Five movies from the Marvel Cinematic Universe were announced to be delayed by Disney, on October 18, 2021
The year 2021 has been packed with many projects from Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, among which we can highlight the series “WandaVision,” “Loki,” and “What if…?,” and movies such as “Black Widow” and “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” Even if there still are projects soon to be released like “Eternals,” “Hawkeye,” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in the remainder of the year, fans are already expecting the movies from upcoming years, such as “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” and more. Unluckily for Marvel fans, Disney and Marvel Studios just announced the delay of five movies from this beloved franchise, that were expected to be released throughout 2022 and 2023.
The movies that were affected are now taking the place of the one next to it. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” previously expected to be released on March 25, 2022, has a new date of May 6, 2022, when “Thor: Love and Thunder” was going to be released. Now, the new date of this one is July 8, 2022. The same happened with “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” delayed to November 11, 2022, “The Marvels,” pushed to February 17, 2023, and finally, “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantunmania,” now expected on July 28, 2023.
In an interview during “Eternal”’s premiere in Los Angeles, Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, explained that the reported delays are mainly due to production scheduling. He stated, “So all the Marvel slots are the same, we’re just shifting the movies coming out. And yes, Strange has moved six weeks, so instead of being three months between Marvel movies, there’ll be five months between Marvel movies. I think we can handle that.”
As expected, the news announced on October 18 have disappointed various Marvel fans. On Twitter, users have expressed their anger through tweets directed specifically towards Kevin Feige, about how production scheduling isn’t a good reason to delay five long-awaited movies. However, some fans actually agree with the decision made by Marvel Studios, because they will have more time to polish these movies instead of rushing them and taking the risk of them being complete disappointments.
It is impossible to know whether these delays will actually benefit the five movies. However, the only thing Marvel fans can do now is hope that it will be worth the wait.