Warner Bros. gives Tenet, The Matrix 4, Godzilla vs. Kong new release dates

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

With the COVID-19 pandemic having put Hollywood on pause for the last few months, Warner Bros. has decided to shuffle their release schedule – starting by pushing Christopher Nolan's TENET back two weeks. TENET had refused to budge from its July 17th release date while waiting to see how the pandemic would go, but now it's set to reach theatres on July 31st.

John David Washington is the new Protagonist in Christopher Nolan’s original sci-fi action spectacle “Tenet.” Armed with only one word—Tenet—and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time. Not time travel. Inversion.

The next change is the monster mash crossover GODZILLA VS. KONG, which has been moved yet again. Originally scheduled for release on May 29th of this year, it was moved up to March 13th, but then pushed back to November 20th so director Adam Wingard could have more time to make it "an A+ movie". Coming out on March 13th would have been a disaster anyway, due to the pandemic. Now GODZILLA VS. KONG will be released eight days shy of one year after its original date: May 21, 2021. That puts it in direct competition with Lionsgate's re-scheduled SPIRAL: FROM THE BOOK OF SAW.

Written by Mike Dougherty and Terry Rossio, GODZILLA VS. KONG has the following synopsis:

In a time when monsters walk the Earth, humanity’s fight for its future sets Godzilla and Kong on a collision course that will see the two most powerful forces of nature on the planet collide in a spectacular battle for the ages. As Monarch embarks on a perilous mission into uncharted terrain and unearths clues to the Titans’ origins, a human conspiracy threatens to wipe the creatures, both good and bad, from the face of the earth forever.

May 21, 2021 is a familiar release date for Warner Bros., because that's when they had been aiming to get THE MATRIX 4 into theatres. GODZILLA VS. KONG is able to take over that date because THE MATRIX 4 has been delayed until April 1, 2022.

THE MATRIX 4 was the only one of these three that was still filming when the pandemic shutdown hit. Warner Bros. is hoping to get cameras rolling again next month.

The sequel doesn't have an official synopsis, but Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss are back as Neo and Trinity. Lana Wachowski is directing THE MATRIX 4 from a screenplay she wrote with Aleksandar Hemon and David Mitchell.