10 Biggest Questions Surrounding Upcoming Movies
3. How Will Disney Handle The Armie Hammer Scandal? (Death On The Nile)
Kenneth Branagh's Murder On The Orient Express was a fun retelling of the classic story. It also made a killing at the box-office, and a sequel, Death On The Nile, was quickly greenlit - but this franchise might be done before it's even got going.
That's because Death On The Nile star Armie Hammer was recently caught in a scandal involving sexual abuse allegations, forcing him to leave multiple upcoming projects. His Hollywood career is just about over, and this means that Disney - who is handling Death On The Nile's release - has a massive PR nightmare on its hands.
If the movie was still in production, Hammer's inclusion might not be an issue - he would probably just be recast. But the problem here is that Death On The Nile has already been shot, edited, and is ready to go (in fact, it's been ready to go for a while - it was originally scheduled for a late 2019 release).
Essentially, Disney has a movie on its hands that cannot be released in its current state - not without considerable backlash, anyway - so what's their next move?
Recent rumblings have indicated that the film will not be reshot, and it's speculated that it will end up being dumped on Hulu. It's currently scheduled for a February 2022 launch, so we don't have to wait too long to see how this situation will play out.