Entertainment giant Disney has just announced a number of release date changes for its Marvel Cinematic Universe films which resulted in delays for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, The Marvels, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumia.
In addition, the fifth film release schedule of the franchise Indiana Jones was also pushed back by a year, while a number of other, unnamed films were completely removed from the schedule, including two Marvel slots that were expected to feature. Blade and Fantastic Four.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which was originally set to be released on March 25, 2022, will now be released two months later i.e. on May 6, 2022, pushing Thor: Love and Thunder out of that date. The Thor sequel now has a release date of July 8, 2022, which was originally occupied by Wakanda Forever. As a result, Black Panther 2 will now be released on November 11, 2022. Whereas The Marvels moved from 11 November 2022 to 17 February 2023, previously held by Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumia. Due to the move, the superhero film starring Paul Rudd will now be released on July 28, 2023. For Indiana Jones 5 The film itself was pushed back from July 29, 2022 to June 30, 2023.
Reshuffling the schedule like this now sees MCU movie attendance limited to three films per year for the next two years, which is a smart move for Disney. At some point, the exhaustion and boredom of Marvel films will set in, and coupled with the constant flow of Disney+ series, that boredom might eventually affect the audience’s interest in the films. The films may still continue to dominate at the box office, but if Disney is to maintain enthusiasm, they need to provide more elements of surprise to look forward to.
There are also rumors saying that the date change is related to the expected spike in Covid cases over the winter, which could potentially affect the original release schedule Doctor Strange in March, which also seems to have had an effect on their film production plans.
