Sony Has Pushed Back Ghostbusters: Afterlife And More Due To COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the film industry for a loop, particularly when it comes to movies that were set to come out soon. From No Time to Die to Wonder Woman 1984, this summer’s cinematic lineup keeps growing smaller and smaller, and now Sony has contributed to its diminishment by overhauling much of its 2020 slate.

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the film industry for a loop, particularly when it comes to movies that were set to come out soon. From No Time to Die to Wonder Woman 1984, this summer’s cinematic lineup keeps growing smaller and smaller, and now Sony has contributed to its diminishment by overhauling much of its 2020 slate.

If it was the worst case scenario, that would mean that Sony only released three movies in 2020: January’s Bad Boys for Life, February’s Fantasy Island and this month’s Bloodshot, with that last one not even enjoying a full week in theaters before the coronavirus craziness started taking its toll on theaters. To have a studio’s summer slate being slapped is shocking enough, but to have its entire annual output reduced to just three movies is even more bizarre.

Still, with no indication on when movie theaters will start reopening and life in general will get back to normal, it makes sense that Sony is playing things safe. Rather than keep those movies in their current slots and risk theaters not being back up and running then, the studio’s wisely holding them back for a time when people can finally take in a theatrical tale on the big screen again. It’s not like these movies will just disappear forever if they don’t come out in 2020.

Of course, this leads to a domino effect, resulting in the movies that Sony had lined up for 2021 joining Uncharted being pushed further back, not to mention complicating 2021’s overall cinematic calendar, but that’s the world we live in now. It’ll also be interesting to see if this will be the final time all these movies are delayed, or if there will come a point where they’ll have to be rescheduled yet again.

Looking at the three biggest delays of the bunch, Ghostbusters: Afterlife serves as a sequel to the original two Ghostbusters movies, with its cast including Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace. The Jared Leto-led Morbius will follow the eponymous scientist becoming afflicted with vampirism in Sony’s Marvel Universe, while Uncharted sees Tom Holland playing a young Nathan Drake.