Warner Bros. Delays ‘Dune’ to October of Next Year!

Hot off the industry-rattling news that the next James Bond film, No Time to Die, has been pushed off to 2021, Warner Bros. has announced that their highly-anticipated remake of Dune, directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Timothee Chalamet Oscar Isaac, and Zendaya, scheduled for December 18 of this year, is being delayed again—this time for a year.  

Originally slated to open in November, Dune’s release date had been moved several times due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the studio had finally settled on December 18. The move to 2021 is considered a response to the studio’s previously-announced shuffling of its release date for Wonder Woman 1984, their much-anticipated Patty Jenkins-directed superhero sequel, which was to be their summer tentpole, forced to move several times before settling on its current December 25 release date. Already wincing from poor box office results for their Christopher Nolan-directed, big budget, in-theatres-only Tenet, it was difficult to imagine Warner Bros. would put two of their biggest offerings against each other in December, so Dune drew the short straw and was the one forced to move.

According to Variety https://variety.com/2020/film/box-office/dune-release-date-delayed-2021-1234767105/, October 1, 2021 is the new date for Dune’s theatrical release, which happens to currently be the release date for another of Warner’s anticipated superhero films, The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson and directed by Matt Reeves, prompting speculation that we haven’t seen the last of the date-shuffling dance for the studio.