What year is it again? What was Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures’ biggest film left on the 2023 theatrical release calendar, “Dune: Part Two”, has been moved away from its scheduled November 3 release date and moved to March 15, 2024, due to the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

“Dune: Part Two”, according to Deadline, will be taking the date that was previously held by “Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire” which now moves to April 12, 2024. Bumped from that date is New Line’s animated feature, “Lord of the Rings The War of Rohirrim”. That now gets moved to the end of the year to December 13, 2024.

Some of Warner Bros. other projects will, for the time being, will keep their release dates for the rest of the year. These include “Wonka”, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom”, and “The Color Purple”. What is interesting about the DC offering is that we haven’t seen a trailer. Despite the fact that films like “Barbie” and “Blue Beetle” are playing in theaters. This has given some folks the idea that maybe this was going to get pushed back as well, but only time will tell.

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This would be the second time that director Denis Villeneuve’s franchise would get impacted by outside forces. “Dune” in 2021 dealt with the country coming back from the pandemic and a Warner Bros. release plan that not only debuted the film in theaters but also on the then HBO Max streaming service on the same day. Despite these challenges, “Dune” won six Academy Awards and was one of the highest-grossing films of the year.

Now the sequel “Dune: Part Two” faces the challenge of a writers and actors strike, which given the decision by Warner Bros. Discovery to move the film, shows their little faith in a resolution happening sooner rather than later. They are counting on the social media impact of the film’s stars including Zendaya, Timothee Chalamet, Florence Pugh, and Austin Butler. Currently, none of them are allowed to promote any film or television show due to the strike.

With a big film like this making a move, it will be interesting to see if other studios also flinch.

Source: Deadline