Ryan Reynolds' action-comedy Free Guy has finally set a new release date, banking on the coronavirus pandemic to be over by May 2021. The movie is being released under the 20th Century Studios banner, formerly 20th Century Fox before the studio was bought by Disney, and has suffered several delays in 2020. The most recent release date was December 11, which Reynolds announced in a video mocking how it likely wouldn't make that date due to the coronavirus pandemic. That prediction turned out to be correct, with the movie subsequently getting pulled from the release schedule in November.
Directed by Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum, Stranger Things), Free Guy features Reynolds as Guy, an NPC in a video game who becomes self-aware. Realizing he's in a game after an encounter with Jodie Comer's (Killing Eve) player, called Molotov Girl, Guy sets out to save his city from being destroyed, becoming a folk hero in the process. Taika Waititi, Joe Keery, and Utkash Ambudkar round out the cast. The movie trailer teases an action-comedy romp typical of Reynolds' recent output, blending his Deadpool antics with video game Easter eggs and cameos in the style of Ready Player One.
Now, after going without a release date for over a month, Disney and 20th Century Studios announced today Free Guy is now hitting theaters on May 21, 2021. The new date puts Free Guy's release at the beginning of summer, at a time when most countries are hoping to have distributed the vaccine for the coronavirus widely enough to have reopened society, including movie theaters. If that is the case, the movie has a prime spot to take advantage of the blockbuster movie season.
Free Guy's new release date is almost a full year after its first, July 3rd, illustrating just how badly the movie's release plans have been affected by the pandemic. The new date is a sign Disney and 20th Century are confident in Free Guy's appeal, hoping its blend of action, humor, and star power, as well as its relevance to the massive video game community, will assure it of box office success. Hopefully, their prediction about the pandemic being over by early summer is correct, or the movie could face another delay.
Reynolds is keen to see the movie get released, having called it his favorite of all the films he's done. Whether it does see the light of day in May is, frustratingly, still up for debate, but there are no doubts fans will be eager to see what the movie is all about after all this time. Finally, Reynolds will be a Free Guy in just over five months, pandemic-pending.
Source: Disney
