Chris Pratt's Garfield is coming for you in 2024

Which is to say that the studio released news today setting a release date for its upcoming Garfield movie, the latest cinematic reinvention for the orange cat who enjoys a nice Italian casserole but dislikes one out of seven days of the week. In an apparent effort to beat out Todd Phillips’ Joker sequel for the project we’re most depressed to hear about getting confirmed for theaters this evening, the Prattfield film has now been scheduled for February 16, 2024.

This is the third Garfield film to be released in theaters over the last 20 years—unless you live in Turkey, in which case it’s the fourth, because those lucky sons of guns got to see 2007's Garfield Gets Real in all its cinematic glory. (Including the alleged bit from the Jim Davis-produced movie where a lazy animator supposedly pulled a clipping from an internet-edited Garfield strip where Jon calls his cat a “motherfucker,” and accidentally put it in the film.)

None of which has anything to do with this new movie, of course, but that fact lives rent-free in our head, so we figured we’d give it an airing out today. In addition to Pratt, the upcoming Garfield film also stars Samuel L. Jackson, who’ll reportedly be playing “Vic,” a character who is apparently Garfield’s never-before-seen father. Pratt, meanwhile, has developed a solid little sideline in voice acting in recent years; he is also now, of course, Mario, suggesting that any beloved animated character with a taste for Italian food might now fell under his unrelenting remit.

[via Deadline]