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Remember when Disney CEO Bob Iger talked about reducing the output of Marvel Studios in order to increase the quality of the MCU again? Fans have just had their first taste of what that actually looks like, with Disney officially removing an untitled Marvel movie from its release calendar for 2026.

Disney updated its release calendar last week, officially putting in place some moves that had been announced elsewhere — what had previously been listed as Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is now officially Avengers: Doomsday, for example, and it’s coming out May 1, 2026. At one point, the next Marvel movie scheduled to be released was going to be an untitled project just two months later, on July 24, 2026… but that movie has been entirely removed from the calendar.

Previously-dated, but untitled, Marvel movies remain on the 2026 calendar dated to February 13 and November 6, respectively. Additionally, Avengers: Secret Wars remains on the calendar for May 6 2027.

It wasn’t only Marvel movies that were impacted by the release calendar shifts; Searchlight’s A Real Pain moved from an October 18, 2024 release to November 1, two untitled Disney movies were moved a week earlier in August and September 2026 respectively, and a number of new untitled movies were added to the schedule for 2027, including seven Disney movies, one Disney Animation movie, one Pixar movie, and, interestingly enough, two new untitled Marvel movies on July 23 2027, and November 5, 2027. (One of which is very likely one of the movies originally scheduled for 2026, let's be honest.)

Perhaps the most curious thing about the calendar update is what didn’t happen: Marvel’s troubled Blade, which is currently lacking both a director and a finished screenplay, remains in place on November 7, 2025. That's not an impossible target for the production to hit — The Fantastic 4: First Steps, which is dated for a July 2025 release, just started shooting, and it’s likely to be a more effects-heavy movie than Blade — but given the trouble the movie has had so far since its announcement back in 2019, it’s certainly surprising to see Marvel not blink when it’s already making some changes.

Perhaps we should chalk this up to a sign that Marvel Studios is determined to make Blade happen no matter what... and, maybe, a sign that Blade needs to happen, because the character is going to end up being an important part of the next generation of Avengers going forward...

Keep up to date on Popverse's Marvel coverage, with these highlights: How Marvel Studios is now working "much more closely" to sell Marvel comics, where Marvel sees its future audience (and it's not at Marvel, yet!), Overgrown children of the atom: Marvel's X-Men can't evolve past their '90s commercial peak, the biggest outstanding questions of the Marvel Studios' movies & TV shows, and Marvel's accidental closure on the Kang storyline.