Between the near-universal disdain for Secret Invasion, the dubious future of Jonathan Majors, and a general sense of instability that has markedly permeated the franchise since Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was in no need of any additional problems right now, but may have just suffered another huge blow all the same.
Indeed, on the list of theatrical and Disney Plus releases shown during Disney’s Q3 earnings presentation, both Deadpool 3 and Echo appear to be absent, despite their respective scheduled release dates of May 3, 2024 and Nov. 29 of this year being well within the range of the dates listed; namely Sept. 2023 through to June 2024.
The news comes as Deadpool 3‘s ongoing production hangs in the balance in light of the strikes by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, which could potentially cause delays. However, the strikes cannot explain the absence of Echo from the same presentation, as filming for the series wrapped in August of 2022, so one has to wonder just how big of an impact the picket line battle has actually had in this particular development.
Additionally, both The Marvels and season two of Loki remain on the aforementioned release lists, which muddies the possibilities behind Echo‘s and Deadpool 3‘s exclusion even more. Chalking it up to the present parties being more high-profile projects is out of the question, given that Deadpool 3, with its plethora of Fox universe characters (including Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine) making their MCU debut within it, is at least on par with The Marvels in terms of notability.
It would be unwise to jump the gun and take the earnings presentation exclusion of these two projects as confirmation of more delays, especially with Echo‘s release date in particular closing in at warp speed, but it’s a pair of terribly odd absences nonetheless, and wariness surrounding delays would nevertheless be justified.