Malcolm Henry
Sorry, folks, you will have to wait a little longer to get your next fix of Marvel movie magic.
Disney announced that it was sliding the scheduled releases back for its next round of headliner films. Here are the details:
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” is going from March 25 to May 6, “Thor: Love and Thunder” back from May 6 to July 8 and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” goes from July 8 to Nov. 11. From there, the “Black Panther” sequel bumps ahead to November, while “The Marvels” has been postponed to early 2023 and “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” was moved several months from Feb. 17 to July 28, 2023.
Disney also announced that is is moving the fifth “Indiana Jones” installment back nearly a year, saying that it will open to fans on June 30, 2023 instead of July 29, 2022.
Word from the Disney is that these moves are not related to box office results but production delays stemming from the Covid 19 endemic.
Four other, untitled 2023 movies from Marvel have also been removed from the calendar, while one additional untitled Marvel movie has relocated from Nov. 10 to Nov. 3, 2023.
The studio opted to put “Black Widow” as well as the “101 Dalmatians” prequel “Cruella” on Disney Plus on the same day as their respective theatrical premieres. Both were met with mixed reaction from fans as well as lawsuits from their leading ladies, ScarJo and Emma Stone, respectively.
These announcements reinforce that Disney has a major commitment to a full return to the big screen. The movies on schedule for the remainder of 2021 will play exclusively in theaters for 45 days before making the move to multiple streaming platforms.
As for the next Indiana Jones, the question I have is: who is asking for this?
Has Harrison Ford done anything other than mail it in over the last 10 films of his? He could not have cared less in the Star Wars films and at nearly-80 years old, I can not imagine there is much left in the tank.
They can go ahead and remove it from the calendar and I would not care less.
