In a different world, Black Widow would have been in cinemas for almost two weeks now, but in this one, thanks to the COVID-19 outbreak delaying all of Marvel’s release plans, Scarlett Johansson’s already-overdue first solo film in the MCU has been pushed back to November. November 6th, to be exact, the place on the schedule that was originally filled by The Eternals, which has instead been moved into 2021.
According to the current plan, though, UK fans will get to see the movie one week before the US, as Disney has confirmed to Digital Spy that their intention is for Black Widow to drop in cinemas on October 28th overseas. This is a very common procedure for Marvel, who only forewent giving the United Kingdom an advanced release on Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, which were both pulled forward a week worldwide instead.
Shifting BW’s release forward by just seven days, however, does bring into focus how risky a move this could be by Disney. The UK has just announced a new scheme to lessen the lockdown, but theaters will remain shut until July 4th at the earliest, and that’s all dependent on whether a second wave hits or not. It’s very feasible that they’ll stay closed for longer and even if they do open, there’s the big question of whether folks will be willing to return to cinemas as soon as just a few months after that.
Back in March, when Marvel had yet to make a decision about the film’s future, fans were getting vocal about wanting Black Widow to go straight to streaming so that they didn’t have to wait so much longer for it. Even star David Harbour – who plays over-the-hill Russian superhero Red Guardian – agreed. Nevertheless, the studio is committed to keeping it as a theatrical release, with their hopes being to drop it this October/November. Fingers crossed that goes ahead and it isn’t faced with any further delays.
