Disney: Star Wars and Avatar movies coming every Christmas until 2027
Apart from a break in 2020, the holidays will be dominated by Avatar and Star Wars sequels for almost a decade.
Star Wars Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker may be the end of the current Star Wars saga, but the Force will be back to entertain you during the holiday season again soon -- and for a long while to come.
Announcing an adjusted release schedule for the next few years, Disney has confirmed an as-yet untitled trio of Star Wars films will come out every other year starting in December 2022. We don't know if these are the Star Wars films reportedly being developed by Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, or the apparently separate stories from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
The updated Disney calendar now incorporates films produced by Fox, the movie studio Disney bought in March. Fox is producing four sequels to James's Cameron's Avatar, which have been pushed back from their original release dates to alternate each Christmas with the new Star Wars flicks.
Get ready for more Avatar -- a lot more.
In 2020, before the Avatar and Star Wars sagas begin again, Disney will still be in theaters at Christmas thanks to 101 Dalmatians reboot Cruella and Steven Spielberg's West Side Story remake.
Disney also announced new and adjusted release dates for various Marvel films, live action reboots and other productions. Among the changes to the Marvel-related lineup, the planned Gambit movie is finally dead while troubled X-Men flick New Mutants is delayed yet again to March 2020.
The Christmas schedule looks like this:
- 2019: Star Wars Episode 9 - The Rise of Skywalker
- 2020: Cruella and West Side Story
- 2021: Avatar 2
- 2022: Star Wars movie
- 2023: Avatar 3
- 2024: Star Wars movie
- 2025: Avatar 4
- 2026: Star Wars movie
- 2027: Avatar 5
Originally published 9:42 a.m. PT.