Kevin Feige On Confidence of Black Widow Dropping in May, Marvel Movie Schedule

It doesn't matter whether a title was an indie film which would reach a smaller audience or a blockbuster title with a zillion dollar marketing campaign, the landscape of release dates was shaken when theaters had to shutdown due to a global pandemic in 2020. Now, in 2021, movie studios are hoping to get their titles onto big screens in front of audiences which can safely gather to watch them together. For Marvel Studios, the next title hoping to drop in theaters is Black Widow, quickly followed by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige is thrilled to share WandaVision and other Disney+ shows with the world throughout the year but admits the movie schedule is a bit less concrete.

"I mean, confidence is meaningless in today's world because nobody knows anything. Hope springs eternal," Feige told ComicBook.com in an exclusive interview on Sunday. "A year delay, you hope would be enough, there's a vaccine out there now. We'll see. I certainly hope so. I want to be back in the theater with people."

Black Widow had already launched a marketing campaign in early 2020 when it was planned for a release in May of last year. Now, Disney and Marvel Studios have to maneuver re-launching that campaign, plus adding Shang-Chi on its back for a release two months later. "We've had that before. Endgame and Far From Home were the same time," Feige explained. "We have the pleasure and the privilege of working with the greatest marketing department in the history of Hollywood, so restarting that campaign, any of those campaigns, I have great confidence in. What I don't have confidence is the timing because we're dealing with this whole pandemic."

For now, two of the Disney+ shows have dates locked in with others to follow later in the year. WandaVision kicks of Marvel's return on January 15 with new episodes every Friday, followed by The Falcon and The Winter Soldier on March 19. "Why Wanda and Vision? It's a two part answer," Feige said of the series which is the first foray into TV for Marvel Studios. "One is the characters in comics have a story potential that is vast and we've just scratched the surface of it and the other answer is because Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany play those two characters. They're spectacular performers, spectacular actors. Again, I believe you've only scratched the surface of seeing what they can do with those characters in the movies to this point. When we developed it, it was one of the first Disney+ series, and now the first to debut."

For more from ComicBook.com's interview with Feige, listen to ComicBook.com's Phase Zero podcast which launches its first episode on Friday!

Are you excited for WandaVision, Black Widow, and the rest of the Marvel content coming in 2021? Share your thoughts in the comment section or send them my way on Instagram.