Disney quietly revealed a surprise Marvel movie coming in 2022

It finally happened: Disney revealed the fate of Black Widow. The movie was supposed to open in early May after its initial delay, but the pandemic isn’t in a place where opening theaters to full capacity is possible and Disney still wants to try its luck at the box office. The company has now postponed the film’s launch to July and confirmed the highly anticipated Marvel movie will be available on Disney+ premiere access the same day it hits theaters. Disney also moved the Shang-Chi premiere to early September but did not delay Eternals or Spider-Man: No Way Home. Moving Spider-Man 3 from its December slot isn’t something that Disney could decide on its own, anyway. But Sony would probably prefer to keep that December 17th release date in place and make the most of the Christmas launch.

More important than all that, Marvel didn’t delay any of its release dates for the MCU films planned for 2022 and 2023. Additionally, the company snuck a surprise into its announcement that almost went undetected. It turns out that Marvel has five movies in the works for 2022, but the fifth title has yet to be revealed.

The pandemic forced Marvel to delay and reshuffle its MCU plans more than once, and we ended up with an exciting release schedule for 2021 and 2022. We’ll get four films per year, in addition to all the TV shows hitting Disney+. But it looks like 2022 will include a fifth, unnamed title, according to the release schedule that Disney sent out with its Cruella and Black Widow announcement on Tuesday. In what follows, we’ll list the 2021-2023 Marvel movie release schedule from Disney’s new update. Spider-Man 3 is the only film not included in Disney’s list, but we’ll add it since the movie is part of the MCU’s Phase 4.

2021:

• July 9th: Black Widow
• September 3rd: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
• November 5th: Eternals
• December 17th: Spider-Man: No Way Home

2022:

• March 25th: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
• May 6th: Thor: Love and Thunder
• July 8th: Black Panther 2
• October 7th: UNTITLED MARVEL
• November 11th: Captain Marvel 2

2023:

• February 17th: UNTITLED MARVEL
• May 5th: UNTITLED MARVEL
• July 28th: UNTITLED MARVEL
• November 3rd: UNTITLED MARVEL

The only thing that sticks out is that October 7th, 2022, date, when an “Untitled Marvel” film is due to be released.

Marvel has already announced or confirmed several other MCU movies that are in development, including Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Fantastic Four, Deadpool 3, and the Blade reboot. These are five movies that could very well fit into the five “Untitled Marvel” slots listed above. Add to that the X-Men reboot, and Marvel might have additional surprises planned for the coming years.

A leak a few weeks ago gave us the tentative Marvel plans for 2023. Here’s a refresher:

• Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania — February 17th, 2023
• Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 — May 5th, 2023
• Fantastic Four — July 28th, 2023
• Deadpool — November 3rd, 2023

Of note, there’s nothing official to connect those release dates to each particular title. Even assuming this plan is accurate, it still doesn’t explain what sort of Phase 4 movie would land on October 7th, 2022. Maybe one of the four films above will get a 2022 release, in which case one of the 2023 slots would be freed up for something else.

Disney didn’t address any of these release dates in its press release on Tuesday. And it goes without saying that everything is subject to change. Maybe someone made a mistake, and there’s no October 7th, 2022, Marvel movie planned. We’ll just have to wait for Marvel to reveal additional details about the MCU films launching in 2022 and 2023. But having five Marvel movies in theaters next year is certainly something fans would be excited about.