The COVID-19 pandemic has had an immeasurable effect around the world. Crowds currently cannot gather in the usual ways. Physical distancing is the norm. That of course affects entertainment and release schedules. A number of companies have shut down and delayed productions to keep everyone safe. Many movie theaters closed for the same reason. To that end, studios are shuffling release dates. Disney has moved their slate around a few times. The latest update sees them push Black Widow into 2021 (via Variety). Yep, a whole year.
Marvel/Sony
We’ll have to wait just a bit longer for Marvel’s Phase 4 to kick into gear with Black Widow. Below are all the new MCU release dates with the original release in parentheses. Note this recent Black Widow move shuffled Eternals and Shang-Chi.
– Black Widow: May 7, 2021 (moved from May 1, 2020 and November 6, 2020)
– Eternals: November 5, 2021 (moved from November 6, 2020 and February 12, 2021)
– Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: July 9, 2021 (moved from February 12, 2021 and May 7, 2021)
– Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: November 5, 2021 (moved from May 7, 2021)
– Thor: Love and Thunder: February 18, 2022 (moved from November 5, 2021)
– Black Panther 2: May 8, 2022 (this one’s stayed the same)
– Captain Marvel 2: July 8, 2022 (no previous date announced)
– The third Spider-Man movie: November 5, 2021 (moved from July 16, 2021)
– Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: March 25, 2022 (moved from November 5, 2021)
– Thor: Love and Thunder: February 11, 2022 (moved up from February 18, 2022)
– Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel: October 7, 2022 (moved from April 8, 2022)
As you can see, Marvel advanced their schedule forward to fill existing slots for their movies. The upshot is that since Black Widow is kicking off the next MCU phase, we won’t have a terribly long pause between Phase 4 film releases. We’ll see about their Disney+ TV series, The Falcon and Winter Soldier, WandaVision, and Loki, included in Phase 4. We know Marvel paused production on the shows in March.
Marvel
It’s worth noting the last time we saw a MCU release slate, the July 2022 spot was held for an “Untitled Marvel Movie.” Now we know it’s for Captain Marvel 2. Disney began development for the title in January.
The slate had one more untitled entry too; that one’s for October 2022. That one is supposed to be another Sony and Marvel collaboration. Ultimately, a lot of things are going to change in the foreseeable future, so we’ll just have to wait and see.
Featured Image: Marvel
Originally published on April 3, 2020 with an update on April 24, 2020.
Amy Ratcliffe is the Managing Editor for Nerdist and the author of Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy. Follow her on Twitter.
