Disney announces new Star Wars films, pushes Avatar sequels back

Now armed with the upcoming releases of 20th Century Fox, the Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday set forth a shock-and-awe release schedule spanning the next eight years, including the yet-again-postponed Avatarsequels, a new batch of Star Warsreleases and Steven Spielberg's West Side Storyadaptation.

Since Disney's $71.3 billion USacquisition of Fox was completed in March, the studio hadn't budged on the listed release dates of a number of Fox releases, even as it was increasingly apparent to the industry that high-profile upcoming films were sure to be delayed under the Disney shake-up.

But the most notable delay announced Tuesday was a familiar one: The long wait for more Avatarfilms will go on a little longer.

Canadian filmmaker James Cameron's long-delayed Avatar 2will now open in theaters on December 17, 2021, instead of its most recent date of December 18, 2020 which itself followed numerous already scrapped release dates. The subsequent Avatarsequels have moved to 2023, 2025 and 2027, respectively.

Cameron tweeted his films' new dates Tuesday, commenting on the movie's progress.

Cameron's original Avatarcame out in 2009. Disney's Avengers: Endgameis currently approaching the film's $2.8 billion USbox-office record with $2.2 billion USin worldwide ticket sales after less than two weeks of release.

Disney previously dated eight Marvel movies over the next three and a half years, though it's yet to map out its post-Endgamecinematic universe.

Disney also dated three untitled Star Warsfilms to arrive in theatres in 2022, 2024 and 2026. The company hasn't revealed details of those projects. Star Wars: The Last Jedidirector Rian Johnson is developing a new trilogy for the space saga.

That means that Disney, which this December will release Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,is set to rule the next nine Christmas box office seasons with either an Avataror a Star Warsmovie, except for one. For the lone exception, December 2020, the company has dated Steven Spielberg's West Side Story forDec. 18and Cruellafor Dec. 23, a Cruella De Vil origin story starring Emma Stone.

As expected, a number of upcoming Fox films were delayed. James Grey's science-fiction tale Ad Astra,with Brad Pitt, has been pushed from May 24 to September 20. The New Mutants,an X-Menmovie, was pushed from this summer to April next year. The X-Menspinoff Gambithas been removed entirely. The YA adaptation Artemis Fowlmoved from this August to next May.

Disney is already poised for a summer string of blockbusters including Aladdin,Toy Story 4and The Lion King.

"With a strong summer already in place, we are eager to carry that momentum forward over the coming years thanks to a creative wellspring of bold and imaginative stories coming from our world-class studios," Cathleen Taft, head of distribution for Disney, said in a statement.