Fast & Furious 9 Release Date Delayed One Month To June 2021

Fast & Furious 9 has officially been delayed by one month, moving instead to June 2021. The ninth installment of the blockbuster car racing franchise, properly titled F9, was originally slated for release in May of last year and was expected to be one of the biggest films of 2020. Universal kicked off their marketing campaign early in the year and immediately fueled excitement for the film. However, the coronavirus pandemic soon became a concern for major movies, and despite star Vin Diesel’s insistence Fast & Furious 9 wouldn’t budge, it was soon pushed back a full year.

Even now, with the vaccine gradually being distributed around the world, there’s concern that movie theaters will be unable to usher in this year’s biggest releases. Several movies once planned for the first half of the year, like No Time to Die and Ghostbusters: Afterlife, already shifted to the latter part of 2021. For some time now, all eyes have been on early summer blockbusters Black Widow and Fast & Furious 9 to see if they would adjust their dates at all.

Now it’s official: Dom and his crew are moving again. Per THR, Universal has pushed Fast & Furious 9 back by one month. Instead of debuting on May 28, it will be released on June 25. It’s said Universal wants to ensure most theaters across the globe will once again be open by the time the film is released. That theaters in New York City are opening this weekend seems promising, but there needs to be more signs of improvement. The official F9 social media account confirmed the news with a slow-mo car stunt, promising what’s to come after this increasingly lengthy wait.

Experts once believed Fast & Furious 9 could end up delayed by another year, so this adjustment isn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. As always in this current uncertain landscape, things can change, and if the moviegoing situation doesn’t improve by June, Fast & Furious 9 could see itself moved once again. However, this extra month buffer at least gives Universal more time to assess, and with the vaccine becoming more accessible, F9 could be safe. The next couple of months will give a better indicator of the movie’s chances.

Now that Fast & Furious 9 has been moved, there’s likely going to be greater attention put upon Disney’s Black Widow. The Scarlett Johansson-led Marvel movie is currently scheduled even sooner than Fast & Furious 9 was, which could indicate a delay is in the cards. The latest update said Disney has four weeks to decide what to do with it, and that was four weeks ago. Fast & Furious 9‘s move could signal another shifting of release dates; if so, then the 2021 summer movie season will begin a bit later than expected. Only time will tell if Dom and his family are forced to drive to a new date yet again.

Source: THR, #F9

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Rachel Labonte
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Rachel LaBonte is a news, feature, and movie review writer for Screen Rant with a deep passion for film and television. A graduate of Emerson College, she majored in Media Arts Production while specializing in screenwriting. She’s been a writer ever since high school when she realized she was rather good at it and joined as many entertainment news clubs as she could while in school. Most notably, she wrote for Emerson’s website Emertainment Monthly, and one of her film reviews won an Evvy (Emerson’s student awards) for Best Review. Her deep love of movies led to her working at a movie theater for five years, which she loved despite the angry customers. An avid reader who constantly buys books before reading the ones she already owns, Rachel is a huge fan of superheroes (especially of the Marvel variety) and wizards and will likely never be able to catch up on all the movies/TV shows she longs to watch.

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