Source: Marvel
Disney announced on Monday that it is pushing up the release of several Marvel movies and other films, much to the disappointment of many fans. For Marvel, the schedule has been changed for Thor: Love and Thunder, Doctor Strange 2, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and the new Ant-Man. Additionally, Indiana Jones 5 will be delayed for another year at least.
Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness is moved up to May 6, 2022, instead of its originally announced March 25 release date. Thor: Love and Thunder is expected to be released on July 8 next year, while Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will hit theaters on November 11.
Earlier this year, Marvel officials revealed that they are taking their time to grieve the passing of actor Chadwick Boseman, who played the lead role of King T’Challa or the Black Panther. Fans were concerned as to how the sequel will proceed without its lead actor, who died due to cancer last August 2020 at the age of 43.
“There’s only one Chadwick and he’s not with us,” shared Marvel Studios’ EVP Victoria Alonso. “Our king, unfortunately, has died in real life, not just in fiction, and we are taking a little time to see how we return to history and what we do to honor this chapter of what has happened to us that was so unexpected, so painful, so terrible, really.”
“So much of the comics and that first movie is the world of Wakanda. Wakanda is a place to further explore with characters and different subcultures. This was always and initially the primary focus of the next story. We’re not going to have a CG Chadwick and we’re not recasting T’Challa,” Kevin Feige added.
Nonetheless, fans are expecting returning cast members, including Letitia Wright as Shuri, Lupita Nyong’o as Nakia, Winston Duke as M’Baku, and Angela Bassett as Ramonda. It is believed that Wright will take on a bigger role in the sequel following the removal of T’Challa as a character. It is unclear, however, whether Danai Gurira and Daniel Kaluuya will return as Okoye and W’Kabi. If anything, fans are confident that Martin Freeman will reprise his role as CIA agent Everett Ross.
On February 17, 2023, the Captain marvel sequel The Marvels is expected to hit theaters. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, on the other hand, will be released July 28, 2023. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 stays on track and is expected to be released on May 5, 2023. Meanwhile, two untitled Marvel movies were removed from the lineup of the 2023 release. A November 3, 2023, undisclosed movie, however, is something that Marvel fans ought to watch out for.
The adjustment on the schedule or releases comes after the release of Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Interestingly, it was quite a big hit in the box office during a pandemic era. Despite these changes, Marvel fans still have a whole lot of exciting projects ahead of them, such as the release of the star-studded film Eternals this coming November 5. The film features Angeline Jolie as Thena, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Gemma Chan as Sersi, Richard Madden as Ikaris, Kit Harington as Black Knight, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, and Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, to mention a few.
