Marvel Studios made a major move last Friday afternoon when it added 5 new release dates to its already impressive slate of productions. In adding one new date in 2022 and four in 2023, Marvel Studios, which once put out four films in a 2 year span, will now put out one film per quarter.
Thanks to Disney+, Marvel Studios is already set to produce an unprecedented number of projects, expanding their ability to tell more and different types of stories. Moving to 4 release dates per year likely means that, beginning in 2021, fans of the MCU won’t go more than a month or so without some sort of new content. At this point, all of the films are untitled, though we have a good idea of what some of them will be, even if we can’t be sure which of the new dates they will fill:
October 7, 2022
February 17, 2023
May 5, 2023
July 28, 2023
November 3, 2023
It’s important to note that February 18, 2022 and July 29, 2022 are also, at the moment, unannounced, giving us 7 “open dates.” It’s probably safe to assume that most of the dates will be filled by some combination of the projects announced by Feige at SDCC, so Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Blade, Captain Marvel 2 and The Fantastic Four will join the newly announced third Ant-Man to fill up 5 of the 7 slots. It’s also possible that Marvel Studios will attempt to introduce the X-Men into the MCU at some point in 2023 and to give Ryan Reynolds Deadpool a go in either 2022 or 2023.
The Mahershala Ali championed Blade reboot would seem a perfect choice for the October 7, 2022 date to take advantage of the horror aspects during the Halloween season, though at this point all anyone can do is speculate.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, once penciled in for the May 2020 release date now filled by Black Widow, would seem to fit nicely into the May 5, 2023 slot as it gives Gunn time to fulfill his contractual obligations on Suicide Squad before concluding his MCU trilogy.
When it was originally announced, Captain Marvel was slated for a July 6, 2018 release before being caught in the shuffle when Sony and Disney reached an agreement on how to use Spidey, so it wouldn’t be entirely shocking to see the sequel plant its flag on July 28, 2023.
Any way you look at it, all any of us can do at this point is guess and get ready to enjoy more MCU content than most of us ever thought we’d see!
