Warner Bros. delays Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire by a month as the studio shifts its 2024 calendar. The upcoming MonsterVerse movie is the sequel to 2021’s Godzilla vs. Kong, and it was originally slated to debut in March 2024. However, as actors continue to strike for fair wages and better working conditions, studios have begun to shift their release schedules to accommodate for the fact that stars cannot promote upcoming projects.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Warner Bros. has delayed Dune: Part Two from November to March 15, 2024. In doing so, it has bumped Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire from that date and pushed it back a month to April 12, 2024. This shift has also pushed New Line and Warner Bros. Pictures Animation’s Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim from April 12, 2024 to December 13, 2024.
How The Strikes Will Impact Upcoming Releases
Godzilla x Kong and Dune: Part Two are likely only the first movie releases to be delayed due to the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. Actors and writers being unable to promote their projects severely limits the amount of publicity for upcoming movie and television projects. The titles that released this summer following the beginning of the SAG-AFTRA strike, including Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Star Wars: Ahsoka, had the advantage of beginning publicity and recording interviews with the actors before the strike began.
Movies releasing months from now don’t have that option. Without publicity from Godzilla x Kong‘s cast, including Beauty and the Beast‘s Dan Stevens and Atlanta‘s Brian Tyree Henry, it will be challenging to market the movie. Dune: Part Two is in the same situation of being unable to market the highly-anticipated sequel without its star-studded cast that includes Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Christopher Walken, and Florence Pugh. Other upcoming movies that may be delayed include The Marvels and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes; Warner Bros. is so far keeping Wonka and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom in place, but that could change.
The next Marvel Cinematic Universe movie won’t perform as well without publicity from Samuel L. Jackson or its starring trio of Brie Larson, Teyonah Parris, and Iman Vellani, nor will The Hunger Games prequel without Rachel Zegler, Viola Davis, and Peter Dinklage. The same goes for marketing Wonka without Chalamet and Hugh Grant, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom without Jason Momoa. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire likely won’t be the last movie to be delayed as long as actors are continued to be denied fair wages and better working conditions.
