WIRE Buzz: The Croods 2 coming sooner; WandaVision debuting in 'coming months'

In an unusual move, DreamWorks Animation has decided to move up the theatrical release of The Croods 2: A New Age from Dec. 23 to Nov. 25, Deadline reported today.

This is an unexpected decision in an age when most major studios continue to delay large releases in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. However, this Croods-related change could be due to the fact that Warner Bros. shifted Wonder Woman 1984 to Dec. 25, which could dominate other films going up against it, assuming that theaters are even slightly back to normal operating capacity by the end of the year.

That said, Nov. 25 (the Wednesday before Thanksgiving) is only five days after the planned debut of the 25th James Bond project: No Time to Die. Of course, there is a chance that the Bond film, which features Daniel Craig's final turn as 007, could be delayed until next year if the health crisis continues to keep potential moviegoers away from theaters.

Check out the evolutionary Croods 2 poster ahead of the trailer debut this coming Monday (Sep. 21):

Credit: DreamWorks Animation

Pixar's Soul is also slated to open on Nov. 20, but a report from Variety posits that Disney is considering a streaming rollout instead. In addition, another delay for Marvel Studios' Black Widow (scheduled for Nov. 6) is expected any day now, per the report.

Should DreamWorks decide to skip theaters for its Croods sequel, it won't be an out-of-left-field strategy. The studio already set a precedent in April by releasing Trolls World Tour onto PVOD platforms after theater chains began to shutter their doors. That sequel's unconventional debut reportedly made $100 million in digital sales.

In any case, The Croods: A New Age (directed by Joel Crawford) is about the titular cave family meeting a "more-evolved" clan named the Bettermans. Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Catherine Keener, Ryan Reynolds, Cloris Leachman, and Clark Duke return to voice their prehistoric characters from the first movie. The Bettermans are played by Peter Dinklage, Leslie Mann, and Kelly Marie Tran. Joanna Lumley is also among the cast's newcomers.

(DreamWorks and SYFY WIRE are both owned by NBCUniversal.)

Despite production shutdowns caused by COVID-19, it looks like Marvel Studios' WandaVision series will still debut on Disney+ soon, the streaming service confirmed in a tweet today. The post teases new releases for "the coming months," a vague phrase that seems to imply before 2020 is over, but could very well stretch into 2021.

The show was originally scheduled to premiere this fall anyway — about two months after The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which just resumed production with Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan. Centering around Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany), WandaVision reportedly resumed its own shoot in July. It's still unclear how the series — showrun by Captain Marvel and Black Widow screenwriter Jac Schaeffer — will fit into the MCU after Vision was killed by Josh Brolin's Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War. All we really know is that it's going to get super trippy and somehow tie into the events of Sam Raimi's Doctor Strange sequel: In the Multiverse of Madness.

WandaVision is also set to feature other established MCU characters: Thor's Darcy Lewis (Kat Dennings), a grown-up version of Captain Marvel's Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and Ant-Man and the Wasp's Agent Woo (Randall Park). Kathryn Hahn is playing some sort of a curious neighbor, who lives next to Wanda and Vision, whose role is more than likely a tribute to Alice Pearce's Gladys Kravitz on Bewitched.

Fans got their first look at the project (and two other Marvel shows) during this year's Super Bowl.