Disney CEO Says Black Widow Release Will Be "Last-Minute Decision"

Disney CEO Says Black Widow Release Will Be “Last-Minute” Decision

As theaters slowly get back to welcoming customers back with the vaccine for the global pandemic rolling out, Disney CEO Bob Chapek has confirmed in an interview with Bloomberg Television that the release for the highly-anticipated Black Widow is going to come down to a “last-minute decision.”

While talking about the limited reopening of Disneyland in April, Chapek wouldn’t discuss whether the House of Mouse would change the release date for the Marvel Cinematic Universe outing again but instead that they will need to flexible in making the decision between sticking to an exclusive theatrical window or utilize the hybrid theatrical and Disney+ Premier Access model used for Raya and the Last Dragon and Mulan.

“Our situation and our conditions change,” Chapek said. “Just a few weeks ago, theaters in New York and Los Angeles weren’t even open. Now, all of a sudden they’re open, so we’re waiting to see how prospective theatergoers respond to these reopenings. We’re going to remain flexible. We’ll make the call probably at the last minute in terms of how these films come to market, whether it’s Black Widow or any other title. We love the theatrical window. We think it’s important for building our franchises. At the same time, we don’t think it’s the only way to do it. … We’ll see what happens over the next couple of months. So much is changing, it’s such a dynamic environment. It’s really hard to predict what’s going to happen with consumer behavior in the next month as it comes to re-emergence back into the world of normal. We’ll be watching the call carefully and make the call when we have to.”

In Black Widow, Scarlett Johansson returns as Natasha Romanoff, a spy, and assassin who grew up being trained by the KGB before breaking from their grasp and becoming an agent of SHIELD and an Avenger. The film is expected to be set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, but before Avengers: Infinity War.

Black Widow will also feature a star-studded cast including Golden Globe nominee David Harbour (Stranger Things, Hellboy) as Alexei aka The Red Guardian, Florence Pugh (Fighting with My Family) as Yelena Belova, Academy Award-winning actress Rachel Weisz (The Favourite) as Melina and O-T Fagbenle (The Handmaid’s Tale) as Mason.

The movie was directed by Cate Shortland (Lore) from a script written by Jac Schaeffer (The Hustle). Black Widow is set to release on May 7, 2021, which will be a year after its original release date.