Avengers: Doomsday has officially been pushed to a Christmas 2026 release as production is delayed on the eagerly anticipated blockbuster.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film will now be released on 18 December 2026 instead of the planned date of 1 May 2026.
This new schedule coincides with the exact same release date Warner Bros had planned for Dune: Messiah, the third instalment of Denis Villeneuve’s epic sci-fi series starring Timothée Chalamet.
The clash could lead to a similar type of hysteria as seen in 2023 when Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer were both released on the same day, creating the “Barbenheimer” effect. Both films benefitted significantly at the box office thanks to the heightened interest.
Indeed fans are already excited at the prospect of the two movies hitting theatres on the same day. “There’s absolutely no way we’re getting Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Messiah on the same day…” said one fan.
Another proclaimed: “Get ready for ‘Dunesday!’”
A third fan noted that it would be a huge moment for Florence Pugh who will star in both Doomsday and Messiah as Marvel assassin Yelena Belova and Princess Irulan, respectively.
Not only has the release of Doomsday been delayed, but its sequel Avengers: Secret Wars has also been pushed back from 7 May 2027 to 17 December 2027.
Disney, which owns Marvel, has announced that instead of releasing the new Avengers movie on 1 May next year, they will instead release The Devil Wears Prada 2, a sequel to the 2006 comedy starring Anne Hathaway as the hapless assistant to a formidable fashion magazine editor played by Meryl Streep.
Avengers: Doomsday has already faced delays: the film was entirely overhauled and given a new title to replace Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, after Kang actor Jonathan Majors was convicted of assaulting his partner.
Last July, it was announced that Iron Man star Robert Downey Jr would return to the Marcel Cinematic Universe, though this time as the villainous Victor von Doom aka Doctor Doom.
The bumper Avengers cast will also feature several other returning stars such as Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Paul Rudd, Tom Hiddleston, and Letitia Wright.
In March 2019, Marvel regained the film rights to the X-Men characters through Disney's acquisition of Fox, with the intention of integrating the characters into the MCU.
James Marsden, Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn and Alan Cumming are also set to star, reprising the X-Men roles popularised in the Fox films released between 2000 and 2006.
As for Dune: Messiah, reports from April 2024 stated that the film is already in development though shooting isn’t expected to begin until mid-late summer 2025.
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