So, it’s been a bit since we had a gigantic Release Date Shuffle around these parts (no, we will not be performing the song, given that we had tomatoes thrown at our heads last time around), and, well, this time, it’s a pretty fascinating one. Disney announced on Tuesday that they’re going to be putting Cruella and, more importantly, Black Widow, on the Premier Access tier of Disney+ on the same day that they hit theaters. Cruella will still be hitting screens on May 28, but Black Widow‘s been pushed one more time, and it’ll finally release on July 9. After a whole year of wondering if that will, in fact, happen, it looks like Disney finally bit the bullet and realized that the whole of the MCU’s 2021 plans would be irrevocably fucked if it were to be delayed any further, given that the back half of this year is, essentially, Oops! All Marvel for the company.
As Deadline reminds us, it’ll take a little bit for the COVID situation to improve globally, given what’s going on over in Europe, but Disney’s intending to keep the rest of their 2021 slate theatrical (well, the most profitable gems from it) once the summer rolls to a close. Ironically enough, they’re pushing the new Pixar film, Luca, exclusively to the streaming service, where it’ll premiere on June 18, free to all subscribers. Perhaps it’s a lack of faith in the product, perhaps it’s because it would have been absolutely steamrolled by the new Fast and Furious film hitting theaters a week later, either way, you won’t be seeing a Pixar film on the big screen until Lightyear rolls around in 2022.
But, of course, there are a series of delays to accompany this big news, most of which are Fox titles that we’re honestly shocked that Disney just hasn’t dropped into the ocean of PVOD yet. Free Guy is moving from May all the way to August 13; Shang-Chi is getting the hell out of Black Widow‘s way and moving from July 9 to September 3; The King’s Man continues its lengthy odyssey to the screen as it’s been delayed from August 20 to December 22; Adrian Lyne’s Deep Water moves from one cinematic desert to the other, as it’s going from August 13 to January 14, 2022; and, finally, Death on the Nile is moving from September 17 to February 11, 2022. Perhaps they’ll pull a Sir Ridley and reshoot all of Armie Hammer’s scenes, given the year he’s had, and it’s a shame Christopher Plummer passed on before he could replace him.
Here’s what hasn’t been delayed, as of yet: Jungle Cruise, which still lands on July 30, The Beatles: Get Back, which will hit on August 27, Eternals, which drops on November 5, and Encanto, which will still release on November 24. And a whole bunch of Fox and Fox Searchlight titles, but it’s not like Disney cares about them, huh?