Over the last year, Disney has seen a massive disruption to its theatrical release calendar due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Several movies have been postponed or delayed while other movies, which were originally intended to be released in theaters, have been moved to Disney+. Marvel’s Black Widow is one of the movies that has been in limbo.
The film was originally scheduled to hit theaters on May 1, 2020, and was delayed several times before landing on May 7, 2021 in the US. As we move closer to Spring, many news outlets are reporting that Disney will once again delay the release of the new superhero adventure movie.
Marvel CEO Kevin Feige recently told the following to ComicBook.com when asked about Black Widow’s chances of releasing in theaters rather than Disney+, “I mean, confidence is meaningless in today’s world because nobody knows anything. Hope springs eternal. A year delay, you hope would be enough, there’s a vaccine out there now. We’ll see. I certainly hope so. I want to be back in the theater with people.”
Currently, 60% of theaters in the United States remain closed, and a VOD Disney+ release would still see the company lose out on a huge amount of revenue from a blockbuster movie. Warner Bros. recently made the decision to debut their entire 2021 slate of films on HBO Max the same day they arrive on the big screen, but haven’t been able to meet revenue expectations.
Disney has a huge amount of Marvel content arriving on Disney+ this year. WandaVision just made its premiere on the streaming service on Jnauary 15th. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is scheduled to premiere on March 19th, Loki debuts in May, What If… premieres on Disney+ this summer, and Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye are coming later in the year. Could we see Black Widow make the move to the streamer as well? We’ll keep you updated!
In Marvel Studios’ action-packed spy thriller Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.
Scarlett Johansson reprises her role as Natasha/Black Widow, Florence Pugh stars as Yelena, David Harbour as Alexei aka The Red Guardian and Rachel Weisz as Melina.