Marvel head Kevin Feige says ‘production shifts’ led to major MCU movie delays

Marvel boss Kevin Feige has explained why the release of as many as six Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies have been pushed back.

Speaking to Variety, Feige attributed the delay to “production shifts and changes” but confirmed that all the slots are still with the studio.

It was previously reported that the release dates for forthcoming Phase 4 films in 2022 and 2023, including Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, have been postponed.

Responding to the news, Feige said: “So all the Marvel slots are the same, we’re just shifting the movies coming out. And yes, Strange has moved six weeks, so instead of there being three months between Marvel movies, there’ll be five months between Marvel movies.”

He added: “I think that we can all handle that.”

Marvel has previously delayed the release of films including Black Widow and the forthcoming Eternals as a result of the pandemic.

Doctor Strange 2, which was earlier scheduled to release in March next year, will now hit cinemas on 6 May 2022. The release date for Thor: Love and Thunder has consequently been shifted from 6 May 2022 to 8 July 2022.

Meanwhile, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will now be released on 11 November 2022 instead of 8 July 2022, and The Marvels is slated for release on 17 February 2023 instead of 11 November 2022.

Finally, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has been moved from 17 February 2023 to 28 July 2023.

Additionally, two untitled Marvel films, which were supposed to come out on 28 July 2023 and 6 October 2023, have been bumped off the schedule.

After Disney announced the changes on 18 October, social media users expressed their disappointment through light-hearted tweets addressed to Feige.

Some fans jokingly suggested that the release of Doctor Strange 2 was pushed after the first full trailer for Matt Reeves’ The Batman dropped on Sunday (17 October).

Being touted as the “greatest adaptation to date”, the film starring Robert Pattinson releases on 4 March 2022 — giving it a three week head start over Doctor Strange at the box office, if it is released on 23 March as planned.

Others defended the studio’s decision and said the move to push the Doctor Strange release to May would only benefit the film, and not cast a bat-shaped shadow over its box office earnings.

The last Doctor Strange movie released in 2016.

The latest Marvel movie, Chloe Zhang’s The Eternals is scheduled to release on 5 November but critics’s first reactions to the Oscar winning-director’s superhero debut have been mixed.

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