Over the past 18 months, we’ve seen the pandemic cause multiple delays on almost everything in our lives, which has had a significant impact on what content has been released on Disney+. We’ve seen many series and films delayed, including “The Falcon And The Winter Soldier” and “Ms Marvel”. And the resurgence of the new Delta variant has caused more delays for upcoming releases.

Recently, Disney CEO Bob Chapek spoke in a virtual Q&A session at the Goldman Sachs 30^th Annual Communacopia Conference and provided a little more insight into the current situation:

That’s actually impacting us across the globe and that’s the impact of COVID-induced production delays, which then is a kink in the supply chain from new content coming to the service. Now, this is very short-term. In fact, it’s so short-term that right now, our studio alone has 61 new movies in production, and they’ve got 17 different episodic programs that are in production. Our TV group has hundreds of new programs in production, and we’ve got 200 local productions across the globe in production.

So the supply chain is healthy just like we talked about last December, it’s flowing, but the resurgence of COVID and Delta did impact some of our productions, so that we’ve got a lighter product quarter in Q4 than we might have expected. All to say, again, we are very bullish and confident about our long-term sub growth, but we are going to see a little bit more noise than I think maybe the Street expects in terms of our ultimate projections quarter-to-quarter.

It’s not a huge surprise to see Disney is still dealing with delays, as it only requires a single test to come back positive for an entire schedule to go out the window. Some areas in the world are still in lockdowns, and restrictions are slowing down production due to a limited number of people being allowed on the set and other issues.

Hopefully, as things improve, production gets back to full capacity and with cinemas, multiple streaming services and television networks to make content for.

This could explain why Disney has pushed back the release of “Ms Marvel” to early 2022, to help fill the void, but it has left Disney+ with a lack of any big heavy-hitting mainstream audience appealing originals.

Shares in the company fell about 3% after Bob Chapek’s statement as many investors realised that Disney still isn’t running on full cylinders yet.

After the last 18 months, we should all be more aware of how things change, and no date is set in stone. Unfortunately, this looks like it might be a problem for a little longer.

What do you think of all these delays?Disney has recently released details of its current theatrical release schedule and has now added four new untitled Marvel Studios films current schedule for 2024, giving us at least four new Marvel films a year, in addition to the Disney+ series.

Here is the current Marvel Studios theatrical release schedule:

2021

• “Eternals” – 5th November 2021

2022

• “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” – March 25th, 2022.
• “Thor: Love and Thunder” – May 6th, 2022.
• “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” – July 8th, 2022,
• “The Marvels” – November 11th, 2022.

2023

• “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” – February 17th, 2023
• “The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” – May 5th
• Untitled – July 28th, 2023
• Untitled – October 6th, 2023
• Untitled – November 3rd, 2023.

2024

• Untitled – February 16th, 2024
• Untitled – May 3rd, 2024
• Untitled – July 26th, 2024
• Untitled – November 8th, 2024

We should then expect these films to be released on Disney+ after they’ve finished their theatrical run. With the way things keep changing, trying to predict exact Disney+ release dates would be premature.

Disney has already previously announced it is making the following films:

• Fantastic Four
• Blade
• Deadpool 3
• Captain America 4

But these films don’t yet have a confirmed theatrical release date.

So it’s likely that these films will take up some of the untitled release dates. Leaving many untitled film releases open for potential sequels for “Shang-Chi” and “Eternals”, or the possible debut of the X-Men.

This is in addition to lots of new Disney+ series heading to our screens over the next few years including:

• Hawkeye
• Ms Marvel
• She-Hulk
• Iron Heart
• Secret Invasion
• Armor Wars
• Moon Knight
• Echo
• Loki – Season 2
• Guardians Of The Galaxy: Holiday Special
• What If? Season 2
• Werewolf By Night

Marvel Studios is always a few steps ahead and we’ve now got a clearer roadmap of where the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going.

What do you think is going to fill those untitled release dates?

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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