Disney Halts Production On 'The Little Mermaid' And More While WB Moves Forward With 'Batman' And 'Matrix 4'

The coronavirus continues to throw a wrench in Hollywood's plans. As fears of COVID-19 mount, Disney has decided to halt production on The Little Mermaid, Ridley Scott's The Last Duel, the Honey I Shrunk the Kids sequel Shrunk, the Home Alone reboot, and also Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley. On the opposite end of the coin, Warner Bros. is not shutting down several of their productions, including The Batman and The Matrix 4.

Welcome to another day ravaged by coronavirus news! Disney is taking a "better safe than sorry" approach right now and have halted production on all of their live-action films. They've also stopped work on Genius: Aretha, starring Cynthia Erivo, and sixteen different pilots. On the film front, production has halted on the live-action Little Mermaid reboot, Ridley Scott's historical epic The Last Duel the Honey I Shrunk the Kids sequel Shrunk, the Home Alone reboot (which I forgot was even happening), the Peter Pan live-action reboot Peter Pan & Wendy, and Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley (boo, hiss to this particular bit of news).

And here's a list of the pilots they've halted production on: Adopted, The Big Leap, The Big Sky, The Brides, Harlem's Kitchen, Home Economics, Kids Matter Now, My Village, Ordinary Joe, Prospect, Rebel, Thirtysomething(else), Valley Trash, Work Wife, Wreckage, and Untitled Kapnek/Holland Project.

Disney issued the following statement regarding their multiple shut-downs:

"While there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 on our productions, after considering the current environment and the best interests of our cast and crew, we have made the decision to pause production on some of our live-action films for a short time. We will continue to assess the situation and restart as soon as feasible."

On the other side of the coin we have Warner Bros., who are still going forward with several of their films: The Batman, The Matrix 4, King Richard, and Fantastic Beasts 3. Other productions, like Black Adam, and Aquaman 2, are both several months away from starting, and as of now are still on. Things could change, though.

And while these movies are still happening, Warners has suspended production 70 of its TV shows, per THR. The studio released this statement:

"With the rapidly changing events related to COVID-19, and out of an abundance of caution, Warner Bros. Television Group is halting production on some of our 70-plus series and pilots currently filming or about to begin. There have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 on any of our productions, but the health and safety of our employees, casts and crews remains our top priority. During this time, we will continue to follow the guidance of the Centers for Disease Control as well as local officials and public health professionals in each city where our productions are based."