new Marvel movies will be released by the end of 2022. We'll be seeing two in 2020 (on May 1 and Nov. 6); three in 2021 (on Feb. 12, May 7 and Nov. 5); and three in 2022 (Feb. 18, May 6 and July 29). Most probably these movies will include a Black Panther sequel, a solo Black Widow movie, the second Dr. Strange movie, Guardians of the Galaxy 3, Shang-Chi and Eternals.

Disney has also adjusted some upcoming Marvel releases. Fox’s “The New Mutants,” an “X-Men” film is pushed back from Aug. 2, 2019 to April 3, 2020. “Gambit,” another Fox-owned “X-Men” entry, is removed from the studio’s schedule. The ill-fated Channing Tatum-led spinoff was previously announced for March 13, 2020.

The release date of “Ad Astra,” an astronaut drama starring Brad Pitt will now lift off Sept. 20, 2019. The movie had gotten essentially no promotion ahead of its original Memorial Day weekend slot, so a delay was all but inevitable. Meanwhile, “Artemis Fowl,” a YA adaptation, previously scheduled for Aug. 9, 2019, is now dated for May 29, 2020.