Prior to the release of last month’s The Avengers: Endgame, Marvel Studios had been pretty cagey about their feature film plans going forward, lest a new title inadvertently reveal a spoiler for the highly anticipated film. And while we still have no official word as to what films we will be seeing from the cinematic superhero studio as part of their Phase Four cycle of films, we do know when we will be seeing them.
Marvel’s parent company Disney announced their theatrical film release schedule for the next several years today, revealing that between 2020 and 2022 they have a total of eight films set for release. Those dates are – May 1, 2020, November 6, 2020, February 12, 2021, May 7, 2021, November 5, 2021, February 18, 2022, May 6, 2022 and July 29, 2022.
And while there are no firm titles connected to any of these dates, we can make some educated guesses as to which projects might ultimately take these eight spots.
Currently Marvel is casting for both its planned Black Widow and The Eternals features, suggesting that they are going to get in front of cameras soon. In fact, Black Widow is believed to start shooting fairly soon, which put it into position for the May 1, 2020 spot, giving Eternals the weekend in November.
We also know that Marvel has firm plans for the sequels Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3, Dr. Strange 2 and Black Panther 2, as well as a film that will introduce the martial arts hero Shang-Chi into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Also likely is a sequel to February’s Captain Marvel, based on its record-breaking box office.
So that is seven of the eight slots accounted for. Will this phase end with another Avengers-style team-up movie, or will Marvel shake-up expectations. And what about Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man? The two solo outings featuring the shrinking hero turned a profit, but still underperformed as compared to other Marvel solo films. Will he get a third solo feature that could go into that final slot? Could a third Ant-Man film bump one of the other films out to Marvel’s post-2022 plans?
