The Walt Disney Company is one of the biggest conglomerates in Hollywood, with dozens of movie studios under its umbrella. Disney currently holds full ownership over Lucasfilm’s ‘Star Wars,’ Marvel Studios’ Marvel Cinematic Universe, and all the 20th Century Studios’ franchises, including ‘Alien’ and James Cameron’s ‘Avatar.’
We still remember all the delays caused by the pandemic of COVID-19 back in 2020. Those delays were really a headache for movie studios, cinemas, and movie lovers in general. Three years later, we might have left the pandemic in the past (please, don’t ever come back), but a huge amount of movie delays is still very much a thing, as Disney proved just now.
Two ‘Star Wars’ movies will arrive in 2026!
Despite being one of the most popular franchises in pop culture, we haven’t seen any ‘Star Wars’ on the big screen since the conclusion of the Skywalker saga with ‘Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker’ in December 2019. Since then, Lucasfilm decided to focus more on TV shows that we have been watching on Disney+, and so far, we have watched three seasons of ‘The Mandalorian,‘ ‘The Book of Boba Fett,’ ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ and ‘Andor.’ And that’s just the live-action content we’re talking about.
It’s cool that we’re revisiting the ‘Star Wars’ universe through those TV shows, but let’s face it, we need ‘Star Wars’ back on the big screen, and we will finally get it in 2026. As announced at this year’s Star Wars Celebration Event, three brand-new movies are in development. One movie will follow the first Jedi ever, one will be a culmination of ‘The Mandalorian’ series and its spin-offs, and one will see the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey Skywalker after the events of ‘Episode IX’ as she’s trying to rebuild Jedi order.
Disney has announced three release dates for those movies, although we still don’t know for which movies each of those days is set. We can expect new ‘Star Wars’ movies in:
May 22, 2026
December 18, 2026
December 17, 2027
Do not expect ‘Avatar 5’ before 2031!
If you’re a fan of James Cameron’s ‘Avatar,’ we’re afraid we don’t have good news for you either. As we all know, the original movie was released in 2009. The sequel was originally set to arrive in 2014, but after countless delays, we finally watched ’Avatar: The Way of Water’ in theaters in December 2022, exactly 13 years after the premiere of the original.
After 13 years of waiting for the first sequel, we all hoped the waiting would be shorter for the three upcoming movies that James Cameron announced. And true, the waiting for them will be shorter than that, but still a lot longer than we anticipated. The next movie, currently untitled ‘Avatar 3,’ was set to arrive in December 2024, but now it will hit theaters one year later. And as for the final two movies, well, just look at the new release schedule below and see for yourself.
‘Avatar 3’ — December 19, 2025
‘Avatar 4’ — December 21, 2029
‘Avatar 5’ — December 19, 2031
There’s no doubt that we’ll get a lot of new blockbuster content from Disney in the coming years and decades as well. But tell me, has it ever happened that you know the exact release date for a movie that is set to arrive in eight years!?
As we wait (and grow old) waiting for new installments of ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Avatar,’ you can watch all the previous installments of these franchises on Disney+
