20th Century Fox has moved up the release of its Freddie Mercury movie Bohemian Rhapsody while delaying the release of two X-Men movies — Dark Phoenix and New Mutants, the studio announced late Monday night.

Rami Malek stars as the flamboyant Queen singer in Bohemian Rhapsody, which has moved up from Christmas Day to Nov. 2, 2018. It takes over the release date from Dark Phoenix, which has moved to Feb. 14, 2019, where it will open against Paramount’s Mark Wahlberg-Rose Byrne comedy Instant Family.

Meanwhile, Josh Boone’s New Mutants has been dealt a second significant delay, moving from Feb. 22, 2019 to Aug. 2, 2019. This is a movie that was originally slated to open in April 2018! It has undergone major reshoots, but still, even factoring in that delay, this is a long wait! Personally, I think this will only lead to increased speculation that New Mutants will forgo a theatrical release and instead debut on Disney’s new streaming platform, once that studio’s acquisition of Fox is finalized.

I mean, with Dark Phoenix flying to February 2019, that’s a major benefit for Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, since Bohemian Rhapsody will only open to a fraction of what Dark Phoenix does. The move also gives Bohemian Rhapsody better position as far as awards season goes, since Christmas Day releases can sometimes find it hard to gain traction so late in the Oscar race.

Elsewhere, Fox has moved The Kid Who Would Be King from Feb. 14, 2019 (Dark Phoenix took over its date) to March 1, 2019 — a two-week delay, which is nothing to be concerned about. King replaces James Mangold’s The Force on the calendar, and that gritty crime drama is now unset altogether — which is something to be concerned about. Quite frankly, all these release date changes feel like decisions that Disney themselves would’ve made, if 20th Century Fox were officially under their control right now.

Finally, the animated film Spies in Disguise has moved back from Jan. 18, 2019 to April 19, 2019, while the Chrissy Metz movie Breakthrough from director Roxann Dawson and producer DeVon Franklin will arrive on April 12, 2019.

Jeff Sneider | Editor in Chief