Massive Movie Delays Announced

Star Wars and Avatar Release Dates Are Pushed Back

Bad news for film fans everywhere as two of next years biggest releases are delayed. We found out on Wednesday that Star Wars Episode VIII, originally due for release on 26 May 2017, is now set to be released on 15 December 2017 and Disney are instead going to replace it with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the next film in the increasingly tiresome franchise. Disney has given no official reason for the delay, although it is thought that the extra seven months are to allow for script rewrites in order to let the film focus more on the new characters.

Also, the first of the trilogy of sequels to the popular 2009 movie, Avatar, has been delayed, with no new release date announced yet. The film was due for release in December 2017, after several previous delays, but is now predicted to be released in the summer of 2018. With rumours of Avatar possibly not making its 2017 deadline, Disney may have postponed the release of their film to coincide with Christmas as the December release date last year seemed very popular and was a financial succes.

With the extra seven months Disney has to play with before Star Wars comes out, publicity and anticipation can only build up excitement and increase fans' eagerness to see it, but with the years of delays for Avatar 2 (and beyond), excitement may not be so obvious for fears of more delays.