Be honest: we all saw this coming. With the Coronavirus pandemic sparking second waves and cinemas in big markets across the pond still not open, Disney has decided to delay a host of movies, with the headliner being Black Widow. The Scarlett Johansson-starring MCU pic is now shifting from November this year to May 2021.
Naturally, that means yet another upheaval in the MCU release plans as, since the movies tend to be so linked (and there's only so much film real estate) Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings is moving from May that year to a new 9 July spot. Eternals is facing the biggest move, now headed to 5 November 2021. The King's Man will make a two-week jump to fill that film's former 12 February space.
And it's not just Marvel movies. Death On The Nile is headed from October to 18 December, while little-promoted graphic novel adaptation The Empty Man heads to fill its vacated date.
Even Steven Spielberg is being affected, moving from its 18 December slot to 10 December next year, skipping this awards season entirely. Adrian Lyne's adaptation of Deep Water is flushed from this November to August next year.
The one Disney film staying put (for now, at least) is Pixar's latest, Soul, with the animated pic looking to draw family audiences who don't go to see No Time To Die. That might jeopardize Universal's planned US release of the Croods sequel (which just launched its first trailer), but that all depends on whether Soul truly stays put or if the Mouse House decides that it should do a Mulan and go to Disney+. Doubt that would play well with the cinema chains...
As usual, our caveat: the news right now is for US release dates, we'll wait and see whether Disney dates Black Widow and co earlier in the UK, especially given that more of our cinemas are open.