2020 has been a nebulous time for the movie industry, with theatre closures shaking up release dates and some new releases going straight to video-on-demand. Disney has once again realigned the release dates for its upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe pictures to compensate for the unpredictability of today’s box office.
Black Widow will now open in theatres on May 7, 2021. One of the first movies postponed by the pandemic, the Scarlett Johannson-led picture was originally slated for May 1, 2020, before being pushed back to November 6, 2020. It is the first film of the MCU’s Phase 4, following the titanic Endgame and Spider-Man: Far From Home, and will see the titular Avenger “deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.”
As a result, the other announced entries in the popular franchise have been pushed back accordingly. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will hit theatres on July 9, 2021, having resumed production in August. Eternals, originally scheduled for February, has been moved back by nine months, premiering now on November 5, 2021.
The news puts to rest speculation (for now, at least) that Black Widow might follow the live-action Mulan remake to Disney+ Premier Access. However, all of this is subject to change once again, as theatres remain open tentatively.
Let’s hope the third time is the charm. In the meantime, Marvel fans will not be left out to dry. The streaming service’s first original MCU show, WandaVision, is “coming soon,” according to its recent trailer. Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Loki will follow in 2021.