Things used to be so simple when it came to MCU releases. Marvel Studios told us when a movie was coming out, we’d eagerly count down the months and weeks until it dropped and then — bamf! — there it was, right on time. The Multiverse Saga has been beset by constant scheduling difficulties since the beginning, however – although due to little fault of its own. First, the pandemic threw a wrench into the franchise’s entire slate at the start of the decade and then further issues were caused by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
It’s Marvel’s TV side that is particularly having a hard time of it of late, as the studio’s entire roster of upcoming streaming projects was recently shuffled backward, with some shows getting off lightly with a delay of a mere couple of months while others have been ripped from the schedules entirely, leaving a significant hold-up of at least a full year very likely. With so much change going on in Marvel’s Phase Five line-up, it’s hard to keep track of what’s coming out where.
Thanks to some preregistrations filed with the US Copyright Office, though, Marvel has provided some approximate release dates and windows for all but one of its upcoming slate of officially announced MCU series that, following the conclusion of Loki season 2, are on their way to Disney Plus. Even if they’re taking the scenic — rather than the fastest — route to streaming.
What If…? season 2 — Christmas 2023
Marvel’s original plan for What If..? was to share a new season of the animated anthology series every year, but that’s already a bust thanks to the show skipping 2022. However, it seems the studio is dead-set on not missing out on 2023 too as the latest batch of glimpses into other universes is believed to premiere sometime around this Christmas Day. So, although a firm release date has yet to be given, we can likely expect things to kick off in late December.
Echo — Jan. 10, 2024 (approx.)
Echo‘s delay might sound like bad news, but it may just be for the best. Originally pegged for a mid-2023 due date, Echo was ultimately squeezed into a Nov. 29 release, with all five episodes set to drop in one go – a first for a Marvel Disney Plus series. As this had a whiff of Marvel being keen to sweep the Hawkeye spinoff under the rug in the shadow of The Marvels, it’s surely only for the best that it’s now set to arrive in January 2024, although it’s unclear if it’ll earn a weekly schedule again.
X-Men ’97 — Early 2024
Flying somewhat under the radar among other Marvel shows is X-Men ’97 – the continuation to the beloved 1990s X-Men: The Animated Series. Although not set on the MCU’s Earth-616 (or 99999), it is a Marvel Studios production so can be counted as part of the Multiverse Saga. Like Echo, X-Men ’97 has managed to avoid too much of a significant setback as it was previously looking at a release sometime in late 2023 but is now coming in early 2024.
Agatha: Darkhold Diaries — Sep. 19, 2024 (approx.)
The same can’t be said of Agatha, though, which has gone from gearing up for release this winter period to being pushed back all the way to September 2024. To be fair, though, premiering a show all about witches in time for Halloween probably makes a lot more strategic sense than sharing it around Christmastime. In addition to its delay, Agatha has also gotten itself a(nother) new title, it’s third overall. After House of Harkness and Coven of Chaos, it’s now officially called Agatha: Darkhold Diaries (and people have thoughts).
Spider-Man: Freshman Year — November 2024
Alongside all these strike-related release delays, Spider-Man: Freshman Year is on its own little island. The animated prequel to the Homecoming trilogy — revealing the true MCU origins story of 616’s Peter Parker — has long been mulling quietly away in the background, until it was recently confirmed to still be happening. With What If…? star Hudson Thames taking over from Tom Holland, Freshman Year is expected to be the final MCU Disney Plus show of 2024. A second season, titled Spider-Man: Sophomore Year, has already been commissioned.
Daredevil: Born Again — January 2025
This is perhaps the biggest bummer for long-term Marvel TV lovers. As a mega-sized 18-episode season, we always knew Daredevil: Born Again — the much-anticipated relaunch of Netflix’s beloved Daredevil series — would take a while in getting here, as it was all set for early 2024 back when it was first announced in summer 2022. With the strikes having held up production for so long, however, the Charlie Cox revival has been pushed back an entire 12 months to arrive in January 2025 instead.
Ironheart — September 2025
But, hey, you think Daredevil‘s had it tough? Spare a thought for poor Ironheart. Although the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever spinoff, that will bring back Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams as she gets to grips with continuing Tony Stark’s legacy, was once set to drop in autumn 2023. Filming already concluded on the show in late 2022. And yet Ironheart won’t arrive until fall 2025, which will be five years since its original announcement and three years after it wrapped shooting. Clearly, Marvel must be displeased with the result and is looking to undertake some significant post-production work
Wonder Man — Undated
It’s kind of ironic that Wonder Man, all about actor-turned-superhero Simon Williams, had to shut down production due to Hollywood’s actors going on strike. Starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the character who — I promise — has nothing to do with Gal Gadot’s DC heroine, Wonder Man was only broadly looking at a release sometime in 2024 but it is currently removed from the schedule altogether. Without a copyright preregistration in its name to date, it looks like it’s going to sit on the shelf for the foreseeable.
Published: Oct 9, 2023 07:05 am