What I Heard This Week: Marvel Studios Disney Plus Slate

Every now and then I come across some information the veracity of which can be confirmed by a second source. What happens FAR more often is that I come across some information that while believable and from trustworthy sources, cannot be confirmed by other sources for various reasons. Typically, when the second scenario occurs, I move on and forget about the information unless, in rare instances, it turns out to be proven true somewhere down the road.

A thing I heard this week: Marvel Studios will publicly address their upcoming Disney Plus slate in the very near future.

In July, Kevin Feige gave fans our first look at the Phase 4 slate and it had a heavy dose of Disney Plus shows with seasonal release dates. Just about one month later, The One-Above-All surprised us when he revealed 3 additional shows were headed to the streaming service, though no rough dates were given. It looks like what we saw in July is the equivalent of a rough draft. We’ve already seen the release date of WandaVision from Spring of 2021 to December of 2020 (I’m still buzzing about that great news!) and we have seen plenty of information that indicates the 3 shows revealed at D23 (Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk and Moon Knight) are all going into production in 2020 and, as of now, all of them are starting BEFORE Hawkeye. The bottom line here is that things have clearly changed behind the scenes since Feige’s presentations this past summer.

Marvel Studios knows that fans are very curious about the upcoming Disney Plus slate. They know fans want content soon and they know that there have been all kinds of rumors and facts going around that have made them question what they’re getting and when. Additionally, the core creative team at Marvel Studios has been meeting quite a bit over the past several months and have busily been setting the course for their properties in 2021 and beyond. With that now behind them, I am told they are ready to begin making some announcements and they will begin by giving an updated slate of their Disney Plus offerings. Unfortunately (and I know this is going to cause disbelief and hatred), I was given neither a specific date nor a format for this update, only to expect it “in the next few weeks.”

Personally, I find this to be exciting news. There have been so many different things going on with production dates and rumors that it’ll be refreshing to get some official word. As to what to expect, as I said, I have no idea, but it seems like a nice little video similar to what they debuted during the Super Bowl would do the trick. A sequel to Expanding the Universe, if you will, that is maybe 4-5 minutes long, gives some shots of the shows that are in production and an updated idea of when the shows will release. For me, that would hit the Goldilocks range of “just right.”

As to what to expect from the future of Marvel Studios feature films, I can tell you that I am much more confident in the 2022 slate and that, if Marvel Studios is feeling nice, you might find out more about that and the 2023 slate soon as well, though I was told there was no guarantee the film slate would be updated with the TV slate. Even so, given that Marvel Studios has firmed up their upcoming slate, you can be sure it’ll start to leak out (it already has beginning with the Captain Marvel 2 news) and we’ll all be able to piece it together soon!