Christopher Nolan’s Tenet Has Officially Been Delayed

John David Washington in Tenet

With the current health crisis having wreaked havoc on the film release schedule, there’s been one question repeatedly brought up: will Tenet keep its release date? The latest Christopher Nolan movie has been settled on July 17 for a long time, and up until now, the plan was to stay the course on a mid-July release. However, now it’s been announced that Tenet will indeed be delayed, though only by a little bit.

Warner Bros has revealed that Tenet will now come out on July 31, a date previously occupied by Sony’s Morbius., and the movie itself will be accompanied by an exclusive sneak peek of select films on the WB slate. However, there will still be some Christopher Nolan content to enjoy on the big screen come July 17, as Inception is being re-released to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

Toby Emmerich, the Chairman of Warner Bros Pictures Group, had the following to say about Tenet's new date and the re-release of Inception:

We’re especially thrilled, in this complex and rapidly changing environment, to be bringing Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, a global tentpole of jaw-dropping size, scope and scale, to theaters around the world on July 31. It’s been longer than any of us could’ve imagined since we’ve seen a movie on the big screen, and to acknowledge Chris’ fans as we count down to Tenet’s opening day, we are also excited to offer his masterpiece Inception in theaters for its 10th anniversary on July 17.

Here’s what the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) had to say about Tenet being pushed back two weeks:

We are excited that our partners at Warner Bros. will offer a new generation of film fans the opportunity to enjoy Inception the way it was originally intended to be seen - on the big screen. Over these last months we have been keeping Warner Bros. closely informed of our work towards reopening our theatres in accordance with governmental health and safety requirements, and we are looking forward to audiences enjoying Tenet in our theatres all around the world on July 31st.

So there you have it. Tenet is not sticking to a July 17 release, nor is it being pushed back as far as December or even into 2021. With theaters across the country starting to open back up, evidently Warner Bros felt confident in pushing back Tenet back just a couple weeks for audiences to check out right before August kicks off.

However, keep in mind that there’s the possibility Tenet could be delayed again. There’s still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the 2020 film schedule even with some theaters opening up their doors again. With the health crisis continuing to loom large in our lives, it’s possible that could affect studios’ plans to screen features in the latter half of the year, resulting in Tenet and plenty of other movies needing to be pushed further back.

For now though, not only can moviegoers look forward to Tenet in the final chunk of this summer, but if they have the inclination, they can also check out Inception in a theatrical setting inTenet’s old slot. Other major Warner Bros films that are set to come out later this year include Wonder Woman 1984 (which had been pushed from June 5 to August 14, and has now been moved to October 2), Godzilla vs. Kong and Dune.

Made off a reported budget of over $200 million, Tenet follows a secret agent and his allies fighting to prevent World War III and the triggering of something worse than a nuclear holocaust. Their mission won’t involve full-fledged time travel, but rather a strange phenomenon known as time inversion. The cast includes John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh, Dimple Kapadia and Aaron Taylor-Johnson, among others.

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Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.