Will the rest of Hollywood follow suit after Dune: Part Two's big delay?

The final quarter of 2023's scheduled movie releases might be about to collapse due to the striking unions of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA.

It's now nearing four months since the Writers' Guild of America shut down their laptops over an ongoing labour dispute with the Hollywood studios, while the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists began picketing against detrimental AI obligations in the middle of July, and continue to do so.

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As a result, a major percentage of the entertainment industry has ceased to create its magic until a resolution is found, but up until Dune: Part Two's recently-confirmed delay (now hitting the big screen on March 15, 2024), it was understood that cinemagoers could at least look forward to projects that were already in the can.

This decision to cancel the Dune sequel's October premiere is almost certainly down to the strikes, as its actors won't be around to fulfil their promotional duties if an agreement still isn't in place.

The question we're now forced to contend with is: will every other major movie be safely pushed back to a 2024 release?

Fans of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, Killers of the Flower Moon, The Marvels, Wonka, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, and David Fincher's The Killer will be hoping this isn't the case.

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Should this nightmare situation actually arise, complications are bound to emerge with the streaming platforms Apple TV+ and Netflix, as Martin Scorsese's true-crime western and Fincher's assassin thriller belong to them and require a dual release strategy.

You'd imagine that both filmmakers want their stories seen up on the big screen before anybody's living room TV, but the fact of the matter is, it isn't a necessity for streamers to host promo parties for their content, so the strikes won't be causing any problems in that sense - other than moral, perhaps.

As we approach these planned release dates, let's hope normalcy soon resumes in Hollywood.

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