Because the COVID-19 pandemic has led to movie theaters across the world shutting down, the studios have had to adjust their calendars accordingly. As a result, a lot of movies that were about to come out have been delayed, including Universal Pictures movies like Minions: The Rise of Gru and Sing 2. Fortunately, both of those movies have now been given new release dates
Last week, we learned that Minions: The Rise of Gru wouldn’t make its July 3 release date since animation company Illumination had to indefinitely shut down its operations, thus hitting pause on the postproduction process. With Sing 2 being a fellow Illumination project, that makes it unsurprising it’s also been impacted, with the original plan being to get the sequel out by July 2, 2021.
Now the plan (via THR) is to release Minions: The Rise of Gru on July 2, 2021 and Sing 2 by December 22, 2021. In other words, the next Minions movie snagged Sing 2’s old slot, and Sing 2 will follow in its predecessor’s footsteps by being a Christmastime release. Alas, Sing 2’s new release date means that the long-awaited Wicked has been evicted from that spot, and a new release date for that project wasn’t announced.
In normal times, a movie like Sing 2 being pushed back five months would be a pretty notable delay, but the bigger news in this instance is that audiences will now have to wait another year to see Minions: The Rise of Gru. It isn’t the only movie that Universal has pushed back by a year though, as F9 was originally supposed to come out on May 22, but it now scheduled for April 2, 2021.
As for Wicked, this is just the latest setback the film adaptation of the same-named beloved musical (which itself was based off the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West) has faced. This project’s been in development now for almost a decade. The original plan was for Wicked to come out December last year, but because of production scheduling, it was pushed back and Cats got that spot instead… which didn’t work out too well for Universal.
No plot details for Sing 2 haven’t been revealed yet, though like with the first Sing, you can at least count on anthropomorphic animals belting out popular tunes. Minions: The Rise of Gru, the latest installment of the Despicable Me franchise, follows Felonius Gru getting his start as a supervillain in the 1970s. Wicked, of course, is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz from the perspectives of Elphaba (The Wicked Witch of the West) and Galinda (Glinda the Good Witch).
Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for more updates on how the coronavirus has impacting the theatrical calendar, and be sure to look through our list chronicling all the other movies that have been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
