Wonder Woman and Justice League star Connie Nielsen, who reprises her role as Amazon queen Hippolyta in Wonder Woman 1984, is unsure the DC Comics movie will meet its planned August 14 release date after being pushed back amid the coronavirus crisis. The Patty Jenkins-directed tentpole following Hippolyta’s superhero daughter Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) into action in the mid-1980s was earlier set to open Dec. 13, 2019, before being moved up to Nov. 1, 2019. Months after studio Warner Bros. settled on a summer 2020 release date, setting Wonder Woman 1984 for June 5, industry-wide closures and delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic forced the studio to postpone their Wonder Woman sequel to its current Aug. 14 date.
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“I don’t know about the August deadline there. We can all cross fingers and I sure hope so,” Nielsen admitted to ABC News about Wonder Woman 1984 when promoting new movie Sea Fever. “The invention of a remedy against this virus will certainly make everything a lot easier. Everyone is waiting to get back to work as well, we’re all waiting to get started on our next projects, so having access to either a vaccine or at least a remedy will be a good thing for us all.”
“When we greenlit WW 1984 it was with every intention to be viewed on the big screen and are excited to announce that Warner Bros. Pictures will be bringing the film to theatres on August 14,” Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group Chairman Toby Emmerich said in a statement announcing the new release date. “We hope the world will be in a safer and healthier place by then.”
As some shuttered movie theater chains face bankruptcy amid months-long closures, there’s no clear picture when theaters might reopen. In a recent report from Reuters, Patrick Corcoran, spokesman for the National Association of Theatre Owners, said some theaters in certain parts of the United States could reopen in mid-June. Calling the prediction “very tentative,” Corcoran explained, “There are two schools of thought. People will be very tense and careful and nervous, or people will just be desperate to get out of the house. It’s probably going to be a mixture.”
According to the same report, some theater operators hope to resume business by late July. Theaters in more heavily populated areas, such as Los Angeles and New York, are expected to take longer to reopen.
Warner Bros. has not yet rescheduled Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, set for July 17. Disney pushed upcoming Pixar feature Soul from June 19 to Nov. 20 after rescheduling Marvel Studios’ Black Widow, shifting the superhero flick from May 1 to Nov. 6, and set its live-action Mulan for July 24 after planning to open March 27.
Another summer tentpole, the Tom Cruise-starring Top Gun: Maverick, was delayed by Paramount from June 24 to Dec. 23. Similarly, Universal and Illumination’s animated Minions: The Rise of Gru was postponed one year after being pulled from its planned early July release.
Starring Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Pedro Pascal, Kristen Wiig, and Connie Nielsen, Wonder Woman 1984 is set to open August 14.
