‘CHALLENGERS’ has been delayed to April 26, 2024

Luca Guadagnino’s “Challengers,” starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, and Mike Faist, has been delayed until April 26, 2024. The film was slated to open the Venice Film Festival.

Venice organizers announced in a statement on Friday that the movie “will not participate at the festival following a decision made by the production” after a week of discussions.

Venice has chosen an Italian film to replace “Challengers” as its new opening night film. “Comandante,” starring Pierfrancesco Favino, will now have its world premiere in competition and will kick off the festival on August 30th.

In the midst of ongoing work stoppages, the situation reveals a new issue for Hollywood: movies like “Challengers,” which relys heavily on Zendaya’s 200 million followers on social media to sell the movies to fans. Over 150 million people have watched the “Challengers” first trailer and it’s the most watched trailer for an original movie in the first 24 hours (i.e., not a sequel, reboot, or adaptation of an existing IP).

The impact of actors being unable to promote their work will most likely result in many more films, such as “Challengers,” being postponed due to their stars not being able to do any promotional work for it.