Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has finally found its way onto Disney Plus as of Feb. 1, marking the end of the 82 days we had to wait for it to come to streaming following its theatrical bow; a record for a Marvel film.
It’s no enviable record, of course; for all the mostly-romanticized pros of going to movie theaters, we should all get around to accepting the fact that it’s not the most accessible environment for everyone, and for that reason and a handful of others, shorter delays between a film’s release in theaters and its availability on streaming is a worthy pursuit.
We previously reported on the gap of difference that Wakanda Forever has with its other MCU Phase 4 peers, with the film’s 82 days standing considerably above the 70 days it took for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings to make the jump, with Eternals‘ wait time of 68 days following closely behind. Thor: Love and Thunder and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, meanwhile, shore up the rear with 62 and a bright, shiny 45 days’ worth of wait time, respectively.
But Wakanda Forever coming in as Marvel’s final film of 2022 may have left a sour taste in mouths of Marvel fans who prefer, or perhaps rely on, Disney Plus to watch the escapades of their beloved heroes, as it raises the question of whether these long waits will be the norm for Phase Five and beyond.
Luckily, we have reason to believe that Wakanda Forever‘s 82 days of waiting was an isolated incident, with Disney having strategically released the film at the beginning of February to coincide with Black History Month; a move that no one can fault given Wakanda Forever‘s ethos.
Moreover, it certainly had nothing to do with concerns over taking away from the film’s dazzling box office numbers, since Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which, again, had the shortest delay at 45 days, beat out Wakanda Forever‘s total worldwide gross by over $100 million.
Still, the randomness of these wait times remains a cause for concern; while we probably won’t have to wait 82 days for say, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania to release on streaming, the very same thing could be said about the possibility of a 45-day wait. If Marvel wants to satisfy the homebody sector of their fanbase, it would do them some good to try and establish consistency with the waits between theatrical and streaming debuts. At the very least, it would become a norm that we could learn to adjust to, even if that norm would happen to fall in the Shang-Chi/Eternals range.
For those of you equipped to hit the cinemas, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will release to theaters on Feb. 17.