Marvel's Release Schedule Shifts for Spider-man Addition

Here's how the biggest news of 2015 will affect Marvel Studios' release schedule for the next 5 years.
Story by Matt Cummings
As we reported on Monday night, fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe just got the biggest news they could have hoped for in Sony Pictures' decision to share Spider-man and his villains with Marvel Studios. The deal is perhaps the biggest news of 2015, and could stand as the biggest entertainment news of the year, even with stories like Avengers: Age of Ultron and Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice in various stages of production.

The questions on everyone's mind relative to Spider-man is multi-faceted: how will he fit in to the MCU? Will he appear in Captain America: Civil War? And how does this affect Marvel Studios' release schedule as it was announced back in October 2014? While the first two questions are TBD, we do know the answer to the third question, because the other news regarding Spider-man is just as big.

Not only will Marvel potentially bring Spider-man into Civil War, but he's getting his own standalone film in 2017. As a result, all other standalone films from Marvel (Thor, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, and Inhumans) are being pushed back to accommodate this unprecedented deal. In addition, the planned Drew Goddard Sinister Six film has been pushed back/eliminated from Sony's schedule. Here is the new Marvel schedule, with original dates and new ones:

Phase 3
2016
•May 6, 2016 – Captain America: Civil War
•November 4, 2016 – Doctor Strange (retains its date)
•November 11, 2016 – Sinister Six (cancelled/postponed)

2017
•May 5, 2017 – Guardians of the Galaxy 2
•July 27, 2017 – Spider-Man
•November 3, 2017 – Thor: Ragnarok (moved from July 28)

2018
•May 4, 2018 – The Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1
•July 6, 2018 - Black Panther (moved from November 3, 2017)
•November 2, 2018 – Captain Marvel (moved from July 6, 2018)


2019
•May 3, 2019 – The Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2
•July 12, 2019 – Inhumans (moved from November 2, 2018)

If you're wondering whether the Spider-man film will have Amazing Spider-man's Andrew Garfield, that answer appears to be no. Another question on people's minds - how Marvel will handle the Inhumans storyline since they've introduced them in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on ABC, the answer is decidedly more up in the air. We all know how important this storyline fits into the Cosmic Universe of the comics (War of Kings, Realm of Kings, Infinity, Inhumanity), so it will be interesting to see how ABC handles this newest curveball to their universe building.

But one thing is clear: the MCU is changing right underneath our feet, and a long-term deal to bring SPider0-man into their universe means we'll be seeing Old Web Head as a Phase 4 team member, likely with Captain Marvel, The Inhumans, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and potentially all of the Netflix and ABC heroes thrown in for good measure.

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