The studio didn’t give out any reasons regarding why they decided to change their release dates. However, in Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ case, director David F. Sandberg indicated in a tweet that he posted shortly after the announcement that the reason behind the delay is to avoid competing with Avatar: The Way of Water since the James Cameron film is expected to take over most of the IMAX screenings around that time.
Meanwhile, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom director James Wan revealed in his Instagram post that the reason behind the delay on the highly-anticipated sequel is to give him more time to work on the film’s post-production. He also shared some artworks from the film to show the “big, epic world-building” that they’re creating.
The delayed release of Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom have been speculated in the past few weeks before it became official yesterday. As for The Flash, it is still dated in summer 2023 as the studio is figuring out its release strategy for the film as the result of its star Ezra Miller’s controversies.
Besides the aforementioned DCEU films, Warner Bros. has also set a release date for its other films such as The Nun 2 which is now dated September 8, 2023. They also set a February 10, 2023 release date for an untitled event movie. However, Salem’s Lot has now been removed from the calendar.
In addition, they also set release dates for the upcoming films House Party (December 9 this year) and Evil Dead Rise (April 21, 2023). Both of them were supposed to be HBO Max original films before Warner Bros. decided to turn them into theatrical releases instead.
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