Bob Iger‘s return to Disney has thrown a monkey wrench into Marvel Studios streaming plans. Iger has forced the studio to rethink the pacing of its streaming releases, rethink its budget and generally slow the big wheel that includes production, marketing and release. So slowed down has it become that with a quarter of 2023 almost gone, audiences don’t know when they might catch Secret Invasion, the first of the studio’s streaming offerings. While it’s likely to be a while before Disney gives in on that end, they may have given fans something to chew on.
It was recently discovered that an official Disney site that features upcoming streaming series had removed date windows from every Marvel Studios project and replaced them with “Coming Soon.” This is true for every project listed on the site from Secret Invasion to the animated Spider-Man: Freshman Year. In doing so, the order of the studio’s live-action projects were also reshuffled and that reshuffling may have given fans a glimpse into the order they should expect the studio’s live-action offerings.
Secret Invasion, which has recently been rumored to debut in June, will take the lead as expected. It’s been expected for some time now that Season 2 of Loki would follow the spy thriller but beyond that, the slate has been up in the air with Echo’s showrunner confirming a delay, word that Ironheart and Agatha: Coven of Chaos were pushed to 2024 and the lengthy production schedule of Daredevil: Born Again. While there’s no confirmation and no guarantee, it’s possible that the official Disney site rearranged the projects in anticipation of a coming announcement and put at least the live-action projects in order of expected release.
Should that be the case (and I can’t state strongly enough that this is JUST A GUESS), Secret Invasion looks to be followed in 2023 by Loki Season 2 and Echo. Just what changed behind the scenes to make Echo releasable in 2023 remains to be seen, but it would represent a significant shift in thinking should that series make a late 2023 debut on Disney Plus. With those three live-action projects taking up the last half of 2023, it would seem that Ironheart would kick off 2024 and be followed by Agatha: Coven of Chaos and then at least part of Daredevil: Born Again. Given the mandate to spread releases out a bit more, it would seem tough for all 18 episodes of Born Again to be released in 2024 but there’s no reason they all have to, either.
There’s currently no hard evidence to support this but, to some extent, it fits some of the rumors making their way around (both publicly and privately) about the current and very, very tentative live-action slate of Marvel Studios streaming projects. In the past, I’d have only given this a 33% chance of working out but in the current climate, 25% would be generous. However, it’s certainly worth pointing out so we can all kee an eye on things.
Source: Disney Plus Originals
