Another day, another tale of a major Hollywood studio reshuffling their highest profile projects due to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding the Coronavirus pandemic, except this time there’s a certain sense of deja vu. It was only a little over three weeks ago that Marvel initially announced that the entire slate of Phase Four movies were being delayed, and yesterday brought the news that the timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was being delayed yet again.
There was increasingly little chance that Spider-Man 3 was ever going to start production in July as initially intended, and Jon Watts’ threequel was officially moved to November last night, taking the date that was originally staked out for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which has now been pushed to March 2022. On the plus side, we’re now getting Thor: Love and Thunder a week ahead of schedule, but that likely won’t be enough to placate the fans who were already heartbroken at having to wait even longer to see how the MCU’s post-Endgame world would take shape.
Black Widow is still scheduled for November, meaning we’re only getting one new MCU movie in a calendar year for the first time since 2012, before Marvel Studios reverts to their usual business model by dropping three comic book blockbusters in 2021, including two new properties for the first time in a decade.
That means 2022 is shaping up to be a banner year for MCU fans, with Thor: Love and Thunder, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Black Panther II and Captain Marvel 2 all set to hit theaters in the space of five months. Not only that, but the studio also has an unconfirmed movie pegged for release in October, meaning that for the first time ever, the franchise is dropping five new movies in a single year.
While they haven’t announced what that last one is yet, Ant-Man 3 seems the most likely possibility given that Guardians of the Galaxy’s James Gunn will be busy with The Suicide Squad until next summer, but at least Marvel will be making it up to their most patient fans in 2022 by releasing a ton of new content.
