It looks like many studios are still in a flux over some of their upcoming movie releases, mainly thanks to the ongoing state of the cinematic landscape in the wake of the Covid pandemic, and Sony have once again been pushing back the release of Brad Pitt vehicle Bullet Train, which according to Deadline will now not be arriving until July 2022. The upcoming thriller comes from Deadpool 2 director David Leitch and has an ensemble cast of Pitt, Joey King, Andrew Koji, Andrew-Taylor Johnson and Sandra Bullock and completed filming in March this year with an initial eye on an early 2022 release.

Based on the 2010 novel, which was originally called Maria Beetle, the film sees five assassins for hire all onboard a Japanese bullet train where they discover that their assignments are all linked. Having filmed during the pandemic, with shooting starting in October 2020, the movie is expected to be a spectacular action movie that will join the likes of Atomic Blonde, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw and the Deadpool sequel as one of the directors standout stylish efforts. However, its original April release would have set it against the release of Sonic The Hedgehog 2, which despite having a different demographic is certain to dominate the box office chart on its release.

Obviously while the news of another delay in current schedules will make some noise, there is smart aspect to Sony’s decision when it comes to certain movies like Bullet Train. In the last few months, it has been proven that cinemagoers are more than happy to make a trip to the theater for certain movies, but having a big star name like Pitt attached currently doesn’t guarantee audience numbers like it did just two years ago. Without the pull of a big franchise like Marvel or James Bond, many movies that would have been sure-fire blockbusters have struggled to gain a foothold on the market again, leading to the number of movies having broken the $100 domestic gross being very small in comparison to previous years.

Bullet Train has had its fair share of issues even prior to this delay, with Sandra Bullock having to be brought in as a last minute replacement for Lady Gaga, who was forced to drop out of the movie due to a scheduling clash, but hopefully the path is now clear for the movie to make its debut in the summer, when it is once again hoped that something close to normality can resume in cinemas. With that said, the ongoing Covid situation is not about to go away, and with a hefty number of big-hitting movies starting to stack up for the summer, Bullet Train could find itself in just as much difficultly going up against a number of Marvel and DC titles that are also due to drop around that time.

Bullet Train will now arrive in cinemas on July 15th, 2022, where it currently avoids competition from any other movies as the only release of the week.