Not long after Marvel’s Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings scored major box office success last month, Disney has announced that several of their films slated for release through early to mid-2022 will come a couple of months later than expected, with some being pushed back as far out as Summer 2023.
For instance, the eagerly-awaited upcoming installment of the Black Panther series, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, has been delayed from July 8 of next year to November 11. So has Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which has been pushed back from March 25 to May 6, and Thor: Love and Thunder, from May 6 to July 8. This flood of delays has reportedly set off a domino effect, pushing The Marvels and the new Indiana Jones film from their scheduled release dates in 2022 to 2023, and removing whole films from Disney’s 2023 schedule entirely.
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It has not been revealed which of the many Marvel films in the works will be pushed off indefinitely. Although Shang-Chi had a worldwide gross of over $400 million, Disney has stated that the delays are less about box-office returns and more about concerns stemming from each of these films’ respective production processes. Harrison Ford, for instance, experienced a shoulder injury on set for the upcoming Indiana Jones film, but has since returned to filming. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is still being filmed in Atlanta.
The extensive web that the Marvel cinematic universe has established means that if one film faces delays, the rest of the franchise is ought to face scheduling shuffles themselves. In light of companies’ shifts to a hybrid model splitting releases between the big screen and digital platforms like Disney+, fans will have to wait as production teams continue to accommodate the needs of their crews and audiences, especially amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
Through the rest of the year, Disney plans to play their movies on big screens for 45 days before transitioning to online streaming platforms. Only time will tell whether these plans apply to their 2022 and 2023 lineups, but we’ll keep you updated.
See Marvel's newly-announced release dates below.