There is a chance that the new Disney+ launch date could be tied directly into another Disney+ release.
It was announced this week that Disney would be premiering some of their biggest movies of 2021 directly on their streaming platform, Disney+.
Some would debut exclusively on Disney+, such as Pixar's Luca, much like Soul did on Christmas Day.
Others, such as Cruella, would also be released simultaneously in cinemas (in countries where cinemas are open), while being made available on Disney+ with the additional costing of Premier Access, like Mulan and Raya and the Last Dragon have done previously.
Black Widow, the first movie entry in the MCU since Spider-Man: Far From Home was released in June 2019, is confirmed to be in that latter category, when it debuts in cinemas and on Disney+ on Friday, 9 July.
Originally due for release in May 2020, there is no doubt that Black Widow would've been a massive blockbuster whenever it arrived in cinemas, so it is conceivable that Disney and Marvel could've just kept delaying its release until cinemas worldwide were fully safe and open.
However, and allow us to speculate wildly for a moment, but we think we know why they decided to pull the trigger so specifically on its release, so that it is available for the whole world to see, regardless of whether cinemas were open or not...
So, if you're not all caught up on the MCU to date, you're either about to get a massive education, or some big spoilers.
Black Widow was killed off towards the end of Avengers: Endgame, and we know that her standalone movie takes place between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.
Currently, Disney+ is giving us our weekly episodes of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, which kicked off two weeks to the day after WandaVision's run ended on the streaming service.
When TFATWS ends on Friday, 23 April, there'll be a bit of a break before Loki kicks off on Friday, 11 June, as Disney have been very smart in giving some breathing room between one Marvel project and the next.
However, Black Widow will premiere on Disney+ on the exact same day as Loki's fifth episode, which is where our speculation comes in.... does something happen in Loki that will tie directly into Black Widow's fate?
We know that Loki's plot involves him using the Tesseract that he snatched during the events of Avengers: Endgame (or, well, actually during the 2012's Avengers movie, thanks to the time-travelling plot) and using it to travel through time and alter the events of human history.
Could it be that Loki heads back to a point that sends Black Widow on an alternate timeline, one that doesn't result in her death, and that is why the movie needs to arrive when it does, so we can see how she managed to be folded back in to the overall Marvel Cinematic Universe??
Now, admittedly, we previously speculated wildly about a potential link between WandaVision and Loki that seemingly (as far we know) was unproven, but if you think a little thing like being wrong is going to put a stop to our wild speculations, then you are massively mistaken.
Loki will debut on Disney+ on Friday, 11 June.
Clips via Disney Ireland
