The Coronavirus pandemic is spreading at an alarming pace, with thousands of new cases being confirmed every single day. As such, it seems our way of life is going to remain pretty messed up for a while yet. Of course, the virus has had a particularly horrible impact on the movie business, with box office numbers down to absolute zero and almost every upcoming release scheduled for the next 3-4 months having been delayed or postponed indefinitely.
Not only that, but we also heard last week that Black Widow was under serious consideration to be dropped straight onto Disney Plus without even hitting theaters, as the Mouse House is said to be in desperate need of money now that their release schedule has been all messed up due to the pandemic. Thankfully, though, it seems the spinoff will still see the inside of cinemas, but its new date has set off a chain reaction that’s resulted in all of Marvel’s announced and dated Phase 4 movies being delayed.
As Deadline explains:
Black Widow is taking over Eternals’ Nov. 6 slot, which is setting off an even Marvel pic chain reaction whereby Eternals moves to Feb. 12, 2021 (Shang-Chi’s old date); Shang-Chi moves to May 7, 2021 (Doctor Strange 2’s old date); Doctor Strange 2 moves to Nov. 5, 2021 (Thor: Love and Thunder’s old date), Thor: Love And Thunder moves to Feb. 18, 2022 which was a spot for an untitled Marvel pic.
Got all that? As for Phase 5 films like Black Panther 2 and Captain Marvel 2, they appear to still be safe – for now. But the Phase 4 slate has been seriously reshuffled and unfortunately, fans will have to wait a bit longer before they get to see another MCU movie on the big screen.
How this will impact the Disney Plus shows remains to be seen, but with most of them set to tie heavily into the films, we imagine the likes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, WandaVision and more will also have to be pushed back to account for the movies’ new release dates.
It’ll be interesting to see how this all plays out, but for now, these are the new dates for the Phase 4Â MCUÂ pics and once we hear more about the D+ efforts, we’ll be sure to let you know.
