One complication that comes with announcing a slate of upcoming films is that any production delays can cause waves instead of ripples. Marvel Studios usually feels pretty confident in the films it will deliver. They dominated San Diego Comic-Con 2019 with their panel that announced a slew of planned productions. Only, they’ve all basically shifted back (and back), and some of the stars seem to be growing mildly frustrated.
Chris Hemsworth is chomping at the bit to return to Asgard for Taika Waititi’s Thor: Love and Thunder. That film had a November 2021 release date. Well, no longer. And he opened up about the delay to ExtraTV, stating:
[I was] supposed to shoot Thor in a few months, and that's sort of been put on hold. But that was gonna be in Australia. So I was gonna be in Oz for a while. Now it’s nice just to be home with the kids.
Almost every Marvel Studios production had to press the pause button as movie theaters closed and Hollywood’s release schedule took a pounding. Films are starting to find proper windows in which to open, and it’s led to the Marvel Cinematic Universe essentially playing musical chairs with existing release dates.
Recently, the studio shuffled its deck chairs and ended up putting Thor: Love and Thunder down on February 18, 2022. That might seem unusual, but Black Panther and Deadpool taught the industry that superhero movies can do very well in that time frame. Hell, you can open a Marvel movie in virtually any month, and it will find its audience.
We’re particularly excited for Thor: Love and Thunder because Taika Waititi ripped the blueprint of a Thor movie in half with his last attempt, Thor: Ragnarok. Some dislike the humor in the film, but Waititi took the polar opposite approach of Alan Taylor for Thor: The Dark World, and shook up the franchise with a very welcome breath of fresh air.
But now Hemsworth is in limbo like the rest of his MCU colleagues, and a few other movies will look to start back up with their productions before Thor: Love and Thunder can get underway. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, for example, was in the middle of its production when everything was shut down. And Sony’s third MCU Spider-Man movie now has Thor’s old November 2021 slot, so that will have to begin filming to make that date.
Want to keep up with all the changes to the Marvel calendar? Bookmark our Upcoming Marvel Movies guide, and check it often for updates.
