The pandemic has all but knocked blockbuster movies out of this year, with pretty much every big new film you can think of now releasing in either 2021 or 2022.
As Variety points out, it's created one hell of a logjam for superhero movies in particular. As it stands, 15 movies from the DC and Marvel universes are due to release in 2021-2022 period – and if Wonder Woman 1984 gets delayed again from its Christmas Day release slot, it'll be 16.
The latest superhero movie to shift dates is The Batman – once due for release on October 1, 2021, the Robert Pattinson Dark Knight film is now coming in March 2022, with Dune taking its slot. The earliest of these movies to land will now be the Spider-Man spin-off movie Morbius (technically not part of the MCU, though the trailer suggests otherwise), which arrives next March.
As it stands, the schedule for superhero movies looks like this:
- Wonder Woman 1984: December 25, 2020
- Morbius: March 19, 2021
- Black Widow: May 7, 2021
- Venom: Let There Be Carnage: June 25, 2021
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: July 9, 2021
- The Suicide Squad: August 6, 2021
- Eternals: November 5, 2021
- Spider-Man: Far From Home sequel: December 17, 2021
- Thor: Love and Thunder: February 11, 2022
- The Batman: March 4, 2022
- Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: March 25, 2022
- Black Panther 2: May 6, 2022
- Captain Marvel 2: July 8, 2022
- Untitled Marvel movie (our guess: Ant-Man 3): October 7, 2022
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel: October 7, 2022
- The Flash: November 4, 2022
All of those are in various stages of production – and we expect more moves are on the cards. It seems very unlikely at this point that the US and Europe will eliminate the spread of Covid-19 without a vaccine, so whenever that happens is likely to play a part in when we finally see these movies.
Still, at least we know that plenty of these films will be waiting for us – whenever we get the chance to see them.
- How to watch the Marvel movies in order
- How to watch the DC Extended Universe movies in order
- Prime Day deals
A TV future for superheroes?
As it stands, Birds of Prey and Wonder Woman 1984 will be 2020's sole superhero movies. There are no MCU movies at all this year – but if you have Disney Plus, WandaVision is arriving at the end of 2020 (date TBC). The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Disney Plus's second Marvel series, will debut sometime in 2021. More are in the works to follow.
On the DC front, TV shows like The Flash, Titans, Legends of Tomorrow, Doom Patrol, Supergirl and Black Lightning will return for more seasons. DC has more in the works, too, including a tie-in series to The Batman based on Gotham's police department, and a Justice League Dark series rumored to be worked on by producer JJ Abrams.
If you need your superhero fix, then, TV will be the place to go for the time being.
