Last month, we found out that Minions: The Rise of Gru — sequel to 2015's Minions and prequel to 2010's Despicable Me — would no longer be arriving in theatres on July 3rd, 2020.
The decision to indefinitely delay the upcoming animated movie was made due to concerns pertaining to the Coronavirus pandemic. People are rightly not heading out to theatres and theatres are outright temporarily closing down until the whole thing blows over. All in all, it's not a great time for the business.
Universal has now announced a new release date for Illumination's next animated movie (via The Hollywood Reporter). Minions: The Rise of Gru is now set to arrive in theatres on July 2nd, 2021. That's a whole year that the movie has been delayed (or to be pedantic; a year bar one day).
However, another of Illumination's animated movies was originally set to debut on that date — Sing 2. The sequel to 2016's Sing was itself originally set to debut in theatres this year (on December 25th, 2020), however, it was moved to July 2nd, 2021 in order to accommodate for The Croods 2. Now it has been shifted again in order to accommodate for another animated film.
Sing 2 is now set to arrive in theatres on December 22nd, 2021). Again; that's a whole year that the movie has been delayed — from its original planned release date. Illumination certainly isn't having a great time. The studio itself has closed up shop in Paris, France due to the Coronavirus — find out more on that here.
When the Vicious 6 oust their leader, legendary fighter Wild Knuckles (Oscar® winner Alan Arkin), Gru interviews to become their newest member. It doesn’t go well (to say the least), and only gets worse after Gru outsmarts them and suddenly finds himself the mortal enemy of the apex of evil. On the run, Gru will turn to an unlikely source for guidance, Wild Knuckles himself, and discover that even bad guys need a little help from their friends.
Minions: The Rise of Gru is set to arrive in theatres on July 2nd, 2021.