‘Black Widow’: Some MCU Fans Are Actually Worried There Haven’t Been Major Movie Leaks
WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s recent success shows that the off-screen drama of 2020 did not let the Marvel Cinematic Universe go to the wayside.
Millions of fans are pouring in at record numbers to see anything that Disney and Marvel put out through Disney+. However, for the first time since the universe’s early days, there hasn’t been a theatrical release in over a year. Despite such a long delay in a gossip-heavy culture, spoilers remain well-hidden.
‘Black Widow’s wild ride
Black Widow was already an ambitious project before the world around it made it something far more significant. For one, the titular character sacrificed her life in the last Avengers film. Furthermore, Scarlett Johansson’s character doesn’t have superpowers, a super-suit, or a large bank account. Instead, she boasts a deadly set of assassin skills and the wits that go along with it.
However, when the pandemic changed the entire world overnight, Black Widow’s planned release date became little more than a pipe dream. After announcing an indefinite delay, Disney+ was already planning several MCU-inspired series for the small screen. Still, they never intended for the big-screen movies to make their debuts on the service. Kevin Feige spoke about his mindset at the onset of the pandemic.
“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,” the Marvel gatekeeper told Yahoo!.
According to The Verge, Black Widow is trying something unprecedented in the Marvel universe. Following in the steps of last year’s Mulan, the film will make its long-awaited debut in theaters on July 9. However, despite the inhibitions, it will also do so on the streaming service. Whether this ends up setting a new precedent or putting an end to the strangest year in recent memory remains to be seen.
However, despite the delays, pre-screenings, and a hype machine around everything Marvel, little is known about the movie overall.
Fans on Reddit had a field day trying to make sense of this.
Achieving the impossible
In a thread about how impressive the Black Widow code of silence appears to be, Reddit user u/YanARock commended Disney for keeping many important details under wraps, especially given the high-profile people who have already seen it.
“It’s amazing considering that people have seen the movie already. IIRC the NBA players were able to watch the movie in the Bubble,” they wrote on the site. It’s true. Screen Rant noted that the NBA helped draw players to the Orlando bubble with promises of movies such as this among other significant draws. However, everything past the central plot remains well-hidden.
This has users like u/fourcolourhero wondering if it’s all a sign about the movie’s place inside the canon, writing, “It almost makes me wonder if it’s so small scale there isn’t much to talk about. I want to see this so damn bad already.”
Many others agreed. While Black Widow might not be the heavily-anticipated event that Endgame was, it will be the first theatrical release since Spider-Man: Far From Home. On top of this, the debut will kick off a loaded schedule of Marvel projects that were already scheduled for release and delayed alongside Black Widow.
What comes next?
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Marvel fans have already come out in uproarious support of its last two Disney+ series, WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. With Loki and What If? due in coming months, Disney+ has plenty to keep Marvel fans occupied while waiting for the next movie. However, once Black Widow drops in July, GamesRadar notes many Marvel films and series premiere soon after.
From Shang-Chi to Eternals, Spider-Man 3: No Way Home, and two scheduled films in the first half of 2022, the MCU is on track to retake its place as the modern leader box office while expanding that rule further into television, too. When Black Widow finally comes out after a year in limbo, it may kick off the most ambitious stretch of Marvel history yet.
