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Well, there it is. A huge landslide of delays and reschedulings have been announced for the Disney release slate, and with movies like Mulan and Black Widow now finally getting new dates, one film originally scheduled for theatrical release has been shifted to a Disney+ exclusive debut. For those of you who were betting on this outcome, and had Kenneth Branagh’s long developing Artemis Fowl adaptation as your horse in the race, please collect your bets through Venmo.
In an announcement made by Disney today, the franchise started based on Eoin Colfer’s series of the same name has been pulled from its May 29th release date, and is now being held for an as of yet unset release date. This comes after Artemis Fowl already suffered a theatrical delay, pushing the film from its previous August 9, 2019 release date; which pushed the film’s debut to the summer slot it’s now vacated.
This announcement was confirmed by a bittersweet Twitter post from one of the film’s stars, Josh Gad, as he reacted to the home streaming premiere thusly:
Much like Universal and Dreamworks have done with their next film, Trolls: World Tour, this is the second big theatrical title to outright leave its big screen plans behind as part of a grand entertainment experiment. But as Gad said in his social media posting, adaptation is key to survival in times like this.
Starring actor Ferdia Shaw as Artemis Fowl himself, the film will tell the origin story of the second generation of Fowl family thieves. As he becomes drawn deeper into a world hidden before our very eyes, he’ll become acquainted with dwarves, elves, and fairies on the search for his missing father.
You can see the most recent trailer for the film below:
The big push is a first for Disney+, as their previous leap to put their recent theatrical release Onward onto the platform way earlier than expected had, at the very least, made a big screen showing for a limited time. With theater chains still closed during the current health crisis, these new and interesting times call for new solutions to fit the current age of entertainment.
While there’s no official release date for Artemis Fowl, one could guess that we might see the film arrive as early as April and as late as June, so as not to conflict with the first new Disney release of the year, Mulan, which is planned for a July 24th release date.
In any case, when this long awaited project finally debuts on its brand new home, you can be sure the reaction will be watched very carefully by the Disney brass, if only so they know what type of titles they can schedule for a similar debut in the very near, very crowded future.
Artemis Fowl will now debut on Disney+, with its new release date to be determined. But don’t let that stop you from trying out a 7-day free trial of Disney’s streaming service, as there’s plenty more to see and do in this digital library.
