Universal Pictures’ slasher Candyman is delayed to 2021.
The upcoming horror movie Candyman directed by Nia DaCosta (Little Woods) and written by Jordan Peele, Win Rosenfeld, and DaCosta, is getting delayed once again as theaters are struggling to remain open due to the global pandemic. Audiences will have to wait a little longer to watch the supernatural killer’s trademark hook on the big screen.
According to Variety, Universal Pictures and MGM decided to push the reboot from its planned October 16th release date, to sometime in 2021. The new slasher was originally slated for a release this past June, but was first delayed to September then later to an October release. The studios have yet to set a new release date and an announcement is expected to be made in the coming weeks.
This news comes after Warner Bros. delayed Wonder Woman 1984 from October to December, after seeing Tenet‘s box-office results. Without the Wonder Woman sequel, Candyman would have been the next highly anticipated film to hit theaters for the studio. The effects of the pandemic won’t be receding anytime soon and all studios would rather shift their tentpole releases, than be forced to put audiences in danger, or release their films where theaters are only open at a small capacity.
RELATED: THE 1ST HORRIFYING TRAILER FOR THE CANDYMAN REBOOT IS HERE TO MAKE YOU ‘SAY MY NAME’
After this announcement was made DaCosta took to Twitter to share her thoughts on this decision. DaCosta writes, “We made CANDYMAN to be seen in theaters. Not just for the spectacle but because the film is about community and stories–how they shape each other, how they shape us. It’s about the collective experience of trauma and joy, suffering and triumph, and the stories we tell around it.”
She continues, “We wanted the horror and humanity of CANDYMAN to be experienced in a collective, a community, so we’re pushing Candyman to next year, to ensure that everyone can see the film, in theaters, and share in that experience.”
Candyman Official Synopsis:
For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror. In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright, move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials.
With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini Green old-timer exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind Candyman. Anxious to maintain his status in the Chicago art world, Anthony begins to explore these macabre details in his studio as fresh grist for paintings, unknowingly opening a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifyingly viral wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.
Candyman is produced by Win Rosenfeld (The Twilight Zone), Ian Cooper (Us), and Jordan Peele (Get Out). The film’s cast includes Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (HBO’s Watchmen, Aquaman, Us), Teyonah Parris (If Beale Street Could Talk, The Photograph), Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Four Weddings and a Funeral), and Colman Domingo (HBO’s Euphoria, Assassination Nation). Tony Todd reprises his role from the original as the title character.
Candyman will be released in 2021. What do you think of this news? Are you disappointed that it won’t arrive until next year? Are you excited about Candyman? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or on our social media and be sure to come back to The Illuminerdi for more movie news.
KEEP READING: CANDYMAN’S NIA DACOSTA SET TO DIRECT CAPTAIN MARVEL 2
