Walt Disney Studios will release the Maleficent sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, in October 2019 itself instead of May 2020. The information was conveyed through a poster featuring the film’s lead, Angelina Jolie, as the horned witch with a heart of gold.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil will be released on October 18, around the time the United States celebrates Halloween. The original release date was May 29, 2020.

Variety reported that the new release date “pits ‘Maleficent: Mistress of Evil’ against an untitled film from horror-maker Blumhouse” as well as “the second weekends of ‘The Adams Family,’ the adaptation of Donna Tartt’s ‘The Goldfinch,’ ‘Zombieland 2,’ and ‘Gemini Man,’ a futuristic thriller that unites Will Smith and Ang Lee.”

The first movie, Maleficent (2014), centred on the character who featured in Disney’s 1959 animated movie Sleeping Beauty. In a revisionist telling, Jolie plays the witch who casts a spell on a princess, only to regret the curse when she comes to regard the princess as her daughter.

Joachim Ronning has replaced Robert Stormberg as the director of the sequel. The cast includes Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple and Lesley Manville, all of whom were in the first movie, as well as Michelle Pfeiffer, Ed Skrein, Harris Dickinson, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Linda Woolverton, who wrote the 2014 movie, has returned for the second installment.