Everything from The Batman to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has ceased production thanks to the Coronavirus pandemic, but while those movies have been put on hold for two weeks, Amazon's live-action The Lord of the Rings seris could ultimately fail to meet its planned 2021 premiere.
Deadline reveals that around 800 production staff have been made to stand down today after New Zealand closed its borders on March 13th (the strongest reaction to Coronavirus yet).
The trade notes that the $1 billion series had initially taken a two-week hiatus, but staff working on the series have been told that, "there are no clear answers to when we will resume."
No one working on the series is believed to have tested positive for Coronavirus, but both cast and crew were told "not report to the set or to the studio without the express permission of your supervisor." As you might expect, this shut down is being done to "minimise stress on the resources and infrastructures around us by doing our part to reduce population density in our communities and daily activities, in efforts to help reduce the spread of the virus."
As we mentioned, the plan was for The Lord of the Rings to debut next year, but with the country taking the pandemic so seriously, the delays could be significantly longer than elsewhere.
It feels like movies and TV shows being delayed is going to become the norm moving forward, and there's not a single studio currently unaffected by this deadly virus. We'll be sure to keep you guys up to date with all the latest news as it comes in, though, as there's still plenty going on in the worlds of superheroes, fantasy, sci-fi, and comic books we can keep you updated with!
About The Author:
Comic Book Reader. Film Lover. WWE and F1 Fan. Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic and ComicBookMovie.com's #1 contributor.