Phil Roberts 
Nia DaCosta’s CANDYMAN won’t be haunting multiplexes anytime this year
In a move that will come as no surprise, Universal Pictures and MGM have decided to remove Nia DaCosta’s upcoming Candyman sequel/reboot from the 2020 release calendar.
Just hours after learning that Warner Bros. had pushed back the release of Wonder Woman 1984 until Christmas, Universal has followed suit by delaying the release of Candyman in favor of a new unspecified date sometime in 2021. The studios are set to confirm the new release date in the coming weeks. Of course, this isn’t the first time Candyman has been delayed. The movie was originally set to terrify audiences back in June until the COVID outbreak derailed everything and sent the world into lockdown.
To offer some clarity on the delay, director Nia DaCosta took to social media and revealed the thought process behind the delay:
“We made Candyman to be seen in theaters. Not just for the spectacle but because the film is about community and stories–how they shape each other, how they shape us. It’s about the collective experience of trauma and joy, suffering and triumph, and the stories we tell around it. We wanted the horror and humanity of Candyman to be experienced in a collective, a community, so we’re pushing Candyman to next year, to ensure that everyone can see the film, in theaters, and share in that experience.” she wrote on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/NiaDaCosta/status/1304758133210910722?s=20
Here’s the official synopsis:
For as long as residents can remember, the housing projects of Chicago’s Cabrini Green neighborhood were terrorized by a word-of-mouth ghost story about a supernatural killer with a hook for a hand, easily summoned by those daring to repeat his name five times into a mirror. In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II; HBO’s Watchmen) and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris; If Beale Street Could Talk), move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials. With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini Green old-timer (Colman Domingo; HBO’s Euphoria) exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind Candyman. Anxious to maintain his status in the Chicago art world, Anthony begins to explore these macabre details in his studio as fresh grist for paintings, unknowingly opening a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifying wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.
Although I was looking forward to immersing myself in Nia DaCosta’s vision of Candyman, I applaud the decision to delay its release. Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic shows no signs of relenting – and with global infection rates rising once again the 2020 release calendar would be better served by wiping the slate clean in favor of starting afresh in 2021.
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Phil Roberts is the Owner, Daily Content Manager, and Editor-In-Chief of The Future of the Force. He is passionate about Star Wars, Batman, DC, Marvel, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, King Kong, and the Ray Harryhausen movies. Follow him on Twitter @philthecool where he uses the force and babbles frequently!
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Phil Roberts is the Owner, Daily Content Manager, and Editor-In-Chief of The Future of the Force. He is passionate about Star Wars, Batman, DC, Marvel, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, King Kong, and the Ray Harryhausen movies. Follow him on Twitter where he uses the force and babbles frequently!
