Disney Pushes ‘Black Widow’ Debut With Possible Impact On Other Marvel Films

In the news today, we learned that Disney has decided to postpone the May 1 debut of Marvel’s “Black Widow” film due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Here are the details below as shared by CNBC News:

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Disney has postponed the May 1 release date of its much anticipated Marvel flick “Black Widow” as theaters across the country shutter amid the coronavirus outbreak. A new release date has not yet been determined. 

While a number of movies have already pushed their debuts — “Mulan,” “F9,” “Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway,” “A Quiet Place Part II,” “No Time to Die,” among others — “Black Widow” isn’t exactly a standalone film. The movie is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an expansive, interconnected collection of films that act as puzzle pieces in a much bigger, overarching story.

“Black Widow” may be taking a step back in time — it takes place between the events of “Captain America: Civil War” and “Avengers: Infinity War” — but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t contain material that is somehow important to other Marvel films. After all, that’s what it’s become notorious for.

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Moving “Black Widow” could have a “cascading effect” on the rest of the MCU releases, Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Boxoffice.com, said.

Marvel’s current release schedule of films and TV shows on Disney’s streaming service Disney+ is as follows:

• “Black Widow” — May 1, 2020 (postponed)
• “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” — August 2020 on Disney+
• “The Eternals” — Nov. 6, 2020
• “WandaVision” — December 2020 on Disney+
• “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” — Feb. 12, 2021
• “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” — May 7, 2021
• “Thor: Love and Thunder” — Nov. 5, 2021
• “Loki” — 2021 on Disney+

And that’s not including the announced shows and films that haven’t been placed on the schedule — “Black Panther 2,” “Guardians of the Galaxy 3,” “Captain Marvel 2,” “Fantastic 4,” “Blade,” “Spider-Man 3,” “She-Hulk,” “Moon Knight,” “Ms. Marvel” and “Hawkeye.” 

After “Avengers: Endgame,” Disney has embraced a two-pronged approach to releasing Marvel content. It won’t ease up on its theatrical releases of Marvel stories, but it will also have TV shows on its Disney+ streaming platform that directly tie into the events of its films. 

Previously, Marvel had several spinoff shows that would casually allude to events of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but were never directly tied to or influenced the films. Starting with “Falcon and The Winter Soldier,” that will change.

Of course, “The Falcon and the Winter Solider” may not be released in August if it is unable to restart production. The show stopped filming in Prague and Atlanta last week following concerns over the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

For the Marvel titles that are set to be released in a theaters, it is unlikely that Disney will shift away from a cinema-first strategy.

Disney will wait for theaters.

Source: CNBC.com