With Eternals tearing it up at the box office (while being torn apart on Rotten Tomatoes), Marvel and the MCU are set to close out 2021 in some pretty huge ways. Fans can't wait for the highly anticipated return of Jeremy Renner's Avengers archer in Hawkeye, with Hailee Steinfeld's Kate Bishop set to inherit the heroic mantle. But what about Ms. Marvel and its titular badass Kamala Khan, who was originally expected to make her TV debut somewhere around the end of the year? Turns out fans will be waiting a bit longer than we thought.
Though a finalized premiere date still hasn't been worked out, Disney+'s CFO Christine McCarthy confirmed during this week's investors call that Ms. Marvel is one of several high-profile projects that is being set up for a release during the mid-to-late summer period in 2022. Here's how McCarthy put it:
The fourth quarter will likely be more indicative of what our slate could look like, once we have tentpole content flowing steadily from all of our industry leading creative engines. Q4 will be the first time in Disney+ history that we plan to release original content throughout the quarter from Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar and NatGeo, all in one quarter. This includes highly anticipated titles such as Ms. Marvel, Andor and Pinocchio.
Christine McCarthy's comments obviously also confirmed that Star Wars' Rogue One spinoff Andor will release during the same timeframe, along with a host of other projects from popular brands and franchises. Who doesn't want more Pixar in our lives, after all? But what does it mean for Ms. Marvel in particular?
When Will Ms. Marvel Premiere In 2022?
Because Iman Vellani's Kamala Khan isn't primed to pop up until the company's Q4 period, that basically guarantees Ms. Marvel isn't making its way to Disney+ during the first half of 2022 at all. (McCarthy's use of "likely" early on does allow for theoretical scheduling changes, but I'll assume nobody will make any sudden decisions like launching Ms. Marvel as a Mardi Gras-adjacent release.) And while it would be awesome if the superhero series was gearing up for an early-July premiere, that doesn't seem super-likely.
Mainly because Taika Waititi's big screen epic Thor: Love and Thunder is hitting theaters on July 8, meaning Marvel and Disney likely won't want to slot Ms. Marvel too soon afterward, and definitely not in a simultaneous fashion. Kevin Feige and other execs are very keen on setting up projects to maximize as many weeks of the year as possible, and they'll presumably want to keep Chris Hemsworth's Thor & Co. first and foremost on the fanbase's collective brain.
Considering Marvel currently doesn't have any other films slotted until Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is scheduled to hit theaters in November, that leaves a fairly wide gap for Ms. Marvel to arrive without clashing with Marvel's upcoming cinematic fare. Although that still leaves other Disney+ series to contend with. While the streaming service probably wouldn't balk at releasing a Nat Geo series at the same time as an MCU show, one has to think Andor and Ms. Marvel will air in mutually exclusive windows.
In that same vein, it would be slightly easier to make educated guesses about Ms. Marvel if we already knew when Disney+ was bringing its other upcoming MCU series. Moon Knight (with six episodes) and She-Hulk (with ten episodes) are in the same post-production phase as Ms. Marvel, and it's very possible one or both of them could premiere in the first half of 2022. Though if Moon Knight is announced to arrive in October, possibly timed to Halloween, then we can probably count on Ms. Marvel in August.
However it goes, at least now we can be 100% certain Ms. Marvel will introduce fans to Kamala Khan long before she makes her theatrical debut in The Marvels, which is set to arrive in February 2023. Check out the first looks revealed for Ms. Marvel in the video below.
While this news wasn't excactly celebratory, at least now we have a more solid idea for when we can go bananas over Ms. Marvel speculation regarding possible Mephisto sightings. Until then, check out all the remaining 2021 Fall TV premieres that are coming soon!
