On the heels of a hot Marvel summer at the theaters, including the record breaking Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings, Disney has decided to rearrange the release dates of Marvel movies starting in 2022.
Part of the reason given is that with the pandemic, it gives filmmakers time to properly finish the movies, some of which are still filming. I’m all for that if it makes for a better movie.
So get your calendars ready, because here are all the new dates you’ll want to note:
Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will now kick off summer 2022 on May 6 instead of opening on March 25, 2022. This film will also feature Scarlet Witch, which was teased at the end of the WandaVision series.
That pushes Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder from that May 6 date to July 8, 2022. A prime summer date for the film that will also feature the Guardians of the Galaxy. Currently it has no other major competition for that new date.
Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will move from that summer date now occupied by Thor to November 11, 2022. The movie is scheduled to wrap filming before the Holidays, so this gives post-production a little more room.
However this move puts Black Panther 2 the week after Warner Bros/DC’s The Flash movie. Even though the two are superhero movies, I still see the Marvel film hitting #1 at the box office.
The Marvels, directed by Nia DaCosta, will move from November 11 to February 17, 2023. This sequel to Captain Marvel features the characters of Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel, Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel, and Monica Rambeau. A Ms. Marvel series is expected sometime in 2022 on Disney+ to introduce the character before the film.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is the only movie on the release schedule sticking to its date of May 5, 2023. This was confirmed by director James Gunn on his social media:
I also posted more Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 news yesterday.
That leads to Peyton Reed’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (the third in the series), which will move from its original February 2023 date to the prime summer date of July 28, 2023. Not much is known about this film yet, but it will feature Scott Lang and the Pym / van Dyne family.
With all these movies being shuffled to future dates, no word has been given as to how this will effect the Marvel series scheduled for Disney+ in 2022-2023, like that Ms. Marvel series and Loki 2.
When the pandemic forced the Black Widow movie to a new summer 2021 date, it messed up the introduction of the character Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus). She was originally supposed to make her debut in the Black Widow movie end credits, then feature more prominently in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series, but then the Disney+ series ended up airing first.
I’m guessing we’ll hear of some series dates getting moved around before the end of the year. I’ll let you know when I hear of any changes.
Which upcoming Marvel movies are you excited to see? Let me know in the comments.