Normally, when a studio announces delays and release date changes for more than half a dozen major films, that would be a huge bit of news. However, coming off of last night’s absolutely massive Disney Investors Presentation, the studio coming back and making several release date changes doesn’t seem to be all that consequential. But hey, if you want to know why some of your most anticipated Marvel films aren’t hitting their original (but also delayed) dates, here you go.
According to Disney, a number of projects are either getting new release dates or pulled from the schedule for the time being. As for the projects that are now undated (which most likely means another delay but could also mean a number of crazy things given the precedent set by Warner Bros.), we have the Searchlight horror feature, “Antlers,” which has been delayed due to the pandemic.
As for delays, there are 20th Century Studios films like “Free Guy” (new date is May 21, 2021), “Death on the Nile” (September 17, 2021), and “The King’s Man” (March 12, 2021). Marvel Studios has new dates for “Thor: Love and Thunder” (May 6, 2022), “Black Panther II” (July 8, 2022), and “Captain Marvel 2” (November 11, 2022).
Of course, particularly in the cast of the Marvel Studios films, the delays are completely expected. With “Black Widow” recently shifting to May 2021, the entire line of films was bound to be pushed some more. So, while it stinks you won’t be able to see those 2022 sequels two months earlier, at least they’re still on the schedule. As for the 20th Century releases, this is just a case of pandemic scheduling, which we’ve seen time after time over the course of this year. The real question is whether or not “The King’s Man” sticks to its March release date. That seems a bit optimistic, unless Disney has a special deal for theaters that will allow for a PVOD release or something. We’ll just have to wait and see.
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Again, like with any of these delays, mark them in your calendar in pencil, not pen. These are most definitely subject to change.