Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, has broken his silence on the studio’s sudden switch of film release dates.
On Monday, Marvel’s 2022 slate of films was changed just two weeks ahead of its newest film, “Eternals,” being released.
The switches included giving new movies different release dates, including:
- “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” — May 6, 2022.
- “Thor: Love and Thunder” — July 8, 2022.
- “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” — Nov. 11, 2022.
- “The Marvels” — Feb. 17, 2023.
- “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” — July 28, 2023.
Questions were raised about why Marvel would change its release schedule with movies so close to being released.
Feige told Variety that the switch isn’t that big of a deal. It’s a simple change related to production schedules and changes.
- “It’s production shifts and changes, and because we have so many slots, we can just shift slots. So all of the Marvel movie slots are the same, we are just shifting which movies are coming out,” Feige said.
The biggest change included a wider gap between “Spiderman 3: No Way Home,” which comes out on Dec. 17, 2021, and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” Before the changes, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” was set to release in March.
- The two films appear like they’ll be linked together because Doctor Strange is set to appear in “No Way Home,” and the multiverse will play a role in that film, too.
- Either way, “Eternals” drops on Nov. 5 and the Disney+ series “Hawkeye” will be released Nov. 24. So there’s plenty of new Marvel content to prepare for as we wait for new movies.