Jordan Peele's 'Us' Release Date Pushed Back a Week

After being confirmed to kick off this year's South By Southwest Film Festival, the official release date for Jordan Peele's Us has been pushed back, as confirmed by Entertainment Weekly. Rather than opening on March 15th, the film will open on March 22nd.

In the film, a mother (Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o from Black Panther, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and 12 Years a Slave) and a father (Winston Duke from Black Panther) take their kids to their beach house expecting to unplug and unwind with friends (including Emmy winner Elizabeth Moss from TV series The Handmaid's Tale). But as night descends, their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some shocking visitors arrive uninvited.

Peele's directorial debut, Get Out, was one of the biggest cultural movements of 2017, making his new film one of the most anticipated of the year. Fans were thrilled to find out that Us would be kicking off this year's SXSW Film Festival on March 8th.

"We are crazy excited to world premiere the most anticipated film of 2019 from the creative powerhouse that brought us Get Out," Janet Pierson, Director of Film, shared in a statement. "We honestly couldn't imagine a more perfect film to kick off the 2019 SXSW Film Festival."

A Quiet Place had a similar trajectory in 2018, as it was the festival's opening night film, building tremendous amounts of buzz, and hit theaters weeks later. It's unclear why Us was pushed back, though it could be a way to make a bigger dent at the box office. Likely the top earner of March will be Captain Marvel, which opens on March 8th, so Us giving the Marvel film two weeks to dominate the box office could see better returns for the thriller.

The first trailer for Us immediately sparked excitement across the internet, as it appeared to once again tap into the themes that made Get Out such a success, as it blended comedy with horror and allegories for real-world social fears. Peele previously teased that his new film will similarly blend real-world horrors with a fictional premise.

"One thing I know is that this is genre; and playing around with the thriller, horror, action, fun genre of intrigue is my favorite," Peele previously shared with The Hollywood Reporter. "That's my sweet spot. So I think tonally it should resemble Get Out. That said, I want to make a completely different movie. I want to address something different than race in the next one."

Check out Us when it lands in theaters on March 22nd.

Why do you think the film got a new release date? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!