Disney has just announced a huge shift for its 2025-26 movie slate, including a date for the anticipated Mandalorian movie and updates for Moana and Toy Story 5! Here’s the full update!
Like all movie studios, Disney has had a rough time in 2023, with the WGA and SAG strikes affecting production. It wasn’t helped by Disney suffering a string of box office flops, hurting the company’s bottom line.
That’s led to shifts such as how Deadpool & Wolverine will be the only MCU theatrical release for 2024 and other films like the Snow White remake put off until next year. Now, ahead of the annual CinemaCon, Disney has unveiled some big dates for their coming movie calendar.
The Mandolarian and Grogu
The already announced movie spin-off of the hit Star Wars show has an official title in The Mandalorian and Grogu. It also now has a date of May 22, 2026. Yep, after the last few movies were premiering at Christmas, a Star Wars film finally returns to Memorial Day weekend like previous films. The last one to do so was 2018’s Solo, which mostly suffered opening in the wake of Avengers: Infinity War.
There’s no word on the plot yet, but it’s expected that Jon Favreau will write and direct with Pedro Pascal in the title role as the Mandalorian, and Grogu will go on another epic adventure.
Toy Story 5
As many fans expected, the “unnamed Pixar film” on the calendar is now going to be the fifth movie in the iconic Pixar franchise, set to premiere June 19, 2026. No word on the plot or if Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and the rest of the cast of the beloved films will return.
It’s tricky to see where Disney goes with this as Toy Story 4 seemed the final word on the storyline. It’s possible it may actually follow a new batch of toys but again too early to tell. It just looks like Disney trying to use another classic franchise to get box office attention.
Moana Live-Action
One of the big surprises of Disney was that Moana 2 was going to be released in theaters this Thanksgiving. There had been almost no advance buzz a sequel was even coming, especially with Disney already planning a live-action version of the original.
It appears the sequel has made Disney decide that two Moana projects in the same year is too much. Thus, the live-action Moana is now being delayed from June 27, 2025, to July 10, 2026. Dwayne Johnson is still expected to reprise his role as Maui in the film, with Disney thinking a bit of distance from the animated sequel can be better even if it still seems too fresh a property to do in live-action yet.
Tron: Ares
After a decade and a half waiting for another sequel to Disney’s cult sci-fi hit, fans now have a date. The new film starring Jared Leto has been placed into the empty slot on October 10, 2025. Production is still underway, so it’ll be a while before Disney can offer more than a few on-set peeks, but at least finally a date for it.
Other films
Other movies shuffled around aren’t pure Disney but more falling under the Fox umbrella. That includes The Amateur, a thriller starring Rami Malek, which was scheduled for November 8 but is now pushed to April 11, 2025. This is likely due to the buzz that Universal Studios has some big releases planned for November.
Also, the much delayed Amy Adams-starring thriller Nightbitch, made for Fox's Searchlight division, finally has a theatrical release date of December 6. There had been buzz it'd be going straight to Hulu but instead landing a theatrical release after all.
Disney still has plenty set for MCU and Star Wars movies, but these newly announced dates show how the studio is hoping to bounce back after a rough 2023 and regain their box office glory in the years ahead.