The Wicked Movie Musical Will No Longer Open in 2021 as Coronavirus Disrupts Hollywood

Wicked is the latest film to have its release date pushed back — although it's unclear when the musical film adaptation will be released

Fans of Wicked will have to wait a little longer for the musical to reach the big screen.

The Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliott, The Hours) film adaptation of the long-running Broadway show was removed from Universal Pictures’ release calendar on Wednesday amid a shifting movie landscape due to the coronavirus, according to the Associated Press.

The musical was set for an original release date of December 22, 2021, but has been replaced by Sing 2.

The studio also announced it was delaying the release of Minions: The Rise of Gru, which was not finished for its planned summer 2020 release due to the pandemic, the AP reported. The film has been pushed back to July 2021.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus worldwide, and with confirmed cases in the U.S. rising to 188,000, movie studios have had to shift several major blockbuster release dates, the first of which was the James Bond film No Time To Die.

Idina Menzel of "Wicked"
Idina Menzel in Wicked. Frank Micelotta/Getty

This is the latest string of movies that have had release dates pushed back due to coronavirus. While some films, like the animated kids feature Trolls World Tour and the rom-com The Lovebirds, have moved from theatrical to digital releases, other major films have either been pushed back or delayed indefinitely altogether.

The first major film to call of its scheduled release was No Time To Die, Daniel Craig’s latest and final turn as James Bond. While originally planned for an April release, the film will instead debut on Nov. 25.

Mulan, Wonder Woman 1984, A Quiet Place Part II and Fast & Furious 10 have also pushed back their release dates.

Most recently, Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Jared Leto’s Morbius were pushed back from July 2020 to March 2021.

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