James Wan’s Malignant Pulled From August Release

The coronavirus pandemic has completely upended the movie industry for the time being, leading to new and upcoming releases having to rethink their strategy. On Tuesday, Warner Bros. was the latest studio to announce delays for their upcoming blockbusters, including their summer tentpole Wonder Woman 1984. Several of the studio’s other upcoming releases are also being delayed, including Malignant, an upcoming horror movie directed by James Wan. As it stands now, Malignant does not currently have a new release date (via Deadline).

Details surrounding the film are currently under wraps, other than that the film will star Annabelle Wallis, Maddie Hasson, George Young, Michole Briana White, Jake Abel, Jacqueline McKenzie and Ingrid Bisu. Bisu co-wrote and executive produced the film with Wan, and other producers include Wan’s Atomic Monster partner Michael Clear.

Malignant will mark Wan’s next project before returning to the DC Extended Universe, with Aquaman 2 set to be released in 2022.

“It won’t be Aquaman 2 just yet,” Wan said of his next project in an interview earlier this year. “I have something else I’m cooking up; I’m not ready to share just yet.”

While it’s still unclear exactly what story Malignant will tell, the notion that Wan will be crafting a new sort of fictional world is certainly exciting.

“There’s been a bit of speculation as to what my next project is… all I’ll say is, I’m super excited to go back to my indie roots with this hard-R thriller,” Wan said of the project last year. “An original horror idea (not a reboot/remake or anything based on existing IP) with old school, practical effects and no giant, blue screen sets.”

“I mean, liking the people I work with goes a long way,” Wan said in an interview previously. “That was the reason why I came back when I did Insidious 2. But it’s a weird one for me, because I actually don’t know what I want to do next for the first time in my career. I felt like Aquaman ticked a lot of boxes for me. I want to do another action movie after Furious 7, I wanted to do a world creation film, and I wanted to do a superhero movie, and Aquaman literally ticked all of those boxes for me. And so right now, I’m in that sort of place of like do I kind of go back and do a smaller movie maybe as my next one, something a bit more intimate. Or if I can do a personal movie, but maybe it’s on a bigger scale. I’m not sure at this point.”

Are you excited to see Malignant when it eventually hits theaters? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!