Disney has a large collection of popular animated movies, and in recent years, the studio has been building a ready groove of adapting many of these stories into live action. The most recent one of these was Beauty and the Beast, which came out in March of last year and went on to become the second highest-grossing movie of the year globally, trailing behind Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Among the numerous live action adaptations that are currently in development is Mulan, but fans of the original 1998 animated movie will have to wait even longer to see the remake, as it's now been rescheduled for March 27, 2020.
The live action Mulan movie was originally supposed to be released on November 2, 2018, but last summer it was removed from that spot and Disney put The Nutcracker and the Four Realms in its place. It's been undated since then, but today Disney announced (via Exhibitor Relations) that Mulan will now arrive in late March of 2020. The only other movie that's currently scheduled for that opening weekend is Paramount Pictures' G.I. Joe reboot. However, assuming Mulan is made to be family-friendly like the other recent Disney remakes, this will be the one that moviegoers both young and old can enjoy.
The live action Mulan movie first entered into development back in 2015, and in February 2017, it was announced that The Zookeeper's Wife director Niki Caro will helm the remake, making her the third woman to direct a movie with a budget over $100 million, following behind Patty Jenkins and Ava Duvernay. As for who will play the eponymous heroine, after a year of searching for the right actress, that honor went to Liu Yifei, a.k.a. Crystal Liu, last November, whose is probably best known to American audiences from Ip Man 3 and The Forbidden Kingdom. Because Mulan has been pushed back, it may be a while until we learn who Yifei's costars are, but at least now Caro and her team have more time to select the right people for these roles.
Disney's live action remakes vary between being direct, straightforward adaptations and taking many creative liberties with the source material, and from what's been revealed about Mulan so far, it will fall into the former category. That being said, while Niki Caro has confirmed that music will play an important role in this Mulan movie, it remains to be seen if it will still be a musical like the animated Mulan.
Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more news on how Mulan is progressing, and don't forget to look our guide of what other live acton Disney remakes are on the way. It's also worth mentioning that Sony Pictures has its own movie about the Mulan legend in the works, though that doesn't have a release date yet.
