'Shazam! 2' And 'Sesame Street' Live-Action Film Both Get 2022 Release Dates
Warner. Bros. is on a streak of announcing release dates — a lightning streak, you might say. The studio has set the official release dates for the sequel one of its most acclaimed DCEU comic book movies, Shazam!, while pushing back the theatrical release of its upcoming Sesame Street live-action movie. Both films will be coming to theaters in 2022.
According to The Hollywood Reporter's Borys Kit, Warner Bros. has set the Shazam! 2 release date for April 1, 2022. Meanwhile, amidst the studio's reshuffling of its slate, the live-action Sesame Street movie has been pushed back to January 14, 2022, from its initial June 4, 2021 release date.
SHAZAM 2 gets a release date: 04/01/22
— Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit) December 12, 2019
Elsewhere: Warners' untitled SESAME STREET FILM gets pushed back from 06/04/21 to 01/14/22./
— Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit) December 12, 2019
That's a remarkably long gap for Shazam!, which came out earlier this year to rave reviews and a $364 million worldwide box office haul, and its sequel — three years is enough time for the film's kid stars to graduate high school and go to college. For a film whose whole conceit is kids turning into adult superheroes, Shazam! 2 could lose some of the childish magic that made the first film so appealing. The sequel was greenlit shortly after Shazam's Easter holiday opening exceeded expectations, with the first film's writer Henry Gayden set to return and director David F. Sandberg and producer Peter Safran expected to join him.
However, perhaps Warner Bros. is positioning Shazam!, which performed well but not to the record-breaking effect of its more recent superhero films, in a slot where it will have less competition. There are no other major studio releases on that date and the date falls prior to Easter that year.
Meanwhile, the live-action Sesame Street movie faces its latest relocations, six months after it was pushed back to 2021. The live-action film has been in the works since at least 2012, and last year, we learned that Portlandia co-creator Jonathan Krisel was hired to direct it. Oscar-winning actress Anne Hathaway has been confirmed to star with production was originally supposed to get underway this year, but shooting had reportedly been delayed. Its new release date January 14, 2022, falls on the Martin Luther King Jr. 4-day holiday weekend with only one other major studio release in the form of 20th Century Fox's Nimona.