Alien fans are in for a major treat, as The Hollywood Reporter has broken a scoop out of 20th Century Fox, revealing that the studio is releasing next year’s sci-fi/horror blockbuster a bit earlier than anticipated. After originally being scheduled to arrive next August, Alien: Covenant will now release in theatres on May 19th, 2017, with the news also being accompanied by the new teaser poster for the Prometheus follow-up. Check it out below:
The earlier release for Alien: Covenant seems to have rippled throughout Fox’s upcoming blockbuster schedule, as the studio has also ended up bumping another of their planned Summer 2017 movies into the Fall. Kingsman: The Golden Circle, a follow-up to 2015’s well-received, comic book-adapted Kingsman: The Secret Service is now releasing on October 6th, 2017, vacating its original June 16th, 2017 release date. October 6th, 2017 happens to be a date that Fox had formerly reserved for an unknown Marvel-licensed movie. The other date they reserved at that time, January 12th, 2018, was also eventually filled by a non-Marvel movie, the long-delayed Maze Runner: The Death Cure. On another note unrelated to their Marvel licenses, Fox has reserved December 21st, 2018 for a collaborative movie with James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment, which is almost certainly the extensively delayed Avatar 2.
Fortunately, Fox has plenty of plans with their Marvel licenses in the works, as they’ve reserved new dates for November 2nd, 2018 and February 14th, 2019, both allegedly for Marvel-licensed movies. These follow two other revised dates for Marvel-licensed movies that Fox reserved back in May, on March 2nd, 2018 and June 29th, 2018. If prior scoops are anything to go by, it’s likely that two of the 2018 dates will go to Deadpool 2 and New Mutants, with New Mutants being on schedule to being filming in Spring of 2017, while Deadpool 2 recently got back on schedule for an early 2017 filming start with the appointing of new director, David Leitch recently. Another probable candidate for a 2018 date is fellow X-Men spin-off, Gambit, which is re-attempting a start at production with a new director, now that Channing Tatum has a window of opportunity to suit up as the title character.
The 2019 date is more of a mystery, but could be for the 90’s-set mainline follow-up that X-Men movie producer, Simon Kinberg expressed interest in making with the surviving cast of X-Men: Apocalypse. There’s also a small chance that the 2019 date could be filled by a Fantastic Four movie, though ever since last year’s disastrous Fantastic Four reboot that lost Fox approximately $60 million, that Marvel-licensed film franchise has been put on ice until further notice.
Keep mutating Eggplante for all major news and updates on Alien: Covenant, Fox’s Marvel movies, and other major developments in Fox’s blockbuster schedule.