Black Widow is no longer meeting its previous May release date. Instead, Disney has opted to delay the movie to July, sending it to theaters and Disney+ Premiere Access on the same day at the height of summer. In addition to serving as a slight annoyance to fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Widow’s latest delay ensures there will be two full calendar years between theatrical releases from Marvel Studio.
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With Black Widow landing in theaters on July 9th, it will be exactly two years and one week after Spider-Man: Far From Home — Marvel Studios’ last feature presentation — hit theaters in 2019. That doesn’t seem that long ago, right?
After a global pandemic started this time last year, 2020 ended up being the first year Marvel Studios didn’t release a single production since it came to life with Jon Favreau’s Iron Man.
Now, the backlog of releases for 2021 is getting busier by the day.
In addition to Black Widow being delayed to the same time as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the Simu Liu-starring solo flick has been pushed back to September. Chloe Zhao’s Eternals is still sitting on its November release date while Spider-Man: No Way Home — a Marvel Studios co-production with Sony Pictures — is still hovering around Christmas.
That means in the last seven months of the year, Marvel Studios has four films and an additional four Disney+ shows on its release slate. Loki is currently scheduled to drop on the streamer in mid-June with Marvel’s What If… following shortly thereafter. Marvel also has Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye still on the schedule for 2021.
Of course, that’s all dependent on Marvel and Disney keeping with current release dates. The odds do appear to be in the favor of the Mouse, however, as theaters are starting to reopen in virtually every major media market. Exhibitors in both New York and California have been able to slowly start reopening over the past several weeks, and while they won’t be at full capacity for quite some time, at least studios can grow more comfortable with releasing major blockbusters stateside.
Black Widow is now set to hit theaters and Disney+ on July 9th.
Do you plan on seeing the movie in theaters or on Disney+? Let us know your thoughts either in the comments section or by hitting our writer @AdamBarnhardt up on Twitter to chat all things MCU!
