'Black Widow' Delay Due to Coronavirus Won’t Affect MCU Timeline

The latest Marvel Cinematic Universe film, “Black Widow,” counted itself among the list of films with a delayed-release because of the COVID-19 outbreak. Fans won’t need to worry, however, as the MCU timeline will be affected very little, if it is affected at all, by the delay.

According to Variety, an insider in Marvel Studios said that the film being pushed back had absolutely no effect in the MCU timeline. The film was originally scheduled for release on May 1st in the U.S. and April 24th in the U.K. Marvel Studios’ Phase 4 was scheduled to officially launch with the release of the Cate Shortland-directed movie.

Other shows will follow as scheduled within the MCU timeline. “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” will premiere on Disney+ in August 2020 while the Elizabeth Olsen-starrer “WandaVision” will arrive a little later, coinciding with the launch of the Loki series. The series will also serve as a launching pad to its movie universe counterpart, “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.”

Back in December, Forbes reported on where exactly the “Black Widow” film will tie into the MCU. The story takes place between “Captain America: Civil War” and “Avengers: Infinity War.” There is no clue as to exactly how this will affect her death during “Avengers: Endgame”, but it will serve to explain what she was doing all those times after helping Steve Rogers and before Thanos hunts down the Infinity Stones.

What is clear, though, is that there are no resurrections that will happen. It is also clear that “Black Widow” will join a slate of movies that have since been cancelled or had been repacked to go straight to video. Disney’s live-action “Mulan” film, the ninth movie in the Fast and Furious franchise, and the latest James Bond film’s release dates are all affected by the coronavirus.

During these times, fans of the MCU will have to content themselves in the knowledge that the Universe’s timeline is still in the right place, even if “Black Widow” finding a release slot ahead of “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” is almost impossible.