Warner Bros. shuffled its film release schedule, planting “Final Destination: Bloodlines” on the calendar in summer and delaying the J.J. Abrams-backed mystery thriller “Flowervale Street” to 2026.
“Final Destination 6” will be released on May 16, 2025. It’s taking over the slot previously occupied by “Flowervale Street,” which was set for mid May but has been pushed nearly a year to March 13, 2026. “Final Destination: Bloodlines” is the only major studio release on that date, but it will debut two weeks after Disney’s Marvel adventure “Thunderbolts” (May 2) and the week prior to Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning” and Disney’s live-action “Lilo & Stitch” (May 23).
The studio also acquired “Animal Friends,” a live-action/ CGI hybrid road trip adventure starring Ryan Reynolds, Jason Momoa, Aubrey Plaza and TikToker Addison Rae, and pushed its release date back to Oct. 10. Sony was previously set to release the film in August before Warner Bros. took over distribution duties for unexplained reasons. On its current release date, “Animal Friends” will open alongside Disney’s “Tron: Ares.”
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The studio offered various reasons for the shakeups and scheduling decisions. With “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” Warner Bros. pointed to the May corridor as a successful launching point for genre franchises such as “A Quiet Place Part II,” “The Hangover” and “The Fast and the Furious.” October, when “Animal Friends” will hit the big screen, has proven to be big for R-rated comedies like “Jackass” and “Zombieland.” And in the case of “Flowervale Street,” the studio pointed to mid-March as a prime window for tentpoles in the vein of “Dune: Part Two,” “The Batman” and “Godzilla vs. Kong.”
“Final Destination: Bloodlines” will be directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein. It’s the first new installment in the franchise in 14 years, since 2011’s “Final Destination 5.” Beginning in 2000 with the original “Final Destination,” the slasher series was among the most durable horror properties of the early aughts. The films, usually centering on young people who escape impending death, only to be killed anyway in increasingly insane accidents, have grossed a combined $657 million worldwide.
Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor and Maisy Stella (“My Old Ass”) will star in “Flowervale Street,” written and directed by David Robert Mitchell (“It Follows”). Plot details for the $85 million film have been kept under wraps but given its calendar placement, Warners is positioning “Flowervale Street” as a blockbuster hopeful.