Development: Wicked sets release date; Everyone wants Lord and Miller's Last Human; Terminator: Dark Fate?

It looks like December of 2021 will be a wicked Christmas season.

According to Deadline, Universal’s long-anticipated film adaptation of the smash Broadway musical Wicked has set a release date of Dec. 22, 2021. It was originally set for December of 2019, but Tom Hooper's live-action adaptation of Cats (another Broadway smash) purred its way into that date. Stephen Daldry is still set to direct Wicked, with Marc Platt (Into the Woods) serving as producer.

Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire, the musical has a book by Winnie Holzman and music/lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. They are both working with Daldry and Platt on the film version. The musical tale of what went down in Oz before Dorothy came crashing in was nominated for 10 Tony Awards in 2004 (winning 3, including Best Actress in a Musical for Idina Menzel), became Broadway's second-highest grossing show in 2017, and is still running today.

There is no word at this time as to who will star in the adaptation, or whether any regulars from the original Broadway production (Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth) might be involved. Even though the film will be going up against Avatar 3 in 2021, Wicked fans are very dedicated — there's every possibility that the movie will defy gravity, and that nothing's gonna bring it down. Ahhh-ah-ah-ahh-ahhhhh!

Phil Lord and Chris Miller are pretty hot right now, and a high level of interest in one of their latest projects is a clear sign that the heat isn't dying down.

One of their films currently in development is a sci-fi story called Last Human, which is based on a novel by Lee Bacon that isn't even out yet.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the project has "sparked a heated interest from multiple studios, if not an outright bidding war." This may have something to do with the rabid success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which Lord co-wrote and they both co-produced. The film is favored to take home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

Henry Gayden (Shazam!) is writing the screenplay, which will tell the story of XR_935, a 12-year-old robot living in a world without humans — they've all (presumably) died out after a robot apocalypse. Before long, XR comes across 12-year-old Emma, who managed to survive by way of an underground bunker. An "unlikely friendship" ensues that will, as THR reports, challenge ideas of prejudice. The book itself will be published in October of 2019.

So far, Sony and Warner Bros. are the front-runners in the quest to attain the project. Sony is behind the Spider-Verse, while Warner Bros. is behind the LEGO movies, another series that Lord and Miller are a part of, which pretty much put them on the map. (The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is in theaters now.)

Finally today, we have some news about James Cameron's return to the world of the Terminator franchise. Cameron will produce the new film, and it will be directed by Tim Miller.

In speaking with Yahoo, Cameron revealed the working title for the film. "We’re calling it Terminator: Dark Fate. That’s our working title right now.”

You know what they say: "No dark fate but what we make." Okay, nobody says that, but still.

The sixth film in the Terminator franchise will bring back Arnold Schwarzenegger as the titular Terminator, and will also include Linda Hamilton in the role of Sarah Connor. It will pick up after the events of the second Terminator film, and will pretend that Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation, and Terminator Genisys never happened. It's almost like a movie-killing robot from the future got sent back and stopped them from happening, which is why Terminator: Rise of the Salvation Genisys will not be a thing when Sarah Connor makes her triumphant return.

Terminator: Dark Fate (if that is what it ends up being called) will come to terminate your cinema on Nov. 1, 2019. Here's hoping that the film will give the Terminator an excuse to say, "Cy-ba-dyyne!"

UPDATE: This article was updated on 2/11/19.