The King's Man, Matthew Vaughn's latest film in the Kingsman franchise, has had its release date delayed to 2021. The King's Man will be the third film in the popular series based on Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar's comic books of the same time. However, The King's Man isn't a direct follow up to 2017's Kingsman: The Golden Circle, but instead will be a prequel taking place roughly one hundred years before the original Kingsman film. The movie stars Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, and Rhys Ifans.
Like every other major film in 2020, The King's Man has been affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. While some parts of the world managed to reopen theaters several months ago, in the United States, many movie theater chains have only just started reopening. Several major cities, including Los Angeles and New York, still cannot reopen theaters because of state regulations. Considering those two cities make up a huge amount of new releases' ticket sales, studios' apprehension about releasing their big movies now is understandable.
Variety now reports The King's Man's release date has been moved to 2021. The film was set to be released on September 18, 2020, but will now come out on February 26, 2021. Disney also announced the Frances McDormand-lead film Nomadland has been pushed back to December 4, 2020. Meanwhile, Pixar's new film Luca will be released on June 18, 2021.
Unfortunately, this isn't the first time The King's Man has had its release delayed. The film's initial release date was actually November 15, 2019. It was delayed to February 14, 2020 and then delayed again to September. Its initial delay was due to Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox, which had an impact on many films. However, that move ended up being the wrong choice, as the The King's Man would have been unaffected by the coronavirus had it released last year.
Disney's choice to delay The King's Man isn't exactly surprising. The ongoing pandemic pretty much guarantees that new releases won't bring in the box office revenue they would have pre-COVID-19. On top of that, outside of a trailer and a few new photos, Disney hasn't been doing much to promote The King's Man. Out of all Disney's major fall 2020 releases, delaying The King's Man probably makes the most sense. Delaying the film to 2021 at least gives it enough time that, hopefully, things will be relatively under control once it releases. If all goes to plan, moviegoers will be able to see The King's Man in theaters February 2021.
Source: Variety