Things We Saw Today: Black Widow Is Delayed Without a New Release Date

There was a bit of hope that Black Widow would still make its May release date, but news broke today that Disney was pulling Marvel Studios’ summer blockbuster indefinitely.

While it’s a bit upsetting, seeing as there is no new date for Black Widow, it’s also a hopeful sign that the film will still one day have a proper release. Let me explain: most every other studio that has pushed their movies back gave new dates in the relatively near the future. Why? Because they know they’re willing and ready to push it back again as much as necessary, or possibly release those films direct to video.

With Black Widow, I think that maybe Marvel is waiting until it’s 100% in the clear for the theaters to open again to have the release. Basically, they can’t give us a date because they don’t know when we can go back into the movie theaters without worrying about it. This may be as late as the summer or thereafter. With AMC and other theaters closing their doors until it is safe for large crowds, it makes sense that Black Widow has gotten pushed to “an undetermined future date.”

Many other movies are starting to get released early on streaming services, but those are (for the moment) films that have already had theatrical releases. It will be interesting to see if more and more unreleased films start making their way to home screens in these uncertain times. To be honest, I wouldn’t want to watch Black Widow on a streaming service first, so postponing it until it is safe for us all to go out again is a decision I agree with. And this move indicates that Marvel and Disney will still want to give the movie a big worldwide push when it’s finally safe to watch it with friends in a theater.

As someone who is excited for Black Widow, this is ultimately a good move. We can’t, in good conscience, go out (right now especially—and theaters are closed in many around the globe) and who knows what it’s going to be like come May. So why not just push it back and make sure all fans are safe and can enjoy Black Widow? Until we know a date for sure, we’ll just have to wait and see when we’ll finally get to see Natasha Romanoff’s journey to her past.

Here are some other things we saw out there today:

BREAKING: The entire UK strategy for fighting #coronavirus was based on false analysis. Scientists advising the Gov’t now say the UK only realised “in the last few days” that its Coronavirus strategy would “likely result In hundreds of thousands of deaths” https://t.co/F0hd2e3g9H

— Bill Neely (@BillNeelyNBC) March 16, 2020
Dense crowds continue to descend on the beach in Florida, despite … literally everything happening worldwide. (via BoingBoing)
If you need to work out while on #selfquarantine try this 😂 hopefully this will brighten your day a little! pic.twitter.com/4eVYPHYRim

— Ashley Tisdale (@ashleytisdale) March 16, 2020
Some good news: Birds of Prey, The Hunt, and The Invisible Man will be released early on Video on Demand since we’re all stuck at home. (via Tor.com)
There’s a new five-issue comic, Willow, starring Buffy’s witchy best pal. (via CBR)
The Avatar sequels have also suspended production and we still don’t care about them. (via Comicbook)
“Castlevania Season 3’s LGBTQ Stance Is Weird… But Powerful” (via CBR)