It’s a slow Friday in August, and Walt Disney Studios has taken the opportunity to update its future calendar, including a rash of new mystery dates for 2026 and 2027. Of course, that does get into some significant Marvel Studios updates.
The first real change, however, is the Searchlight Pictures contender, “A Real Pain,” which was a big hit at Sundance earlier this year and could be a dark horse Oscar runner. Originally scheduled for an October 18 wide release, Searchlight has now moved the film to a November 1 date in limited release, meaning they’ll platform and explain through word of mouth.
The rest of Disney’s updates centered around Marvel and/or mystery Disney titles. Some of the updates weren’t earth-shattering, such as updating “The Fantastic Four” name to the recently revealed “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” full title, but a few others were a little eyebrow-raising.
First off, Marvel’s “Blade,” currently set for November 2025, wasn’t mentioned, and it remains on that date for now. But it’s been heavily speculated that since “Blade” doesn’t currently have a director or a final script, it isn’t prepared to go into production late this year or early next year to make a November 2025 release date. So, either some update will be revealed next weekend at D23, or maybe they’ll just keep ignoring that title for now.
For 2026, and in keeping with Bob Iger’s promise to scale back production, Marvel dropped their July 24, 2026, film entirely, going from releasing four to three films that year. This also could be a move to allow Sony to take that date with a fourth MCU-producer, “Spider-Man” film, but there is currently no official word.
So, 2025 for Marvel is currently four films (though “Blade” is expected to move, three films for 2026 (one of them being “Avengers: Doomsday”), and three films for 2027 (one of them being “Avengers: Secret Wars”). So, all in all, Marvel has three new films to eventually announce (maybe four if “Blade” isn’t suddenly one of them), and given that’s not too much to announce, it’s probably fair to speculate that the news might be revealed at D23.
Either way, the superhero studio seems to be taking Iger’s dictum seriously. In addition to revealing two new 2027 dates, they kept that year to three releases.
Disney also planted one 2027 date for a mystery Pixar movie and nine dates for TBD Disney movies, and who knows what they’ll be. Pixar’s current schedule for the next three years is definitely scaled back for now. There will be only one film in 2025 (“Elio” in June), one film in 2026(TBD, March 6), and this new TBD for 2027 (June 18).
What those unknown Disney films are at the moment is unknown, but the last time they revealed dates, they were for films like “Zootopia 2,” the live-action “Moana,” and “Tron: Ares,” so expect franchise.
In the world of “Star Wars” films, no Lucasfilm dates were mentioned, so Disney is still set with “The Mandalorian & Grogu” on May 22, 2026, a TBD December 2026 film, and another mysterious TBD December 2027 date.
Here’s Walt Disney’s entire plan. Get ready to use that dry-erase board in a few months or at D23 when titles are fully announced.
“A REAL PAIN” (Searchlight), previously dated on 10/18/24, moves to 11/1/24 (Limited)
“THUNDERBOLTS*” is the updated title of “THUNDERBOLTS” dated on 5/2/25
UNTITLED DISNEY, previously dated on 3/7/25 is removed from schedule
“THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS” is the updated title of “THE FANTASTIC FOUR” dated on 7/25/25
UNTITLED DISNEY is now dated on 8/8/25
UNTITLED DISNEY is now dated on 9/12/25
“AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY” is the updated title of “AVENGERS: THE KANG DYNASTY” dated on 5/1/26
UNTITLED MARVEL, previously dated on 7/24/26, is removed from schedule
UNTITLED DISNEY, previously dated on 8/14/26, moves to 8/7/26
UNTITLED DISNEY, previously dated on 9/18/26, moves to 9/11/26
UNTITLED DISNEY is now dated on 2/12/27
UNTITLED DISNEY is now dated on 3/5/27
UNTITLED DISNEY is now dated on 4/2/27
UNTITLED DISNEY is now dated on 5/28/27
UNTITLED PIXAR is now dated on 6/18/27
UNTITLED MARVEL is now dated on 7/23/27
UNTITLED DISNEY is now dated on 8/6/27
UNTITLED DISNEY is now dated on 9/17/27
UNTITLED DISNEY is now dated on 10/8/27
UNTITLED MARVEL is now dated on 11/5/27
UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION is now dated on 11/24/27