Disney announced a slew of release dates for its Marvel Studios movies from 2022 through 2023. The studio had previously done a similar exercise before the release of Avengers: Infinity War and more recently, with Star Wars and Avatar. With its 2020 and 2021 slates laid out, we now have some idea of the overarching release schedule of the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the next four years.
Besides the confirmed Black Panther 2 for May 2022, there are release slots booked for February, July and October 2022, making this the first year with four Marvel Studios productions a year. 2023 follows with slots booked for the same months, with the October movie being replaced by one in November. Clubbed with the 2020 and 2021 release dates, here’s what we have for the MCU until 2023.
- May 1, 2020: Black Widow
- Nov 6, 2020: The Eternals
- Feb 18, 2021: Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings
- May 7, 2021: Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness
- Jul 2, 2021: Spider-Man 3 (Sony co-production)
- Nov 5, 2021: Thor: Love And Thunder
- Feb 18, 2022: Untitled Marvel Cinematic Universe Film
- May 5, 2022: Black Panther 2
- Jul 29, 2022: Untitled Marvel Cinematic Universe Film
- Oct 7, 2022: Untitled Marvel Cinematic Universe Film
- Feb 17, 2023: Untitled Marvel Cinematic Universe Film
- May 5, 2023: Untitled Marvel Cinematic Universe Film
- Jul 28, 2022: Untitled Marvel Cinematic Universe Film
- Nov 3, 2022: Untitled Marvel Cinematic Universe Film
Marvel Studios moving to four films a year was hinted at by the studio’s President Kevin Feige a while back. It’s exciting to see the switch will finally be made in 2022 (though with a schedule like this, things could undoubtedly change). And mind you, these are just the movies; we’re going to be getting a lot more additional content in the form of Disney+ shows, starting with The Falcon And The Winter Soldier in Aug 2020 which recently began filming.
The intriguing bit in the announcement is the presence of several “Fox films”. Despite Disney’s acquisition of Fox already done, it appears the Mouse House is keeping the Fox movies separate for now. Which then begs the question: are the Fantastic Four, X-Men and Deadpool movies NOT included in the above MCU lineup? Most likely, no since its Fox slate includes a lot of other movies such as Underwater, The Woman In the Window, The King’s Man and Death On The Nile so it’s likely the comic book properties will show up under Marvel instead.
Combined, Disney and Fox are set to release upwards of 20 films a year, with the numbers going as high as 24 films in 2020. The counts for future years are slightly lower, which is naturally due to the constant state of flux a lot of those productions would be in. The number helps understand the sheer share of the theatrical market that Disney now controls; with nearly 2-3 releases every month coming from the studio.
Its Avatar and Star Wars release dates remain unchanged, which is again curious in light of the recent departure of Game of Thrones writers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, leaving open the question of who exactly will take over that slot. Rian Johnson’s trilogy is the most likely bet at the time although the real answer is: time will tell.
It’s now time to begin guessing what those untitled MCU movie slots actually mean for the future of the MCU. Could May 2023 finally see an Avengers film release? What about an Eternals sequel? The possibilities are endless at this point. Happy guessing.