Could Marvel Studios Delays Mean Bad News for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3?

As of Friday afternoon, nearly every movie that’s been announced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been assigned new release date. It starts with Black Widow, which has been pushed to November, picking up the date once held by The Eternals. From there, every other movie has essentially been pushed back a date. In fact, the only movie still unphased by the shuffling is Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther 2, which is still holding down its May 2022 release date — but what’s this all mean for the movies that have been announced but have yet to be attached to a release date?

Since last summer’s San Diego Comic-Con, we’ve had confirmation of at least two movies confirmed by Marvel Studios that have yet to be added to the schedule — James Gunn‘s long-gestating Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and the Mahershala Ali-starring Blade remake.

Now that one of the 2021 movies has been bumped to 2022 and an untitled 2022 movie has been removed from the calendar entirely, it’s increasingly likely the movie is still three years out. As it stands right now, the confirmed 2022 movies from the Burbank-based production house include Thor: Love and Thunder (February 18, 2022), Black Panther 2 (May 6, 2022), Captain Marvel 2 (July 8, 2022), and an untitled movie that Marvel’s holding the date to on October 7, 2022.

As we’ve speculated in the past, Marvel’s first-ever October release date could make a fine pairing between Blade and the Halloween season. Admittedly, that whole idea could be thrown out the window now due to the unprecedented circumstances Hollywood has been dealing with.

Sure, that means Guardians 3 could hit theaters in that October release date (at the very earliest), but with it comes complete and utter disregard of Blade’s spooky season debut. Then there’s another variable outside of the MCU we have to take into consideration. Gunn is currently working on post-production on Warner Brothers’ The Suicide Squad pseudo-sequel and the filmmaker has said time and time again that he wouldn’t begin work on Guardians until The Suicide Squad is completely in the can.

With delays popping up in all corners of Hollywood, it’s entirely plausible The Suicide Squad will get to a point where post-production will have to pause. In fact, it looks like reshoots will be entirely out of the question at least for the next month or two, something that could very well lead to a release date delay for The Suicide Squad and, as a result, something that could push Guardians 3 into 2023 or beyond.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has yet to set a release date.

When do you think the movie could end up being released? Think it over and let us know your thoughts in the comments below or by hitting me up on Twitter at @AdamBarnhardt!