In a completely unsurprising move, Disney is reportedly looking at delaying the upcoming MCU Black Widow movie out of its November slot, according to Variety. This news comes hot on the heels of the announcement that the already heavily delayed Wonder Woman 1984 was being pushed back yet again from its planned October release to late December.
There is no indication of what the new Black Widow release date might actually be, but if it follows the current trend in COVID-19 related delays, we can expect it to inch back to the end of the year where studios seem optimistic for theater re-openings. In addition to the newly delayed Wonder Woman 1984, December is also the current home of the new Dune movie–however, given the fluid nature of the pandemic situation, it is unclear whether any of these planned release dates will hold.
Variety also reports that the upcoming Pixar release, Soul, was eyed for delays as well and potentially a release on Disney’s streaming platform, Disney+, but explains that a Disney insider has refuted these rumors. Soul is, however, “unlikely” to release on its currently scheduled date of November 20.
This will be Black Widow’s second major delay, after having been bumped out of its original May 2020 slot at the start of the pandemic. If, for whatever reason, it is pushed out of a 2020 release date entirely, this will be the first year since 2009 where an MCU movie has not been released. Additionally, if this delay follows the trend in the year’s earlier MCU shuffling, it could have fallout that affects the rest of the planned MCU movie release dates moving forward.
Black Widow stars Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, and David Harbour as Red Guardian.
