The coronavirus pandemic has effectively ground Hollywood to a halt, subsequently delaying most features that had previously been set for release this summer. Not stopping there, most productions have been shutdown worldwide, forcing studios to frantically reschedule movies due out at some point in the next two years. One of those delays includes Sony Pictures Animation‘s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 which now, in a sick twist of fate, currently lands on the same October 2022 date as Untitled Marvel Movie from Marvel Studios and Disney.
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Though things seem to be in a constant state of flux, it’s interesting that Disney has yet to bump that unknown MCU flick from the date. During the latest round of reshuffling, Sony had to bump Spider-Man 3 back to a November 2021 date, a movie Disney seemingly agreed with as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness had previously fallen on the same date. The Doctor Strange follow-up has now been delayed nearly five months to give way for Tom Holland’s third solo feature as Peter Parker.
While Marvel Studios does in part produce the Spider-Man movies, the decisions ultimately fall to Sony and it’s pretty clear there has been some collaboration between the studios on the shifting of dates. So if that’s the case, why did Sony choose to debut Spider-Verse 2 on October 7, 2022 — the same day as a Marvel Studios feature?
Many have suspected Marvel could be using the rare October date to introduce their version of Blade to the masses, bringing Mahershala Ali into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the Daywalker himself. Should that be the case, maybe the studios agreed the properties were different enough that the audiences wouldn’t compete. Blade, of course, is a vampire-hunting antihero and Spider-Verse is more in-tune with family-friendly audiences.
If we wanted to go down a real rabbit hole here, one could even speculate Blade will be the first R-rated offering from Marvel Studios, keeping it tonally similar to Wesley Snipes’ trilogy of the early 2000s. On that front, the audiences for the feature would certainly different than those that will be catching the anticipated Spider-Verse sequel that day.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 2 is currently set to hit theaters October 7, 2022.
Do you think one of the studios will eventually push their movie back? If so, which one? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
