Disney pulls one of its Star Wars movies off the 2026 schedule

Disney originally had two Star Wars movies slated for release in 2026, but now it’s down to just one. The studio has pulled the December 18, 2026 project off the calendar, which was believed to be (but wasn’t certain) the one that would feature Daisy Ridley’s return as Rey. Ice Age 6, which was announced at D23 Brazil just last week, will take its place.

The other Star Wars movie still slated for release in 2026 is The Mandalorian & Grogu, which will be released in theaters on May 22, 2026. Honestly, I think it’s for the best. As much as Disney might want Star Wars to be another Marvel-like big-screen franchise, it just isn’t. Plus, given how long it takes Disney to develop these Star Wars projects, I doubt they could keep up that schedule.

There’s no shortage of Star Wars movies in development. It was recently announced that Simon Kinberg (Dark Phoenix) had signed on to write and produce a new Star Wars trilogy. It’s believed that Daisy Ridley will have a role to play in the new trilogy, but she’s also attached to Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s (Ms. Marvel) standalone Rey movie, which takes place fifteen years after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and finds Rey attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has previously teased the movie: “The First Order has fallen, the Jedi are in chaos — there’s even a question of how many exist anymore — and Rey’s building the New Jedi Order, based on the training that she was given and that Luke imparted on her.” The project was meant to have been in production already, but it recently lost Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) as writer.

Some of the other movies which are still in the works include the Lando movie written by Donald Glover, a Taika Waititi project, and a project directed by James Mangold (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) that takes place 25,000 years before the Skywalker Saga and explores the first Jedi and the discovery of the Force. “It was something that Jim [Mangold] immediately sparked to, and I think it’s a really nice compliment to what we’re doing with moving into the future with Rey, and then understanding a bit more of where this all came from,” Kennedy explained. “Because it will be at the heart of creating the new Jedi Order, so to get a real sense of where that might have began with the dawn of the Jedi could be pretty cool.“