The future of the Star Wars franchise may be filling up with more and more “in-development” movies, but there is still plenty of uncertainty around how many of these will actually end up being released. Now it looks like Disney has removed one of those movies from its planned release date of December 18, 2026 and replaced it with the newly announced Ice Age 6.
There are several movies that could have been set to release in that slot, although it was never officially confirmed. Of the movies that are expected to make it through production first, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Rey movie or James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi were the most likely to take that slot, as The Mandalorian & Grogu has been confirmed to release in May 2026.
While this change does not necessarily mean that one of the planned Star Wars movies is about to be canceled, the timing comes just days after it was announced that Simon Kinberg has been tapped to write a new trilogy of movies that will take place after the sequel trilogy. This already put the status of Obaid-Chinoy’s Rey movie in a strange place as it would also sit in a similar place on the timeline of events in the galaxy far, far away.
For now, this is certainly not a confirmation that any movies have been canceled, but Lucasfilm has built a bit of a reputation for announcing movies that don’t ever come to fruition, or, in many cases, get off the starting blocks. Almost a dozen new Star Wars movies have been announced over the last few years, but fans are still waiting for the franchise to return to the big screen with its first theatrical release since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker.
Ice Age 6 Was An Unexpected Announcement at D23 Brazil
While fans were disappointed by the lack of Lucasfilm announcements around the upcoming Star Wars movies at D23 Brazil earlier this month, the official confirmation that Ice Age 6 was in production was one of the more surprising reveals. It is almost a decade since the idea of a sequel to Ice Age: Collison Course was originally floated, and while the franchise returned with The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild in 2022, the chance of Ice Age 6 was not looking good.
While promoting the Buck Wild spin-off, producer Lori Forte suggested that if fans wanted another Ice Age movie, then a new movie would be made. He said at the time:
“We hope that people will respond to this, and that will promote us to be able to do another movie. If the audiences want it, we’ve got plenty of ideas. There’s no end to ideas and adventures and characters, so we’re ready if they’re ready.”
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The Disney+ exclusive release did get a reaction from both audiences and critics, but it wasn’t necessarily a positive one. The movie struggled to a 17% Tomatometer score, and only scored 32% with viewers, seemingly sealing the fate of any further movies in the series. Skip forward two years, though, and now Ice Age 6 is very much alive and kicking, and Disney has enough faith in the first new movie since the closure of Blue Sky Studios to give it the coveted December release date that is usually reserved for their biggest movies.
Star Wars: New Jedi Order
- Director
- Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
- Writers
- Steven Knight
- Studio(s)
- Lucasfilm
- Distributor(s)
- Disney