‘Black Widow’ Moves to November as Other MCU Films Shift Back to 2021, 2022

“Thor: Love and Thunder,” “Black Panther 2” and “Captain Marvel 2” all arriving in 2022

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Marvel

The entire Marvel Cinematic Universe is shifting as part of Disney’s reshuffle of its release slate due to the complications from the coronavirus, starting with “Black Widow” now taking the slot of “Eternals” on November 6, Disney announced Friday.

“Eternals” is moving to February 12, 2021, with “Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings” kicking off summer 2021 on May 7. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” is now shifting to Nov. 5, 2021.

2022 is also shaping up for the MCU, with “Thor: Love and Thunder” taking the spring slot of February, 18, 2022, “Black Panther 2” shifting to the summer on May 8, 2022, and “Captain Marvel 2,” which was not previously dated, is now set for a July 8, 2022 release.

Disney has another untitled Marvel film slated for release in October 2022 and four unspecified movies for 2023.

“Black Widow” is a standalone prequel movie about Scarlett Johansson’s character from the “Avengers” films that follows her time as a Russian assassin. The film stars David Harbour, Florence Pugh, O-T Fagbenle and Rachel Weisz, and Cate Shortland is directing.

“Eternals” stars Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh and Don Lee and focuses on the race of ancient, superpowered humans created by Jack Kirby in 1976. “The Rider” director Chloé Zhao is directing.

“Shang-Chi” is another new character to the MCU and will star Simu Liu stars as the title character, a kung fu master, while Tony Leung plays the villain The Mandarin and Awkwafina co-stars in an unnamed role.

Benedict Cumberbatch returns for “Doctor Strange 2,” which recently lost director Scott Derrickson and is billed as Marvel’s first “scary” movie. Sam Raimi was in talks to come aboard the project back in February, and “Loki” writer Michael Waldron is writing the script.

“Thor: Love and Thunder” is the fourth “Thor” standalone film, which brings Taika Waititi back to the director’s chair and even reunites Natalie Portman with the franchise.

“Captain Marvel 2” recently hired “WandaVision’s” writer Megan McDonnell to write the script, though directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who directed and co-wrote the original film, will not return to the sequel.

The changes to the MCU are just a handful of the changes Disney made to its release slate on Friday, including bumping “Artemis Fowl” to Disney+ from its theatrical release that was meant for this May, pushing “Mulan” onto a July 24 release and making shifts to other 20th Century Studios and Searchlight Pictures titles, including “The French Dispatch,” “Bob’s Burgers” and “Free Guy.”

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