With pandemic information fluctuating – the rate of infections coming down with the availability of the vaccine but with numbers of infected still scarily high – there continues to be disruption and changes to release patterns for tent-pole movies
Univeral‘s F9 (the latest part of the Fast and Furious franchise) was originally projected to come out April 2019 but shifted because of the release of spin-off Hobbs and Shaw. It was then expected to release 22nd May 2020. However with the pandemic taking hold, the title was one of the first to take the plunge and be pulled ahead of release, then confirming it would leave the year entirely, going to 2nd April 2021 then 28th May 2021. It has now switched (again) but this time not as drastically. With tentative plans for cinemas to start reopening if numbers come down, it should debut (as things stand) on 25th June. Universal wants the best cinema release it can manage and will need a huge box-office and a lengthy multiplex run to break even because of the cost of delays.
What we know story-wise (as if plot matters) is that Han (Sung Kang) appears to be back from the dead and that Vin Diesel’s character (Dominic Toretto) will face down against his brother Jakob (John Cena), who is an assassin determined to take down Dom and his crew.
Universal also confirmed that their Minions: The Rise of Gru, the fifth movie in the Despicable Me franchise, will now not have its 2nd July 2021 release but will move to almost a year-to-the-day later: 1st July 2022.
