Disney announces slew of Marvel release dates — including 6 new movies

Disney and Marvel are the cool friend you loved to hate in high school because they had their schedules so perfectly organized and sorted that they knew what they’d be doing for Halloween in half a decade. Now the studios have released an absolute boatload of upcoming premiere dates for movies that haven’t even gotten far enough in production to warrant an announcement.

That’s what happens when you run the two most successful film franchises of all time while putting out an almost monopolized crop of quality animated movies. In fact, the only film with a new release date that has a name is the announcement that Nikki Caro’s live-action Mulan will hit theaters on March 27, 2020, pushing it back two years later than initially expected. The rest, who knows?

But that doesn’t mean we can’t speculate about them. (Well, the Marvel ones, at least.)

There are so many live-action movies coming from Disney proper that it’s a bit tricky to assume anything but that every animated favorite you had as a kid will be pushed into a CGI-heavy real-world environment.

The new dates you can expect that on are as follows: Oct. 4, 2019; Feb. 14, 2020; May 29, 2020; Oct. 9, 2020; Dec. 23, 2020; Feb. 12, 2021; May 28, 2021; July 9, 2021; Oct. 8, 2021; Dec. 22, 2021; May 27, 2022; July 8, 2022; Oct. 7, 2022; Nov. 4, 2022; Nov. 16, 2022; and Feb. 17, 2023.

Phew.

The Marvel dates are a bit easier to swallow, since the groundwork has been laid with greater eye for the future.

The following are all the upcoming dates for Marvel films on the down-low: May 1, 2020; July 31, 2020; Nov. 6, 2020; May 7, 2021; July 30, 2021; Nov. 5, 2021; Feb. 18, 2022; May 6, 2022; and July 29, 2022.

The untitled films coming May 1 and Nov. 6 of 2020 were previously on the docket, though just as mysteriously as the ones Disney just announced. We also already knew about the 2020 movie coming July 31, but it had previously been scheduled for Aug. 7 of that year. That leaves May 7, 2021; July 30, 2021; Nov. 5, 2021; Feb. 18, 2022; May 6, 2022; and July 29, 2022 as the new movies we'll be fitting into the slate of forthcoming superhero fare.

We know a Black Panther 2 is in there somewhere (probably soon, because Disney's not one to pass up on seizing an opportunity), as well as a new Doctor Strange.

Infinity War will give a better hint about who among the Avengers becomes most important and, therefore, deserving of more stand-alone movies, but the way the group film will affect the Guardians of the Galaxy (and that series’ ability to make big bucks) makes the case that we’ll see a Vol. 3. A Black Widow film is finally in the works, so that’s in there, and if Captain Marvel performs as it’s expected to, a sequel could be in the stars for it, too. The rest? Set up for the next Avengers film, whatever that storyline may be.

The crazy thing is, we won’t know it all for sure for another four years. But that’s all part of the fun.