Back in 2020, we were in a constant news cycle of movies being pushed back or things getting canceled because of the pandemic and so by the time we finally got to see Black Widow in July of this year, it felt like we’ve been waiting for the next Marvel movie decades. I thought we were getting back on track—only for Marvel Studios to announce some major shifts.
Now, there are schedule rollbacks yet again coming from Disney. This time, the time shift is only a few months, but then again, nothing is ever quite set in stone these days, so even these newly announced launches could change. Can’t wait to yet again not know when a movie is coming out because we have five different release dates listed.
We begin with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. This is upsetting, seeing as we were supposed to already have the movie out (it originally had a 2021 release date but got pushed due to the pandemic and continues to get pushed and take Wanda Maximoff further and further away from me).
Originally slated for a March 25, 2022 release date, Doctor Strange 2 is now kicking off the summer blockbuster season with a May 6, 2022 date. This also happens to be the slot that was originally was held by Thor: Love and Thunder, which has now been pushed to the same slot that Black Widow had this year, and is set to be released on July 8th, 2022.
But wait! There’s more. All of this reshuffling impacts the other big movies Marvel has on the docket that were supposed to follow Thor 3.
Deadline reports the other film moves are as follows:
Black Panther 2 knocks The Marvels from filmmaker Nia DaCosta from November 11 next year to February 17, 2023. No other tentpoles are dated against it. This will then push Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania from that date to July 28, 2023. No competition for Ant-Man 3 on its new date, either. Both The Marvels and Ant-Man 3 are in production.
And this is just Marvel. Indiana Jones 5, which was a July of 2022 release date, is now pushed until June of 2023. Harrison Ford is going to be nearly 81 years old by the time the fifth movie comes out.
Why the setbacks? Probably just Marvel/Disney finally getting all their ducks in order after the chaos from These Pandemic Times, and making sure their Marvel movies and Disney movies are not crossing over each other. But it still is upsetting that we have to wait even longer for some of these highly-anticipated films.
For the most part, these release dates are shifted slightly from their original dates so we only have to wait a few months more to see them. But I have a lurking worry from the near-constant release date shifts from 2020 that keeps coming to the forefront of my mind, and I would just like to make sure we don’t end up in the endless cycle of new dates again.
(via Deadline, image: Marvel Entertainment)
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