Disney Removes Marvel Movie From Schedule, Shifts Other Dates

Walt Disney Studios has updated its release schedule, adding new films, retitling others, shifting some dates, and removing one Marvel Studios film from its schedule. The shifts come following the news that production of Marvel's Blade reboot is on hold after losing its director. Deadpool 3 has been delayed by two months, and Avengers: Secret Wars pushed back six months, though Avengers: The Kang Dynasty remains where it was. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Disney's first Planet of the Apes installment, is now appropriately titled on the schedule and remains set for a May 2024 release after beginning filming this week.

Searchlight Pictures' Chevalier, which debuted at TIFF, has been added to the schedule for release on April 7, 2023. The next Hercule Poirot movie, A Haunting in Venice -- which again sees Kenneth Branagh starring and directing, and which just added Tina Fey, Michelle Yeoh, and Jamie Dornan to its cast -- is now dated for release on September 15, 2023. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will open on May 24, 2024.

Blade, now on pause, has been pushed back almost a year, from November 3, 2023, to September 6, 2024, taking the spot previously held by Deadpool 3, which will now open on November 8, 2024. That's the date previously held by Marvel's Fantastic Four reboot, which has shifted back to Valentine's Day, February 14, 2025, pushing back the untitled Marvel movie previously slotted there to November 7, 2025.

Avengers: Secret Wars moves from November 7, 2025, to May 1, 2026. The untitled Marvel Studios movie previously dated May 1, 2026, has been removed from Disney's schedule.

Blade was first listed as the final film installment of Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the second phase that is part of The Multiverse Saga. The other Phase 5 movies -- 2023's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and The Marvels, and 2024's Captain America: New World Order and Thunderbolts -- are unaffected.

It is curious that, of all the Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 6 movies, only Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, dated May 2, 2025, is unaffected by the date shuffle. There were to be two Avengers films released in 2025, but if things do not change, there will now be a year wait between The Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars, as there was between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers Endgame.

There were also six untitled Marvel movies on Disney's schedule. With Fantastic Four pushing back the one previously dated for February 14, 2025, and the May 1, 2016 film removed to make room for Secret Wars, the remaining dates include July 25, 2025, November 7, 2025, February 13, 2026, July 24, 2026, and November 6, 2026. There's a fair chance one of those dates is reserved for Armor Wars.

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