Disney sets new release date for Black Widow

Scarlett Johansson's standalone superhero movie Black Widow will now be released in cinemas in November.

The latest Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) outing, which also stars Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Rachel Weisz, was originally set to be released on 1 May, but was shelved back in March and delayed indefinitely.

However, on Friday, Disney bosses released an extensive revision of their 2020-2021 schedule and announced Black Widow would open in cinemas on 6 November, replacing Eternals. All other MCU projects in the pipeline have been pushed back, with Eternals now opening on 12 February 2021, followed by Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, a project which has been temporarily halted mid-production, on 7 May 2021, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on 5 November 2021, and then Thor: Love and Thunder, Black Panther 2, and Captain Marvel 2 in 2022.

Outside of Marvel films, Disney executives have also delayed the release of Jungle Cruise, starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, and Indiana Jones 5, featuring Harrison Ford, by almost a year later than expected. Ryan Reynolds's action-comedy Free Guy has been pushed back from July to December and Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch has shifted from July to October.

In a surprising move, they announced sci-fi fantasy film Artemis Fowl, which was due to have a theatrical run from 29 May, will now premiere on Disney+, making it the studio's first film to skip its cinema release entirely.

Other Disney properties such as The New Mutants, The Woman in the Window, Antlers, and The Personal History of David Copperfield remain without release dates.

However, Disney officials are yet to shift the release of their Pixar animation Soul, with it still being set to open on 19 June, although this is expected to change. They have also kept the release dates for Steven Spielberg's West Side Story remake on 18 December and Ridley Scott's The Last Duel on 25 December.

Most big studio releases have vacated their summer slot. One of the last holdouts, the Candyman reboot, was also moved from June to September by MGM/Universal bosses over the weekend, and film experts are now waiting for Warner Bros. officials to shift Christopher Nolan's Tenet, which is still set for release on 17 July.