Fox Delays Release Dates for Alita, Dark Phoenix & Gambit

Fox has announced a handful of release date changes, which includes X-Men: Dark Phoenix, Gambit, and Alita: Battle Angel being pushed back by a PG-13 version of Deadpool 2, Deadline has confirmed.

Instead of releasing on December 21, 2018, Alita: Battle Angel has been pushed back to February 14, 2019. In its place, Fox will release the PG-13 Deadpool 2, which will go up against Warner Bros.’ Aquaman, Paramount’s Bumblebee, Sony’s Holmes and Watson, and Universal’s Welcome to Marwen.

Visionary filmmakers James Cameron (Avatar) and Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) create a groundbreaking new heroine in Alita: Battle Angel, an action-packed story of hope, love and empowerment. Set several centuries in the future, the abandoned Alita (Rosa Salazar) is found in the scrapyard of Iron City by Ido (Christoph Waltz), a compassionate cyber-doctor who takes the unconscious cyborg Alita to his clinic. When Alita awakens she has no memory of who she is, nor does she have any recognition of the world she finds herself in.

X-Men: Dark Phoenix is now scheduled to premiere on June 7, 2019, instead of February 14, 2019. Illumination/Universal Pictures’ The Secret Life of Pets 2 and Lionsgate’s Flarsky comedy feature are also debuting on that date.

In Dark Phoenix, the X-Men face their most formidable and powerful foe: one of their own, Jean Grey. During a rescue mission in space, Jean is nearly killed when she is hit by a mysterious cosmic force. Once she returns home, this force not only makes her infinitely more powerful, but far more unstable. Wrestling with this entity inside her, Jean unleashes her powers in ways she can neither comprehend nor contain. With Jean spiraling out of control, and hurting the ones she loves most, she begins to unravel the very fabric that holds the X-Men together. Now, with this family falling apart, they must find a way to unite — not only to save Jean’s soul, but to save our very planet from aliens who wish to weaponize this force and rule the galaxy.

Channing Tatum’s Gambit movie was originally scheduled to release on June 7, 2019, but has now been pushed back to March 13, 2020. The project is in development and no director has yet been attached. The screenplay is being written by Reid Carolin and Joshua Zetumer.

Tatum will play the X-Men character Gambit. Created by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee in 1990, the New Orleans native mutant quickly became a fan favorite due to his kinetic energy manipulation abilities and penchant for stealing. The character’s only big screen appearance to date (outside his name being featured as an Easter egg in X2) was in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, played by Taylor Kitsch.