‘Black Widow’ now coming to Disney+ and theaters on July 9th

For the third time in the last year, Disney has announced that Black Widow has been delayed. Initially, the Marvel film was set to hit theaters on May 1st, 2020, but the novel coronavirus pandemic forced Disney to push back the release date to November 6th, 2020. Months later, in September 2020, Disney decided to push the release back once again, this time to May 2021, insisting Black Widow wouldn’t simultaneously arrive on Disney+ as Mulan had.

As they often do, the best laid plans went awry for Disney, and on Tuesday, the company confirmed that Black Widow would be delayed once again, with a new release date of July 9th for both theaters and Disney+ Premier Access. The Premier Access movies typically cost $29.99, but Disney didn’t announce a price.

“Today’s announcement reflects our focus on providing consumer choice and serving the evolving preferences of audiences. By leveraging a flexible distribution strategy in a dynamic marketplace that is beginning to recover from the global pandemic, we will continue to employ the best options to deliver The Walt Disney Company’s unparalleled storytelling to fans and families around the world,” said Kareem Daniel, Chairman of Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution, in a statement about the updated summer film release schedule.

In addition to Black Widow, Disney also confirmed that Cruella will launch simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access on May 28th. As for Pixar’s new animated movie Luca, Disney plans to make it available free on Disney+ beginning June 18th, similar to the Pixar releases Soul and Onward before it.

The rest of Disney’s summer schedule is being shaken up as well, and these are the new release dates:

• Free Guy on August 13th, 2021
• Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings on September 3rd, 2021
• The King’s Man on December 22nd, 2021
• Deep Water on January 14th, 2022
• Death on the Nile on February 11th, 2022

Shang-Chi

is another MCU movie that has been shuffled around over the last twelve months, jumping from February to May to July to September. Unlike Black Widow, there is no indication that Shang-Chi will arrive on Premier Access, which means that it might be the first theater-only release from Marvel Studios since Spider-Man: Far From Home. As far as we know, Eternals is still slated for November 5th, 2021, and Spider-Man: No Way Home should come out on December 17th, but as we’ve learned over the last year, nothing is guaranteed.

In the meantime, the Marvel Cinematic Universe will continue to expand on Disney+, with five more episodes of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier yet to air, Loki dropping on June 11th, and Ms. Marvel and Hawkeye both likely to begin their runs on the streaming service before the end of the year.