Kevin Feige Reveals How Much Marvel Phase Four Has Been Affected by the Pandemic
We’re finally one week away from the official kickoff of Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe when WandaVision premieres on Disney+ next Friday. Since the last time we saw anything from the MCU — 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home — several movies have been delayed, including Black Widow and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and the series Marvel originally planned as its Disney+ debut, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, got bumped behind WandaVision in the company’s carefully-maintained release calendar.
So just how much has all of these shifts had on Marvel’s ultimate master plan? According to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, nothing about the MCU has been “significantly affected” by coronavirus. Speaking to The New York Times as part of an article about WandaVision, Feige did admit that if the pandemic had struck before Avengers: Endgame, things could have been very different:
‘If the run we had in 2018 and 2019 had gotten disrupted this way, in the buildup to ‘Endgame,’ it would have been a bigger headache,’ he said. ‘With these projects, it worked well,’ he went on, adding that the debut dates for the TV shows were shifted only ‘by a matter of weeks.’
The Times article doesn’t say why WandaVision is now getting released before The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, or what could happen to some of the other upcoming Disney+ shows if movie theaters remain closed because of the pandemic and Marvel needs to postpone the release of Black Widow again. Regardless of what happens to the rest of Phase Four of the MCU, WandaVision debuts on Disney+ on January 15.
Gallery — The Weirdest Marvel Products Available For Sale: