By Another day, another report about movie delays. Out of all of the major Hollywood studios, Disney’s slate of releases has been impacted the most by the coronavirus. When they plan their releases years in advance, any slight alteration can have massive ramifications to all projects. So when you think about how disruptive the coronavirus has been to the movie industry, Disney has been hit hard and will continue to hurt most likely for years.
Earlier this month Disney announced a new slate of release dates for all of its MCU movies, but now only a few weeks later they’re altering release dates yet again. This time the culprit isn’t a widespread disease that has infected thousands, but instead Sony. Earlier today, Sony announced release dates for its two upcoming Spider-Man movies, one of which is the untitled third movie in Sony/Marvel’s MCU trilogy, and the other being the sequel to 2018’s animated critical darling Into the Spider-verse.
Sony’s third Spider-Man movie, original set for a July 16, 2021 release, has been pushed back to November 5, 2021. As for the Into the Spider-verse sequel, that has also been pushed back from April 8, 2022 to October 7, 2022. Because of how Sony decides the release dates for its slew of Spider-Man movies and not Disney, the house of mouse has had to readjust a few of its movies release dates. Thor: Love and Thunder will now release on February 11, 2022 instead of February 28, 2022, moving up a little over two weeks. Meanwhile, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness was delayed from November 5, 2021 to March 25, 2022, both to give Sony’s Spider-Man sequel room to breathe and also to probably to readjust production now that Sam Raimi is confirmed as the director.
If this sounds confusing, don’t worry, it is. There are so many delays happening and Disney’s release schedule is so screwed over that I don’t even know when anything will release from them anymore. I’m sure that diehard MCU fans have committed these new dates to memory, but for casual fans like myself this is a nightmare to follow. This also means that we’re going to have FOUR MCU movies release in a six month span in 2022, which sounds like way too much even for Disney. If people weren’t feeling burnout from the MCU before, they sure will in 2022. Here’s the full slate of MCU release dates as they now stand, but be aware that they can easily change and shift.
Black Widow – November 6, 2020
The Eternals – February 21, 2021
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – May 7, 2021
Untitled Spider-Man sequel – November 5, 2021
Thor: Love and Thunder – February 11, 2022
Doctor Strange and the Mutliverse of Madness – March 25, 2022
Black Panther 2 – May 8, 2022
Captain Marvel 2 – July 8, 2022
The New Mutants
‘Thor: Love and Thunder and Doctor Strange Get New 2022 Release Dates’ – [IGN]
