What Does the New Phase 4 Slate Mean for Disney+?

Yesterday Disney revealed the new Phase 4 slate as a result of the coronavirus. Unless things change due to the virus going longer than expected, we won’t see the start of Phase 4 until November. As the slate was for theatrical releases it didn’t address the Disney+ series, which were slated to begin in August with The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.

That series actually isn’t even finished yet. As Sebastian Stan said in an interview with Muscle & Fitness, they still have filming to do, “We haven’t finished. The plan is to go back whenever we can, whenever that might be, to finish. Whenever we can turn this thing around and people can get back together, we can pick back up, but I just don’t know at this point.”

WandaVision, originally scheduled for December, apparently has post-production under way remotely according to some Instagram posts by crew members. And of course Loki was still filming when the production shutdown hit.

It’s probably unrealistic to expect The Falcon and The Winter Soldier in August as there’s still filming to be done and with Black Widow not arriving until November. But as WandaVision is apparently in post-production, there’s always the possibility that WandaVision and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier could swap release dates so there’s still new content on Disney+ in the fall (and there have been rumors going around of one of the live action shows arriving early). But even if that happens, people should be prepared for some shifts and changes with the Disney+ series due to what’s going on in the world and production right now.

The other Disney+ shows; Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and Moon Knight are all still being worked on and in the script stage so the only way they’re affected is when they’re supposed to begin filming. Hawkeye was set for the summer, but that’s likely not going to happen now due to this pandemic.

All of this means that the shifted Phase 4 slate and the coronavirus pandemic will have some effects on the upcoming Disney+ shows. We’ll just have to see when and how Marvel will address it.