Disney replaces Christmas 2026 Star Wars movie with… Ice Age 6

Disney’s nigh-total inability to get a Star Wars movie off the ground over the past five years has followed a pretty predictable expression of the old “rake gag” bell curve: At first, it was surprising, and then it was hilarious, and now, it’s just getting kind of sad. To wit: The company announced today that its plans to get a new Star Wars film in theaters for Christmas 2026 have now been blown up with a big ol’ space laser, with the slot now being filled by the recently announced Ice Age 6, a substitution we are sure will make someone, somewhere happy, although we personally don’t know who.

That leaves just two Star Wars films still standing on the company’s schedule: A very far-off and untitled movie currently aimed at December 17, 2027, as well as the only one of these movies we expect might actually have a chance in hell of coming out: Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian And Grogu, which is currently in post-production, and which is scheduled for May 22, 2026. That one, obviously, has the backing of Disney’s Star Wars TV efforts over the last few years, which have run rings around the film side of the franchise ever since Rise Of Skywalker came out in 2019, made a pretty hefty chunk of money, and then apparently sucked all remaining interest in these movies into a black hole faster than you can ask “They fly now?!”

None of which has stopped Disney from announcing new Star Wars movies, of course: Over the past five years, the company has floated potential films from Dave Filoni, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, James Mangold, Patty Jenkins, Taika Waititi, Donald Glover, Shawn Levy, and, of course, Rian Johnson, any one of which we’re sure will be racing into production any minute now. Indeed, Disney has become one of the world’s premiere studios when it comes to saying it’s going to make a Star Wars movie; it’ll be fun to see if they actually end up filming one any time soon.

[via Variety]