The Furious Delayed—Now on a Box Office Collision Course With Steven Spielberg
Delay sets the 100 percent rated martial arts epic on a collision course with Disclosure Day.
If you were already clearing your schedule for the most hyped martial arts movie in years, I’ve got good news and bad news. The Furious—that borderlines-mythic action thriller that everyone’s calling an 'instant masterpiece'—is indeed coming to theaters. But, in classic fashion, we’re now in for a longer wait than anyone expected. The Furious was supposed to hit screens on May 29 (mark your calendar, then scratch it out). Turns out, Lionsgate has nudged the release back by a couple of weeks, and now it won’t roll out until June 12, 2026. Yeah, that’s a substantial delay. On the bright side, there’s more time to let your anticipation reach fever pitch. Oh, and if you’re wondering, it’s going to be opening the same weekend as Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, but one’s a hard-hitting martial arts smackdown, the other’s a big-budget sci-fi mystery—so there’s room for both, unless you only see one movie a year. Behind all the buzz is director Tanigaki Kenji, a guy who’s as legit as they come in the world of action choreography (he worked on Raging Fire and Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In, if that means anything to you). He’s lined up a cast that’s basically a who’s-who of international martial arts cinema. You’ve got:
- Xie Miao (My Father Is a Hero) playing the lead, Wang Wei—a guy who swings between tradesman and living weapon.
- Joe Taslim (The Raid, Mortal Kombat), perfectly cast as Navin, an obsessed journalist whose wife has vanished into thin air.
- Jeeja Yanin (Chocolate), Yang Enyu (Eye for an Eye 2), Brian Le (The Brothers Sun), Joey Iwanaga (Rurouni Kenshin: Final Chapter Part I - The Final), and Yayan Ruhian (The Raid, The Raid 2)—trust me, if you watch action movies at all, you know these faces.
The setup keeps it simple (thankfully): Xie Miao’s Wang Wei sees his daughter get snatched right in front of him. Police? Absolutely useless (as ever). So, he shifts into brutal-dad mode and goes hunting. Joe Taslim’s character jumps in chasing his own tragedy, and the two form an alliance that’s mostly about fists, fury, and a violent rampage through the underworld. Think: old-school father’s-quest cranked up with modern martial arts insanity. If you’re skeptical about the hype, here’s the rundown: The Furious had its world premiere at Toronto’s 50th International Film Festival last September. Since then, it’s made the festival rounds—Busan, Beyond Fest, and Red Sea, just to name a few—and the response has been ridiculous. Rotten Tomatoes currently has it sitting at a flawless 100%. Critics have lost their minds over it:
Look, is it ridiculous that we have to wait another year and change for this? Absolutely. Does the cast, director, and early buzz justify every ounce of anticipation? Sure seems like it. Odds are, The Furious will be worth the patience. But yeah, if you were planning on a springtime adrenaline rush, see you in June 2026 instead. Time to practice some patience—and maybe binge a few old-school classics to tide you over.