WandaVision release date means no new Marvel movies or TV shows in 2020

WandaVision
(Image credit: Disney Plus)

Disney Plus has finally revealed the release date of WandaVision – you'll be able to stream the six-episode season beginning weekly on January 15, 2021. WandaVision is the first canonical TV spin-off of the Marvel movies, featuring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany reprising their roles as Wanda Maximoff and Vision respectively. 

It's the first canonical Marvel content you'll see in 2021, after both Black Widow and Marvel's Eternals were delayed until later next year. WandaVision was meant to be the second Marvel TV show released on Disney Plus – pandemic factors led to the delay of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier from its August release date, so this series is now going first.

According to an EW story from earlier this week, WandaVision's six episodes are each an hour long. The show riffs on classic American sitcoms, suggesting something has gone amiss with Wanda's reality-bending powers – it'll also sow a number of seeds for the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This show will tie in to the upcoming 2022 movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Marvel has confirmed, where Olsen reprises her role again.

Not seen the trailer for WandaVision yet? Check it out below:

Phase 4 begins

In a normal year, we'd be a week into the release of Marvel's Eternals, following the release of Black Widow in May. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier would've wrapped up its run by now, too. It actually would've been a packed 2020 for the MCU – but it didn't happen, of course, and it's been well over a year since Spider-Man: Far From Home wrapped up Phase 3 of the MCU.

With WandaVision coming in January, that means 2020 won't have had a single new Marvel release. 

Still, even if the future of Marvel is on the small screen for now, it's way better than having no live-action Marvel stories at all. It's also about time that Disney Plus gave us our first new glimpse into the MCU, more than a year after its original launch, and after a lot of news and rumors about its multiple shows in the works.

Samuel Roberts

Samuel is a PR Manager at game developer Frontier. Formerly TechRadar's Senior Entertainment Editor, he's an expert in Marvel, Star Wars, Netflix shows and general streaming stuff. Before his stint at TechRadar, he spent six years at PC Gamer. Samuel is also the co-host of the popular Back Page podcast, in which he details the trials and tribulations of being a games magazine editor – and attempts to justify his impulsive eBay games buying binges.