Last year, “Black Widow” was set to kick off the start of the fourth phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; however, due to the pandemic, Disney delayed the movie a year.  The film is due to arrive in cinemas in the US on May 7th, 2021.

“Black Widow” stars Scarlett Johansson return as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow and the action-packed spy thriller chronicles Natasha’s efforts to deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.

Cinemas are still closed in many regions around the world due to local restrictions. Many of these restrictions are due to be in effect for months until vaccines have been administered to enough people.  This is leading many to wonder if “Black Widow” will be delayed again or if it will get a simultaneous release on Disney+ via its premier access program for an additional fee, like “Mulan” and the upcoming movie “Raya and the Last Dragon.

In a recent press event to promote the Disney+ series “WandaVision”, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige was asked about the “Black Widow” and if Marvel fans will come back to theatres by Deadline:

If I had a crystal ball, I’d look into it and tell you. I don’t. All I can tell you is that for the past three years since Bob Iger brought me into his office and talked about a streaming platform that would become Disney+ and asked us to start working on programs for it. Our long lead plan was to have the MCU and the storytelling woven between weekly episodic big swings on Disney+ and into the feature big swings in theaters. It’s my great hope that that continues. Don’t ask me week by week what is going to happen in this world, I have no idea and don’t want to guess. Everything we’ve done at Marvel Studios has been based in “Ok, if everything goes perfectly, here’s what we’d like to do.” And until this past year, things have gone remarkably well. And it’s my hope that the world gets back on track and we all get back into theaters, and that people will see and experience week by week for the low monthly fee of Disney+ of what we’re bringing there, and then be excited to get together with people again in real life and sit with strangers and share an experience on the big screen.

He also told ComicBook.com.

“I mean, confidence is meaningless in today’s world because nobody knows anything. Hope springs eternal.  A year delay, you hope would be enough, there’s a vaccine out there now. We’ll see. I certainly hope so. I want to be back in the theater with people.”

He added when asked about having “Black Widow” coming out so close to “Shang-Chi”:

“We have the pleasure and the privilege of working with the greatest marketing department in the history of Hollywood, so restarting that campaign, any of those campaigns, I have great confidence in. What I don’t have confidence is the timing because we’re dealing with this whole pandemic.”

At last months Investor Day event, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said they would be looking at each theatrical release on a case by case basis and with still a few months until the release of “Black Widow” needs to be finalised. Hopefully, the film won’t be delayed again.

Cate Shortland directs the film, and it also stars Florence Pugh as Yelena, David Harbour as Alexei/The Red Guardian, and Rachel Weisz as Melina.

Are you looking forward to seeing “Black Widow”?

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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