The Avengers are gearing up to assemble once more to save the universe, but fans will face a longer wait due to the latest Marvel movie delay in the MCU release schedule. The upcoming ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ and ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’ have been delayed by seven months, the first being moved from May 1st, 2026, to December 18th, 2026, and the 2nd being moved from May 28th, 2027, to December 17th, 2027. With a movie like this, there are definitely some changes in Marvel Studios and Disney’s movie schedule.
Possible Reasons for Changes
There can be many reasons for the change in the schedule, one being that December is a popular month for movie releases, especially right around the holiday season. The last MCU movie to release in December was ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, which became one of the highest-grossing movies of 2021, so it’s not surprising that they would want to push back both dates. This would give them time in post-production, giving us a quality movie.
The delay could also be that they are still working out additional actors’ contracts that were not shown on the big chair reveal for Doomsday. This means we might possibly get actors like Tom Holland or Halle Berry to reprise their roles for this upcoming Avengers movie. Notably, the movie taking the May 1st slot for Doomsday is ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ and ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’ taking the May 28th,2027 slot for Secret Wars.
How Does This Affect the Marvel Timeline
With the original schedule being changed, how will this affect the MCU timeline? If you look at the previous scheduling, Doomsday was set to come out before Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which events were supposed to happen concurrently with the upcoming Avengers movie. This now could mean that Spider-Man Brand New Day might be set before the events of Doomsday instead of during. Timeline-wise, I would agree that having Spider-Man set before an event this big would make sense, since besides Doctor Strange, he himself has dealt with the Multiverse. In this way, we could also get a tease as to Robert Downey Jr.’s Victor Von Doom, seeing that his version will look so much like Tony Stark.
The Avengers Will Return…
The delay of both of these films will not affect the Avengers’ return to more than just the big screen. This delay will also give fans chances to get ready for whatever merchandise they have coming up to go with the movie. If anything, I would expect a comic book tying or collectibles of some of our favorite characters, along with maybe some costumes and other knick-knacks. And I’m sure whatever kind of merchandise gets released for both Doomsday and Secret Wars, they will probably have some spoilers.
A good example of that is from the previous Thunderbolts* a.k.a. the New Avengers, releasing an image of the Sentry via Funko Pops collectibles before the movie was released. Hopefully, we won’t get too much from whatever gets released.
Is it surprising that both movies were pushed back, and are you guys looking forward to both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, concluding the Multiverse saga? As bummed as I am about the delay of both of these movies, I’m still looking forward to seeing these on the big screen. I just hope that they both can top Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. With the Russo brothers at the helm, I have no doubt that we will get the movie we’ve all been waiting for and more than what we expect from it.
