Warner Bros. has announced a new release date for the highly-anticipated collaboration between acclaimed director Bong Joon Ho and actor Robert Pattinson, “Mickey 17,” pushing its premiere to 2025.
The science fiction film is now set to hit theaters on January 31, 2025, following its removal from the originally slated release date of March 29, 2024. This decision comes as Warner Bros. adjusted its lineup, moving “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” forward by two weeks to fill the gap left by “Mickey 17.” Sources familiar with the matter revealed to Variety that the rescheduling aimed to allow more time for the completion of the project, which faced delays due to strikes and other production challenges last year.
The new release date in January 2025 will also enable “Mickey 17” to debut in IMAX, a possibility that was not feasible earlier due to prior commitments for other titles. Moreover, the chosen date coincides with Lunar New Year, a significant cinematic event globally.
January typically experiences a lull in box office activity, with few major releases, making it an opportune time for highly-anticipated films like “Mickey 17” to capitalize on pent-up demand. Recent successes during this period, such as “M3GAN,” “Bad Boys for Life,” the “Scream” reboot, and “Split,” indicate the potential for strong performance. In terms of competition, “Mickey 17” will premiere between the expansion of “Paddington in Peru” on January 17 and Marvel’s “Captain America: Brave New World” two weeks later on February 14.
“Mickey 17” marks Bong Joon Ho’s first feature since “Parasite,” the groundbreaking film that achieved unprecedented success as the highest-grossing Korean film and the first non-English language movie to win the Best Picture at the Oscars. Bong serves as writer, director, and producer for the upcoming project through his company Offscreen, alongside producers Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner of Plan B and Dooho Choi of Kate Street Pictures.
Based on Edward Ashton’s 2022 novel, the film is described by its publisher, St. Martin Press, as a high-concept cerebral thriller akin to “The Martian” and “Dark Matter.” Pattinson portrays an “expendable,” a disposable worker on a mission to colonize an ice planet, who rebels against being replaced by his clone. While specific plot details remain under wraps, the star-studded cast also includes Naomi Ackie, Steven Yeun, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo.
