As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause chaos across the globe, several further projects have been put on hold due to the Coronavirus.
Since yesterday, there’s now word that Warner Bros. has halted production on The Batman and The Matrix 4, while Sony has similarly taken a break on its long-gestating Uncharted picture. Likewise, The WB has also moved to put Fantastic Beasts 3 on hold just days before that film was due to start shooting.
Over with the House of Mouse, Disney has put part of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on hold while director Destin Daniel Cretton awaits the results of a COVID-19 test. In this case, first unit production has completely stopped for now, although the movie’s second unit will still remain active.
On the Disney and Marvel front, it remains to be seen how the ongoing pandemic will affect Black Widow. The first solo film for Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha is still currently set for a May 1st release. Given how so many films have had their release date pulled or pushed back due to Coronavirus fears, it would seem extremely likely that something will happen with Black Widow. Whether that’s a small delay, whether that’s being pulled entirely from Disney’s release schedule for now, or whether that’s even the call to have the film head straight to Disney+, we’ll have to wait and see.
Other impending releases already pulled from their intended big-screen release dates include No Time to Die, A Quiet Place II and The New Mutants, while offerings such as Jurassic World: Dominion, Stranger Things 4, The Walking Dead, Midnight Mass, The Witcher, Supernatural, and Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley have all had their production halted for the foreseeable future.
These are unprecedented times right now, with a situation like this not seen in a generation. And as more and more COVID-19 precautions are implemented, it’s expected that so many other genre efforts will be affected as large gatherings are discouraged or outright axed by governments around the world.
From all of us here at STARBURST, please, stay safe out there.
