Warner Bros. Pushes ‘Tenet’ Back 2 Weeks To July 31, ‘Wonder Woman 84 Moves To October

On the day where Covid-19 cases are spiking in more than a dozen states in the U.S., in a signal that they’re doing everything not to back down, but a gesture that’s just buying time, Warner Bros. finally made a decision today with the release date of Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet”: hedging their bets and delaying the movie two weeks from its July 17 release date to July 31. With Covid-19 spiking again, many states are grappling with the idea they may have re-opened, but it might be too early to tell. Either way, the news—and every other metric under the sun, was enough to get WB to delay slightly.

READ MORE: Theater Owners Expect 90% Of World’s Cinemas To Be Open By ‘Tenet’ Release Date

With AMC and most chains still expected to be open on July 17, WB’s current plans are to will re-release Nolan’s sci-fi actioner, “Inception,” in honor of its 20th anniversary on that date instead.

LISTEN: ‘Tenet,’ Reopening Cinemas & The Current State Of The Theatrical Industry [Discourse Podcast]

And a domino effect has already started. Moments later after the pronouncement, WB announced: “Wonder Woman 84” was moving off its August 14 date and delaying by two months, now shifting to October 2.

READ MORE: Robert Pattinson Spent Months Not Knowing “If I’m Even Vaguely Understanding” Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’

These moves might signal another cascade of release date failure. Waiting in the wings, and now possibly also delaying are Disney’s “Mulan” set for July 24 and “Hamilton,” currently scheduled for July 3 (though no one really expects that early one to hold, especially now). “Wonder Woman’s” release shift could unsettle other plans as well.  Paramount has their Tom Clancy movie starring Michael B. Jordan, “Without Remorse,” on that Oct 2 date and Universal also has the Tom Hanks sci-fi movie “Bios,” slotted then. Presumably, a domino effect will take hold across the industry.

READ MORE: Kenneth Branagh Compared Reading The ‘Tenet’ Script To Doing A Crossword Puzzle

“Tenet” is Christopher Nolan’s secretive quantum cold war thriller. The epic, high-concept action/espionage picture deals with time distortion and stars John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Clémence Poésy, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh.

“Wonder Woman 84,” jumps the Wonder Woman feature some 70-odd years into the future from WWI. The movie, directed by Patty Jenkins again stars stars Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, alongside Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright, and Connie Nielsen in supporting roles.