Last weekend, Disney officially confirmed that a sixth “Ice Age” film is currently in production. It will see Manny, Diego, Ellie, Sid, Scrat, and Baby Scrat returning to the big screen in an epic animated adventure.

It has been confirmed that Ray Romano, Queen Latifah, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary and Simon Pegg will be returning to provide their voices for the new film.

Initially, Disney announced that “Ice Age 6” would be coming to cinemas in 2026, but today, it’s been revealed that the film will now come out on December 18th, 2026.

Disney has reshuffled its schedule. Previously, a new untitled Star Wars film was supposed to arrive in cinemas on December 18th, 2026, but that movie has now been pulled from the lineup.

Lucasfilm will be releasing “The Mandalorian & Grogu” film in cinemas in May, and Disney still has another untitled Star Wars film scheduled for December 17th, 2027.  

Over the past few years, Lucasfilm has been working on multiple Star Wars films from a variety of different directors and creators, including Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Dave Filoni, James Mangold, Taika Waititi, Donald Glover, Shawn Levy, Rian Johnson and Patty Jenkins.  But none of them have managed to get far into development.  Recently, it was revealed that Simon Kinberg is developing three new Star Wars films, with episodes X, XI, and XII.

Lucasfilm has been struggling to organise its film slate, especially as it pivoted to creating shows for Disney+. However, it’s had mixed success with those, with both “The Acolyte” and “Willow” failing to connect with audiences. This has resulted in some major changes at the studio, with a refocus on theatrical releases. The next film being released is basically a reworked movie version of what was going to be the fourth season of “The Mandalorian” Disney+ show.

“Ice Age” has been a massive hit for 20th Century Studios, pulling in around a billion at the box office and the Christmas release date is certainly going to be a great time to get families into cinemas for a new adventure.

Roger’s Take:  I think the Christmas release slot is perfect for “Ice Age 6”, but Disney needs to do some major restructuring at Lucasfilm, as they keep having to delay more and more projects, because nothing seems to be clicking during the development.  It almost feels like bringing Simon in to work on three new episodes is a complete reboot of the creative process to start from scratch.

What do you think of “Ice Age 6” taking the untitled Star Wars movie’s release slot?  Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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