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Disney pushes back MCU releases for Black Widow, Eternals, and more

As more and more movies were delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, we expected Disney’s carefully managed plan for the Marvel Cinematic Universe may be shaken up — and now we finally have a good idea what the MCU calendar looks like going forward.

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Disney revealed a new list of release dates for its upcoming MCU films, as well as several big projects outside Marvel Studios.

The release date for Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson’s first solo adventure as Marvel’s superspy, has been moved to November 6. Fellow MCU film The Eternals, which had previously been slated for that fall release, was bumped to February 12, 2021, the date when Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was originally intended to premiere.

#BlackWidow in theaters November 6 pic.twitter.com/vPi6YMeTMC

— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) April 3, 2020

That domino effect continues throughout the MCU calendar, with most of the upcoming films sliding into the release date of the movies that were initially intended to follow them throughout 2021.

The new calendar ends with a trio of release dates in 2022 for Thor: Love And Thunder and the still-untitled Black Panther 2, and Captain Marvel 2.

Here’s the full list of upcoming MCU films and their new release dates:

  • Black Widow: November 6, 2020
  • The Eternals: February 12, 2021
  • Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: May 7, 2021
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: November 5, 2021
  • Thor: Love and Thunder: February 28, 2022
  • Black Panther 2: May 8, 2022
  • Captain Marvel 2: July 8, 2022

Along with revealing new release dates for its MCU films, Disney also announced new release dates for tentpole films Mulan (July 24) and Jungle Cruise (July 30, 2021). The untitled fifth Indiana Jones film was also pushed back to July 29, 2022.

At this point, it’s unknown how the pandemic will affect any of MCU television series, which also play a key role in establishing the timeline of events for the Marvel movies. Production on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier remains on hiatus, for example, while the schedule for WandaVision and other series remains unclear at this point.

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Sony Pictures’ plans for the third film in its Spider-Man solo franchise are also unknown at the moment.

The Sony franchise was tightly integrated into the MCU with Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home.

The third Spider-Man film currently has a July 2021 premiere on the calendar, but that could change as Sony figures out where it will fit within the new Marvel schedule.

Rick Marshall
A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…
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