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Credit: Inside the MagicIt’s a rough day to be a Marvel fan.
Less than 24 hours after Marvel’s Secret Invasion series for Disney+ quietly received a confirmed release date, it was removed and changed back to “Coming soon.” The highly anticipated show is set to revolve around Nick Fury’s return, a leader of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the person responsible for bringing together the original six Avengers.
The trailer was released during D23 in 2022, and showed Fury, played by Samuel L. Jackson, in what appeared to be an action-packed thriller with a handful of established “side characters” returning, including Colby Smulders as Maria Hill and Don Cheadle as Rhodey.
The 'SECRET INVASION' listing on Disney+ has been updated to “COMING SOON” one day after the release date was added.
See what the old listing looked like inside: https://t.co/n5sVUPzeUI pic.twitter.com/kqwLeGWyEL
— MCU – CoveredGeekly (@MCU_Covered) March 28, 2023
The project has been delayed for months, originally given a Spring 2023 release window, which was then delayed to “Coming soon.” Fans rejoiced yesterday when the show’s page on the Disney+ site was updated with a set release day of June 21, 2023, but were met with confusion this morning when the date was removed. Secret Invasion is just another in a long line of MCU titles that have seen indefinite delays, with Season 2 of Loki and What If…? also delayed and The Marvels moved from a Summer 2023 release to November 2023.
It’s possible Marvel Studios is working to combat rumors of superhero fatigue, as Marvel head Kevin Feige himself saying that Disney+ releases will be slowing down in the next few Phases. Disney has also announced over 7,000 upcoming layoffs, with the first round coming this week and another to happen in April. However, recent news about a major Marvel star may also play a big part.
Loki Season 1 and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) set up Phase 5 of the MCU, introducing Kang the Conqueror as the next big villain for the new set of Avengers to face off with. Played by Jonathan Majors, Kang is described as being worse than Thanos and able to affect every timeline and multiverse that’s been set up so far.
Unfortunately, it seems as though Majors has some villainy of his own, as he’s recently been arrested on charges of strangulation, assault, and harassment. While his representatives claim Majors is the victim in this incident, it’s leaving many fans wondering how Phase 5 will proceed given the situation. It’s had many comparing it to the Johnny Depp allegations over the last few years, which led to his subsequent drop from future Pirates of the Caribbean projects.
It’s possible that the cancellation for Secret Invasion’s release could be due to a number of things. It could be a reaction to the news about Majors, with the studio waiting to see how it unfolds before deciding to release it.
It could also be due to the news of the layoffs or even a retraction due to the poor numbers that Ant-Man received. Given the way Marvel has been operating lately, it seems best to not expect or accept a release date until the show is actually released to Disney+.