In a move that I can’t say that I’m too surprised about, the upcoming Monster Hunter movie has been delayed. This isn’t a short term delay though, however, as the new US release date for the movie is April 23rd, 2021 in the United States. Following up on this delay announcement, the Japanese side has also announced a delay for the movie for “sometime in 2021”. The movie was initially scheduled to hit theatres on September 4th, 2020.
The movie which had been rumored to be in production since at least 2016 when Capcom producer Ryozo Tsujimoto stated that a Hollywood Monster Hunter film was in the works, with the official confirmation coming out a couple of years later in 2018. The movie starring Milla Jovovich and Tony Jaa sees a United Nations military team falling into a portal to an alternate world, where Hunters fight giant monsters. Two groups work together to defend the portal, thwarting monsters from entering and invading Earth.
The movie is scheduled to be released by Sony Pictures in North America, Tencent Pictures in China, and Toho Films in Japan. What I find really odd about this release, is that even though the initial release date was scheduled for September of this year, only 3 months from now, there has yet to be an official release of a trailer for the film. There was a leaked trailer that someone shot on their phone from an event in China, but this is the only thing that has shown the world that the film is actually real.
With the Monster Hunter movie being delayed, it makes you wonder if they’re going to use the additional time to add further polish to the CG which is used to depict the giant monsters that our protagonists are clearly going to have to go to battle with, or if they’re just going to sit on the completed product until the release date.
Where there has been an updated release date announced for North America, there has yet to be an updated date provided in Japan with Toho Films stating that they will offer a further update once a date has been decided upon.