Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley’s Chaos Walking has been called “unreleasable”

More light is being shed on the problems facing Chaos Walking, the young adult novel-turned-movie starring Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley. Reshoots are currently underway to get things right.

Movie reshoots are standard when it comes to movie making. Typically, they don’t signal that a film is in bad shape; just a few final touches need to be added before it’s released. Unfortunately, there are a few times where movie reshoots do mean trouble, and that’s exactly what seems to be going down for Lionsgate’s Chaos Walking.

The film, adapted by Patrick Ness’ novel, The Knife of Never Letting Go, has been shrouded in mystery lately — as the movie did not look like it was going to make its March 2019 release date. Needless to say, it’s nearly May now, and we definitely haven’t gotten Chaos Walking yet.

Now, it’s become clear why the Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley film hasn’t been released (or even promoted) yet, and it’s nothing but bad news. As The Playlist reports, an article from The Wallstreet Journal highlighted the difficulties and the drama currently surrounding the movie. According to the article:

"[The movie] turned out so poorly it was deemed unreleasable by executives who watched initial cuts last year, according to current and former employees."

“Unreleasable” is a harsh word for a movie that was met with so much promise and potential. The story is about a dystopian town (“dystopian” is already like hitting Bingo when it comes to picking a novel to adapt) where everyone can hear other people’s thoughts. The Chaos Walking series features three novels total, and (let’s be honest), there’s probably the potential to split the last book into two movies.

Since it was first picked up, many compared it to The Hunger Games movie franchise, which was also made through Lionsgate. But as of now, the film’s ability to reach The Hunger Games-status may be in jeopardy. The report also claimed that the film was a “major challenge,” but they’re still investing millions of more dollars into the project to get it right.

Spider-Man: Far From Home’sTom Holland has been sharing photos from the reshoots recently, as they’re scheduled to do about three weeks of additional filming. With Holland on social media to promote the film, he may strike up some interest with fans, but they’ll have to wait a little longer for the film to come out.

While Daisy Ridley is no longer on social media and able to promote the film that way, her large Star Wars fanbase may still come out to support the film. As a young adult novel, the stars definitely lend themselves to giving the movie some leverage despite the struggles the movie’s been facing internally. The premise of the story sounds novel enough to grab audiences, but we’ve learned from The Mortal Instruments movie that not all young adult novel adaptations catch on.

Chaos Walking is now scheduled to come out in 2020.