Chris Pratt’s Garfield Movie Release Date Delayed by Sony

It’s not even Monday, but Sony Pictures just delivered some bummer news to fans of the Garfield franchise. On Friday, the studio announced that its animated reboot of Garfield will be debuting in theaters several months later than previously-planned. Instead of bowing on February 16, 2024, the film has now been delayed to the Memorial Day weekend of May 24, 2024. This means that the world will have to wait just a while longer to see the new film, which has already broken the Internet with the announcement that Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt will be voicing the titular character’s father.

The Garfield movie also stars Samuel L. Jackson as the newly-created character of Garfield’s father, Vic. Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso), Nicholas Hoult (The Great), Cecily Strong (Saturday Night Live) and Ving Rhames (Mission: Impossible) have all been cast in currently-unknown roles.

Mark Dindal of The Emperor’s New Groove and Chicken Little will direct the film which features a script by David Reynolds, the Academy Award nominated co-writer of Finding Nemo and other animated films like Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Mulan. Alcon Entertainment previously acquired the rights to Garfield from creator Jim Davis, who will executive produce. John Cohen, Steven P. Wegner, Andrew Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Namit Malhotra and Tom Jacomb will produce the film while Bridget McMeel and Craig Sost will serve as executive producers.

This new Garfield movie will mark the latest cinematic venture for the Jim Davis-created comic strip character, after he previously starred in two live-action/animated hybrid films made by 20th Century Fox — Garfield and Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties. Both saw Bill Murray voicing the titular cat.

Garfield is just one of several upcoming movies that was moved around by Sony on Friday, with the studio also announcing new shifts for three Marvel movies, including Kraven the Hunter and Madame Web. The sci-fi drama 65 had its release date moved up by over a month, while the studio handed out release dates to a new Karate Kid movie and the next Searching film, Missing. 

What do you think of the new Garfield movie’s release date being delayed? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

As mentioned above, Garfield will now be released in theaters on May 24, 2024.