Hollywood is being hit hard by the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, as not only are movies that were supposed to hit theaters being pushed back on the calendar, but projects in the midst of being brought to life have had to adjust their respective timetables. Case in point, Disney has announced that the live-action The Little Mermaid remake and six other movies have had their productions shut down.
Joining The Little Mermaid in being delayed are Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings, Home Alone, The Last Duel, Nightmare Alley, Peter Pan & Wendy and Shrunk. The latter two movies were in preproduction, while the others were either close to beginning principal photography or in the middle of it. Here’s what Disney said in a statement (via THR):
While there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 on our productions, after considering the current environment and the best interests of our cast and crew, we have made the decision to pause production on some of our live-action films for a short time. We will continue to assess the situation and restart as soon as feasible.
In the case of The Little Mermaid, it was supposed to begin filming in 10 days, but now it’s unclear when the live-action remake, or any of these other movies, will get the ball rolling again. We’d already heard last night that Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings had to press the pause button due to director Destin Daniel Cretton needing to isolate himself after getting tested for the coronavirus, but it’s abundantly clear that this is affecting many corners of the Disney media space.
For movies like The Little Mermaid, which haven’t publicly announced a release date yet, we’re in the dark about if the production shutdown will result in it coming out as originally planned in the minds of the Disney executives or it will arrive a little later. For something like Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings, which is set for release on February 2021, it’s entirely possible that they’ll need to delayed to compensate for what’s happened.
Among the Disney-related movies that have already been completed, but will take longer to hit theaters are Mulan, The New Mutants and Antlers. Mulan was set to drop at the end of the month, while the latter two were going to arrive in April. This is the fifth time that The New Mutants has been delayed, with it originally supposed to come out two years ago. Black Widow and Artemis Fowl are still scheduled for May, but it’s possible that could also be pushed back.
Outside of the Disney sphere, other movies have have halted production include Mission: Impossible 7 and Elvis, with the latter being necessary due to one of its stars, Tom Hanks, and his wife Rita Wilson both tested positive for the coronavirus. You’ll also have to wait longer for movies like No Time to Die and Fast & Furious 9 to come out.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on how the coronavirus outbreak is affecting the film and TV industries. In the meantime, keep track of the movies still set to hit theaters later this year with our 2020 release schedule.
