Disney’s pending acquisition of Fox may have fans’ minds racing with potential X-Men and MCU crossover ideas, but first, Fox is doing a little fine-tuning of its release schedule. There are three comic-book films from the studio in our near(-ish) future, whose debuts have been shifted around for various reasons, including a looming blockbuster.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Deadpool 2's been moved up from June 1 to May 18, and is now poised to go head to head with Sony’s Slender Man instead of its corporate brethren production, Solo: A Star Wars Story. David Leitch’s sequel certainly has better odds against Sylvain White’s creepypastiche than the second Star Wars spin-off; Deadpool 2 should also benefit from Memorial Day weekend sales. Franchise star Ryan Reynolds seems pretty delighted by the update:
But not all X-Men-adjacent properties were so lucky—the horror riff, New Mutants, has been pushed back 10 months, from April 13 to February 22, 2019. THR’s sources indicate there was some concern about overlap between Deadpool 2 and New Mutants in overseas marketplaces—in some cases, the two films would have been in theaters at the same time.
Finally, in news that’s not at all surprising, Fox has given the Gambit production some more time, shifting the release from February 14, 2019 to June 7, 2019. Gore Verbinski became the latest director to fold on the Channing Tatum-led film, which now has to search for a new helmer yet again.