Despite the fact that the whopping 23-film long Infinity Saga just ended, Marvel is showing no signs of slowing down when it comes to Act 2. Disney recently made changes to its release calendar for the next few years. Some changes have nothing to do with Marvel, such as The King’s Man being pushed back to September 18th, 2020. But those concerning the MCU show an absolutely stacked schedule.
The news comes via The Hollywood Reporter. The dates that Disney revealed for upcoming Marvel movies are as follows:
- October 7th, 2022
- February 7th, 2023
- May 5th, 2023
- July 28th, 2023
- November 3rd, 2023
There’s no word on which movie will get which release date. But with these types of announcements, that isn’t out of the ordinary. So let’s look at what we know.
Back at SDCC in July, Marvel revealed a slew of projects in development. However, we know when we’ll see most of them. Black Widow releases May 1st, 2020. The Eternals releases November 6th, 2020. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will release on February 12th, 2021. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness will release on May 7th, 2021. And Thor: Love and Thunder releases on November 5th, 2021.
Although they couldn’t talk about it at SDCC because it isn’t solely a Marvel property, and even after all of the Disney/Sony drama, a third Tom Holland-led Spider-Man movie has a release date of July 16th, 2021. Marvel had previously announced three dates in 2022. Black Panther 2 gets the May 6th, 2022 spot. Peyton Reed was also recently announced to be returning to direct the third Ant-Man, with Michael Douglas stating in an interview they would begin shooting in January 2021. This would put it at one of the previously announced 2022 dates, either February 18th or July 29th.
For those of you keeping count, that makes four movie releases in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Being part of the Disney family certainly has its perks. We know for a fact that Captain Marvel 2 and Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 are coming. It would make sense for GOTG 3 to take one of the previously announced 2022 spots. Writer/Director James Gunn was rehired by Disney earlier this year following a controversial firing. His Suicide Squad reboot/sequel/whatever is currently in the early days of production and is planned to release in 2021. But he had already written the GOTG 3 script by the time Disney fired him. And since it’s one of the most popular franchises within the MCU, I’d expect it sooner rather than later.
There were other tantalizing announcements made by Marvel big wig Kevin Feige at SDCC. Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali will play Blade in an upcoming film. Feige also stated that the Fantastic Four and the X-Men would make their way into the MCU following the Fox merger. And with the amount of success the first two entries saw, we can’t forget about Deadpool 3. But it’s likely that any Marvel properties gained by acquiring Fox would take the later 2023 dates.
Of course, Marvel likes to keep certain things as secretive as they can. One or more of these dates might be for as-of-yet unannounced heroes. Or maybe we’ll get a new version of the Avengers. Or perhaps one will be for that long-rumored Nova movie. Along with Blade, Deadpool 3, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and Captain Marvel 2, we can somewhat see Marvel’s direction. Only time will tell.
