Ice Age 6’s Release Date Is Announced, Replacing the Untitled Star Wars Film

Ice Age 6 now has a release date after eight years of waiting for another adventure in theaters. In addition to following the exploits of Manny (Ray Romano), Sid (John Leguizamo), and Diego (Denis Leary), the animated films also include cameos from Scrat, who is constantly trying to obtain an acorn. The original Ice Age movie was released in 2002 and was a critical and financial success. It gave rise to a multimedia franchise that included four sequels and a Simon Pegg-led spinoff feature on Disney+.

Disney has stated that Ice Age 6 will be released on December 18, 2026, after the announcement of the film’s development. The first two films in the franchise were released in March of their respective years, while the last three were released in July. This will deviate from the franchise’s prior practice of releasing earlier in the year. Additionally, Ice Age 6 will occupy a time window formerly reserved by Disney for an untitled Star Wars film.

What Ice Age 6’s Release Date Means

The franchise’s first theatrical release under Disney will be the sixth movie.

When Ice Age 6 is released in December 2026, it will have been over a decade since the last time viewers saw Manny, Sid, and Diego on a large screen, in the 2016 film Ice Age: Collision Course. Additionally, since Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, which had previously distributed the animated comedic adventures, this will be the first Ice Age film produced for the big screen.

The Fox-owned Blue Sky Studios, which was shut down following the Disney acquisition, also produced the first five Ice Age films. Following the acquisition, the series Ice Age: Scrat Tales and the movie The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild have been available on Disney+. Bardel Entertainment, a veteran of Nickelodeon Animation Studio, took over production of the former from Blue Sky, while the latter was the last production of the now-defunct studio.

Additionally, Ice Age 6 will be released around the holidays, which is when Disney often releases its animated movies. Intriguingly, just one of the three films released by Walt Disney Animation Studio—Wish, Strange World, and Encanto—was a box office hit, while the other two were notorious failures. All three were released in late November. Although it is anticipated to surpass the record-breaking Inside Out 2 from earlier in the year, Moana 2 will likewise follow the same trend and be published on November 27.

Our Take on the Release Date of Ice Age 6

The franchise might have benefited from a ten-year break.

Having the characters take a hiatus from the big screen for over ten years might be exactly what they needed to generate enthusiasm for their comeback, even though Ice Age: Collision Course did not receive a positive reception from critics or moviegoers, receiving only an 18% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Those who grew up with the franchise will feel nostalgic for it when Ice Age 6 is released in 2026, 24 years after the first movie. Now, those fans might want to show it to their own children.

It’s also good to see that Disney is giving the Ice Age series an opportunity to expand by releasing a new film in theaters, after only a few projects have been published on Disney+. The series helped establish Blue Sky Studios as a major motion picture studio before they produced anything from The Peanuts Movie to Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who. Disney’s release of Ice Age 6 demonstrates that the franchise is Blue Sky Studios’ greatest legacy, despite the studio’s closure.