It’s no secret that Marvel has been introducing a lot of new content to the MCU, or the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If we count The Incredible Hulk (2008), there are 23 movies in the MCU, and there are only plans to continue growing.
The highly anticipated—and I mean highly anticipated—movie Black Widow has also been given a release date. After many changes, the current release date is July 9th, 2021. It will be released with premier access on Disney+. Hopefully this is the last date it gets because I’ve been waiting for it since I became a Marvel fan. There have been many announcements surrounding many other MCU projects. Recently, the third movie in the Spider-Man trilogy was given a title, Spiderman: No Way Home. The new movie is scheduled to be released December 17th, 2021.
Not only are they doing movies, they are also releasing new television content on the streaming service Disney+. WandaVision was a ten episode phenomenon that introduced MCU television to the world. It was amazingly well done, and it highlighted characters that kind of fell to the wayside in traditional MCU films.
The company’s second show, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier began streaming on March 19th, and will continue to release an episode a week for it’s six episode run. Similar to WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier digs deep into the characters of Sam Wilson and Bucky Barnes who, though have been in the MCU since 2010 and 2014 respectively, were mainly background characters. Throughout the movies that they’ve been in together, we’ve seen snippets of a developing frenemies relationship, so to have a whole show that dives into that dynamic as well as their individual trauma makes for really fascinating television. It delves into Bucky’s trauma and past. It also sparks a very important discussion about race in America, and Sam’s experience being a Black Man and an Avenger. This discussion does nothing but add to the story as opposed to falling into the trap of just doing it to make the show relevant.
Marvel’s show Loki just got a release date. The show will start streaming June 11th, 2021. This will follow the Loki that escaped in Marvel’s Endgame, so it’s practically a clean slate with the moral ambiguity of his character. Plus, if I know Marvel’s shows—and I think I do—we’ll also get to look at Loki’s trauma both from his childhood and his dealings with Thanos in the first Avengers movie.
Shows like Hawkeye and What-if are also in development and set to be released this year as well. Marvel keeps pitching shows as a sitcoms or a buddy-cop style show, and then just dive deep into the angst constantly.
I don’t know what inspired Marvel to release an insane amount of content this year, but it’s what I needed. To see characters I love get the chance to grow, and to get attached to characters that I didn’t necessarily care about, is something that is super exciting. Plus, it’s a nice filler now that a lot of shows on regular TV are on their mid-season finale. I’m looking forward to all the new content, and I can’t wait to see all of the hilarious tweets that come from it.