The Marvels: What the Release Date Delay Means for the MCU

Is the MCU truly unraveling as much as Internet trolls claim it to be? Or are they finally getting back on track with what made the franchise so popular in the first place? This past week, the MCU not only released their latest film, Ant-Man 3: Quantumania to mixed reviews among critics, but they also released a brand new official poster for the upcoming The Marvels film… as well as pushing the movie back 4 months from July to November. Fans might remember that this wasn’t the only delay that The Marvels has seen in recent years as it was originally supposed to be released this month, but swapped dates with Ant-Man 3 instead.

So what exactly does this delay mean for the MCU? Fans and audiences were understanding when Marvel pushed all of their new material back due to the Covid-pandemic causing a global shutdown – after all, nobody was allowed to leave home to work on the movies and fans wouldn’t have been allowed out to watch them in theaters anyways. But even after a few years and nearly twenty new projects released over that time, the MCU still seems to be sailing on choppy waters. Continuous schedule changes, reshoots, and pushbacks have caused fans to wonder whether the MCU has truly bitten off more than they could chew with how many new projects they’ve been (and plan on) releasing. Well, the good news is that The Marvels being delayed actually seems like Marvel and Disney have finally gotten the message from fans and are getting back to their roots.

New Report

In most cases, a push-back or a delay for a movie seems like a bad thing, usually because it means that there’s something wrong with the final product and the studio needs to scramble to fix it. In this case, however, a recent report has confirmed that the only reason Marvel and Disney have pushed the The Marvels release date back is to ensure that the movie has the proper amount of time in post-production to get the CGI for the film right.

Again, in most cases, a studio confirming that a movie using a ton of CGI needs four extra months to get the CGI right would ensue panic and speculation as to what else could be going wrong behind the scenes. However, this seems to be an exception to the rule since one of the biggest complaints the MCU has faced over the last couple of years is how spotty and unrealistic the CGI has gotten. Undoubtably this is due to the massive output of new MCU projects and not giving the visual effects artists enough time to do their jobs properly. So, with this report coming from studio insiders, it seems that Marvel and Disney have taken note of fans complaints and are doing what they think is necessary to remedy the issue. If it means a better final product, then fans should have no problem waiting a few more months to see The Marvels.

New 2023 Schedule Plan

Along with the release date pushback for The Marvels, another rumor suggested that the MCU plans on scaling back the amount of tv shows they’ll be releasing on Disney Plus this year. Originally, Marvel had planned on premiering six different shows on Disney Plus in 2023 (Secret Invasion, Ironheart, Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Echo as well as season 2 of both Loki and What If…?). Those six shows would have been in addition to the five that premiered in 2021 (WandaVision, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Loki, What If…?, Hawkeye) as well as the three shows and two specials (Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Werewolf by Night, Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special) that aired in 2022. For those not counting, that would be a total of sixteen new tv shows over the course of three years.

Now, a new report suggests that the MCU has heard another huge criticism of the past few years which is that they’re producing way too much content over such a short amount of time and it’s causing fatigue among audiences. So, a new plan for their 2023 release dates suggests that they’re not going to premiere 6 shows for the year and that only Secret Invasion and Loki season 2 are the only confirmed series that will air. So, if the rumor turns out to be true, it means that the MCU is also scaling back their output in order to right the ship that has caused fans to feel very back and forth over the past few years.

Conclusion

What exactly does all of this mean for The Marvels and the future of the MCU in general? While fans won’t know for certain until they sit down in theaters in November and give their opinions on the film, it can be assumed that it means the MCU is headed back in the right direction. Fans the world over loved the MCU to pieces prior to Endgame with very little complaints aside from a few lackluster villains and some less than stellar character developments. Unfortunately, post-Endgame has caused more division among audiences than any of the prior films in the MCU and critics are starting to take away the benefit of the doubt.

But, with the MCU pushing back a movie simply to make sure they get the CGI right for a film that they know will carry massive weight on its shoulders means, at the very least, that they’re paying more attention to fans complaints. Moreover, the decision to release only 2 shows this year rather than 6 also proves that they’re willing to scale back their output and focus on a good story rather than continuously world-building and adding more characters to the point that fans can’t keep track anymore. So, in conclusion, the MCU seems to finally be taking fans criticisms to heart and will be doing everything they can to win audiences back – but, again, we’ll have to wait until November to be the true judges of that.