Those who had excitedly marked July 2022 in their diaries for the release of the Black Panther sequel Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will no doubt be disappointed by the news that the long-awaited superhero follow-up has been pushed to a November release instead.
The title is one of several Disney films that have been shuffled on the 2022 schedule due to production delays as the movie industry slowly bounces back from the pandemic.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has also been moved, with the film’s new release date now being slated for May 6, 2022, which was originally when Thor: Love and Thunder was due to debut.
Thor will now drop on July 8, the day Black Panther 2 was intended to premiere. Wakanda Forever is currently still filming in Atlanta and, seeing as the Marvel Cinematic Universe is all interconnected, just one film in the web being delayed can result in the knock-on effect of several others facing a similar fate.
Elsewhere, The Marvels will now shift to February 17, 2023, which, in turn, means Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is now slated for a July 28, 2023 opening.
Disney’s live-action studio also revealed that it is pushing back its untitled Indiana Jones reboot by almost a year, from July 29, 2022, to June 30, 2023. That particular production was delayed after 79-year-old star Harrison Ford suffered a shoulder injury onset in June, requiring the actor to take a break from filming while he healed.
The re-shuffling is not exclusive to Disney, either, with Paramount Pictures also moving some titles around. Those include romantic action-adventure The Lost City, starring Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum and Brad Pitt, which will now be released on March 25, 2022, instead of April 15, 2022.
The updated Disney release schedule for 2022/2023 is currently as follows:
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — May 6th, 2022.
Thor: Love and Thunder — July 8, 2022
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — November 11, 2022
Untitled Indiana Jones — June 30, 2023
The Marvels — February 17, 2023
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania — July 28, 2023
The change in these US release dates will also impact the Australian release schedule, but hopefully, the changes will result in the films being released here around the same time as they drop in the States. More updates to come.
Read more stories from The Latch and subscribe to our email newsletter.