Disney and Marvel Studios are certainly not the only companies scrambling to juggle release
schedules and production timelines in the Year of the Plague, but they may have the
most complicated task ahead of them, thanks to the complexity of the Marvel Cinematic
Universe. While movies like No Time to Die and Wonder Woman 1984 can probably survive
a little disruption in their release strategies, Disney depends on its MCU projects hitting
their cues in order to preserve the integrity of the overarching story that links all the
series and films. Thus, the bad but predictable news that came from Disney on April 3 is especially
tough for Marvel Phase 4. Let's break it down.
Rewinding a bit, in mid-March 2020 came the news that production on The Falcon and the
Winter Soldier in Prague had been halted due to government measures in the Czech Republic
intended to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Then, as it became clear that movie theaters
wouldn't be opening back up any time soon, Disney was forced to reevaluate the upcoming
release dates for some of its biggest films. Here's the rub: the changes that the Mouse
House announced on April 3 don't just impact April and May movies. The effects on the MCU
ripple all the way out to 2022.
"Isn't it beautiful? A world beyond time."
In film, scheduling changes often have cascading consequences. The entire release schedule
is designed to avoid major conflicts. If a studio releases two tent poles on the same
weekend, they run the risk of cannibalizing their own ticket sales. So when you punt one
big film to a later date, it often means shifting the big movie that was originally scheduled
for the second date and so on, and so on.
According to Variety, Disney's new release schedule includes some major changes to Marvel
Phase 4 projects, including Black Widow, The Eternals, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the
Ten Rings, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and the fourth Thor movie, Thor:
Love and Thunder. Other big-budget family flicks like Indiana Jones 5 and Jungle Cruise
have also been affected by the changes, though the shuffling of the MCU appears to be the
most significant repercussion of the rescheduling for fans and Disney both.
"Buddy. You alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine, why? D-don't I look alright?"
As fans know, Phase 4 of the MCU will kick off with Black Widow, a prequel flick focusing
on Scarlet Johansson's super spy-turned-Avenger. That's still very much the plan, but Black
Widow has just been delayed from its intended May 1 debut all the way back to November 6.
That means Phase 4 won't begin until this fall, throwing the entire plan off course.
It also means that Black Widow has taken the spot of another Phase 4 staple, The Eternals.
Obviously, Disney and Marvel aren't going to release two movies on the same day, so
The Eternals has had to move to February 12, 2021 the day that Shang-Chi and the Legend
of the Ten Rings was meant to open in theaters. Shifting Black Widow to what's ostensibly
the other available release date for a Marvel movie has created a domino effect, with each
Phase 4 MCU film now occupying the date that its successor was initially slotted in. Shang-Chi
will hit cinemas on May 7, 2021, followed by the reality-bending Doctor Strange sequel
on November 5, 2021. Disney and Marvel gave Thor: Love and Thunder a totally new release
date not previously listed on the 2020-2021 MCU schedule: February 18, 2022.
So far, Black Panther 2 is the only Phase 4 film that hasn't been rattled by the change.
Our second jaunt to the utopia of Wakanda is still on the books for May 6, 2022. That
film will be followed by another direct sequel, Captain Marvel 2, which is set to hit theaters
on July 8, 2022. While these shifts should preserve the MCU's hard-wrought continuity,
in some cases they represent nearly year-long delays.
"What about The New Mutants?" you ask. Well, the news is even worse for fans eagerly awaiting
the X-Men's repatriation to the Marvel canon especially after 2019's underwhelming Dark
Phoenix. After being delayed three times before, The New Mutants has been postponed indefinitely.
It joins the ranks of Woman in the Window, Antlers, and The Personal History of David
Copperfield all Disney-owned projects currently stranded without firm release dates.
Sure to frustrate fans is the fact that many of these delayed projects are already in the
can. Instead of kicking them to streaming, Disney has decided to hold them back in an
attempt to salvage some kind of theatrical release. Just how these changes in the film
division may affect the release schedule on Disney+ isn't entirely clear, but we'll continue
to keep you up-to-date as the situation develops.
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