Marvel’s Phase 4 plans in tatters as it delays Thor 4, Black Panther 2 and more
Marvel’s Phase 4 just got a multi-month delay
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It’s a bad day to be a MCU fan:Marvelannounced that nearly every major film it plans on releasing over the next two years will be pushed back.
Including the films affected by the delay areDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnessthat will now be released in early May instead of March;Thor: Love and Thunderwhich now releases in July instead of May; andBlack Panther 2: Wakanda Foreverthat will now face a four-month delay, going from a July release date to November. That means The Marvels and Ant-Man 3 will be pushed back as well.
Here’s the full list of purported changes:
The only silver lining here is that the upcomingHawkeye Disney Plus showandSpider-Man: No Way Homewere unaffected by the delays and will still be available to watch online and in theaters on November 24, 2021 and December 17, 2021, respectively.
Analysis: Turns out, making multi-million-dollar movies is a time-consuming process
While your first thought might be that Disney wants to avoid another Black Widow scenario, the company says it’s making the decision to delay the films due to production conflicts.
According toDeadline, “some titles are contending with finishing scenarios while others are in production,” which it says has led to a “domino effect” at the movie studio where films need to be pushed back later to accommodate the production schedule.
The easiest way to make that happen, Disney figures, is to just simply push each of the release dates back to the next slot, freeing up some time for production to get caught up. The logic makes sense even though it’s disappointing.
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Unfortunately none of these films will be coming toDisney Plusright out of the gate, and will instead be theatrical-only – though there’s a chance we’ll eventually see them on the service sometime down the road.
Nick Pino is Managing Editor, TV and AV for TechRadar’s sister site, Tom’s Guide. Previously, he was the Senior Editor of Home Entertainment at TechRadar, covering TVs, headphones, speakers, video games, VR and streaming devices. He’s also written for GamesRadar+, Official Xbox Magazine, PC Gamer and other outlets over the last decade, and he has a degree in computer science he’s not using if anyone wants it.
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