Christopher Nolan’s Film to Be Delayed Again

It’s been a rough journey to cinemas for Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, which was once expected to be the standout blockbuster among another crowded summer movie season.

Instead, the film has faced repeated delays as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered cinemas across the globe, with serious questions arising over whether it would be possible or responsible to release it this year.

Nevertheless, the fantasy thriller has remained committed to its goal of ushering in the age of post-COVID film-going, currently gazing an unconventional release strategy to beat its competition to the punch.

The film will be launched in several countries, including certain parts of the USA in early September, and China at a date to be determined.

Although Warner Bros has released little away regarding plot, we know Tenet follows the Protagonist – a secret agent battling to prevent World War Three.

“Armed with only one word—Tenet—and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time,” says the film’s official synopsis.

Interestingly, Tenet is a palindrome i.e. a word that reads the same backwards as it does forwards. Given that the film plays around with time travel, including by showing action sequences in reverse, this could come into play at some point.

Subsequently, Tenet looks set to play with the laws of time in new and interesting ways, as shown off in the first trailer which sees some impressive stunts rewinding back and forth in a very intriguing way.

It might be notable that we don’t even know the name of the main character in Tenet, only that he is played by up and coming actor John David Washington, as some fans speculate it could be connected to one of Nolan’s previous films.

After all, the mysterious sci-fi film has had several release dates so far and could very well be pushed back again if cases of coronavirus begin to rise.

The much-anticipated blockbuster was originally scheduled for release on 17th July, making it the first big-budget movie to arrive in cinemas post-coronavirus.

Unsurprisingly the movie was pushed back to 12th August in light of cinemas re-opening later than expected, before being pulled again due to continued uncertainty.

It has now emerged that Warner Bros will experiment with a staggered release strategy, dropping the film in certain countries deemed lower risk, while delaying it in the places that remain badly affected.