Movie theaters may be partially reopen across much of the United States, but the situation is far from ideal. Those that go sit in a theater with reduced capacity, a quarter filled to hopefully prevent people from spreading the coronavirus that’s not going away any time soon. Plenty of big movies have been bumped to 2021; the Halloween sequel, for instance, was delayed a full year, as horror movies definitely play better in packed houses. So it was only inevitable that the Candyman reboot has taken a similar tack.
Produced and co-written by Jordan Peele, Candyman was originally supposed to be released over the summer. When the pandemic showed no signs of abating, Universal optimistically bumped it to October 16. But that ain’t happening either. There are still around 1,000 COVID-19 deaths a day in America, and even if that number miraculously plummets in the next month, packed theaters are still not a good idea. And so you’ll have to wait till next year to see it, though no date has yet been chosen.
The Candyman reboot comes from producer/co-writer Jordan Peele and director Nia DaCosta, whose film is apparently so good that she landed the gig directing the Captain Marvel sequel. DaCosta wrote about the decision to bump her film to 2021.
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.
— Nia DaCosta (@NiaDaCosta) September 12, 2020
“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 wrote. “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.”
Like 2018’s Halloween, Candyman is a direct sequel to the franchise’s original, ignoring all other films in the series. The creepy and topical teaser is a masterpiece in and of itself, so feel free to watch that endlessly until the movie gets released, whenever that will be.
(Via Variety)