Black Widow Movie’s New Marketing Campaign Will Introduce Original Materials and Take Fresh Approach

As we approach the first anniversary of everything shutting down due to COVID-19, we are reminded once again of all the movies we have not gotten to see. One film that has been pushed back a couple of times because of the pandemic is Black Widow, which was originally supposed to be released in May of last year before being rescheduled to November 2020. Now, the movie is scheduled to come out this May, but things could always change again considering Marvel Studios does not want to release the movie on Disney+. According to a new report from Variety, Disney and Marvel plan to take a fresh approach in their next push to market Black Widow.

Disney began the marketing campaign for the film in December of 2019 and Jeff Bock, an analyst with Exhibitor Relations, explained why studios are planning to overhaul movies’ marketing strategies.

“There is a certain spoilage from any film sitting on the shelf for very long,” Bock explained. “They just become stale after a while, and nobody even really wants to talk about it.” He added of Black Widow, “I think a lot of people probably think that Black Widow has already been released, or should have been released by now.”

“The last thing you want to do when you’re in this situation is to overmarket with your campaign or oversaturate with your materials,” Asad Ayaz, Disney’s president of marketing, added. Ayaz shared that his team plans to introduce original materials that will take a “fresh approach” to selling the film. However, it is uncertain when the new campaign will launch.

Black Widow is set to star Scarlett Johansson in the titular role, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei aka The Red Guardian, O-T Fagbenle as Mason, and Rachel Weisz as Melina. Cate Shortland directed the film with a screenplay from Ned Benson and WandaVision‘s Jac Schaeffer.

Black Widow is currently scheduled to be released in theatres on May 7th. In the meantime, the first seven episodes of WandaVision are currently streaming on Disney+. The rest of 2021’s line-up includes The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ on March 19th, Loki debuting on Disney+ on June 11th, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in theatres on July 9th, What If… on Disney+ this summer, Eternals in theatres on November 5th, Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye coming to Disney+ later in the year, and Spider-Man: No Way Home in theatres on December 17th.