We’re moving towards the final phase of August. By this time, Falcon and Winter Soldier should’ve returned on screen with their new MCU adventures. But COVID-19 halted production back in March. Even now, the show hasn’t managed to wrap up its production. The overall schedule of MCU has taken a massive hit due to delays. After Black Widow got pushed, we presumed that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will also be pushed to December, or perhaps 2021. And now, that surely seems to be the case. Why? Well, there are several reasons for it.
The Ronin’s Christopher Marc has reported that Disney is planning to delay The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to 2021. The main reason for this delay is that Disney will take advantage of the content drought that other streamers are going to face. Disney+ has managed to sustain close to 60 Million subscribers without even offering any new exclusive series that they originally planned to release by now. So, they plan to continue this success with their new Premiere Access business model that will bring Mulan and other films onto the streamer. And along with that, The Mandalorian will definitely arrive this year on Disney+. So, they could afford to release The Falcon and the Winter Soldier after 2020 (considering that they might actually place Black Widow on the streamer if Mulan performs well).
One could argue that this release delay could actually be nothing more than speculative thinking. But we cannot deny the two other reasons because of which Disney might have to push Sam & Bucky to December if not 2021. The first and the most obvious reason is that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier still needs to wrap up production. The cast & crew is moving to Atlanta very soon, and we believe that they’d be able to finish things up by early to mid-September. But, the post-production work will still require a lot of time. Hence, the show might not be ready for its release by the end of the year.
The second reason why The Falcon and the Winter Soldier possibly has to be pushed is because Marvel first placed it after Black Widow. That was for a very specific reason. Story-wise, the series has to arrive after Black Widow because there is a connection between the two narratives. Without Black Widow, a narrative element of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier possibly won’t work. Hence, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier cannot arrive before it.
Now, this brings us to the question of whether WandaVision could be delayed as well? The answer is yes & no. Last month, we did hear a report that WandaVision was pushed to its original release schedule, i.e. Spring 2021. But then, a contradictory report came in claiming that WandaVision is still set to arrive in December 2021.
WandaVision is much closer to completion than The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. So, Marvel can surely release it by December. But it suffers from the same condition as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. It was originally supposed to arrive after The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as that series would’ve led us into WandaVision. So, unless the creatives remove that connection between WandaVision & the Sam & Bucky show, Marvel’s hands are tied. They’ll probably have to wait to release WandaVision as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is supposed to arrive first. But this fragment is totally speculative thinking on my part. So, take it all as a grain of salt and wait for the official verdict of Marvel, which should arrive by September.
Until then, here’s the updated Phase 4 movie schedule of MCU – Black Widow on November 6, 2020, The Eternals on February 12, 2021, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on May 7, 2021, Marvel’s Spider-Man 3 on December 17, 2021, Thor: Love and Thunder on February 11, 2022, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on March 25, 2022, Black Panther II on May 6, 2022, and Captain Marvel 2 on July 8, 2022. As far as the TV shows are concerned, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier & WandaVision are supposed to hit Disney+ later this year, Loki, What if…? & Hawkeye will arrive next year, and Ms. Marvel, Moon Knight & She-Hulk will possibly arrive in 2022.
