THE DIRECT – Marvel Studio was set to start Phase Four with a bang, not just with their initial 2020 films Black Widow and The Eternals, but also with television shows produced exclusively for Disney+. The first Marvel Studios series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, was set to release in August 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic stopped production in its tracks in early March.

While the series has been recently gearing up to complete filming, the likelihood that The Falcon and the Winter Soldier would be able to meet their release date was becoming more and more uncertain. Now, a new report seems to confirm the inevitable news.

NEWS
According to a report from Laughing Place, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was not on the list of titles coming to Disney+ in August 2020. While Walt Disney Studios has yet to make an official statement concerning The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, it is expected that the show will not meet its initial August release window for the streaming service.

WHAT THIS MEANS
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier still needed to finish filming for a few days in the Czech Republic and in Atlanta, Georgia as well. While it’s unfortunate to see the show’s release officially be delayed, it was not a surprising outcome given that the series had yet to wrap principal photography.

It’s likely that the other Disney+ shows like WandaVision and Loki will also see some delays, as the Disney+ slate gets pushed back in the same way Marvel Studios’ film slate did back in April. This will give every series all the necessary time to finish filming and post-production, without having to be tied to a quickly approaching release window.

Delaying the Disney+ shows would also be necessary for the MCU’s timeline, given that the shows were created with the intentions of both affecting and being affected by the events of the films. Marvel Studios plans everything out to a tee, and while it may be a few more months before fans can see these highly-anticipated shows, there’s no doubt it will all pay off in the end.

THE VERGE: Marvel Studios used its big Super Bowl advertising spot to quickly tease three upcoming Disney+ series: Falcon and Winter Soldier, Loki, and WandaVision.

There wasn’t much footage from any of the series, but there was enough glimpses to tease fans. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier saw Anthony Mackie’s Sam “Falcon” Wilson pick up Captain America’s shield and maneuver around with it. The series picks up where that arc ended, as Steve Rogers’ best friends try to navigate a world he’s no longer in. The show brings back Mackie’s Wilson and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky “Winter Soldier” Barnes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Avengers: Endgame ended with Steve Rogers handing over his Captain America shield to Sam. The teaser also showed a glimpse of Zemo’s return, the villain made famous in Captain America: Civil War.

WandaVision’s footage showed off scenes of Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff and Paul Bettany’s Vision interacting with each other in a house. The show was previously teased at Disney’s biennial D23 convention as a surreal sitcom-like take on their relationship. Loki had the least amount of footage, but showed actor Tom Hiddleston back in the role.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is one of two big Marvel series hitting Disney+ this year. The company previously announced that WandaVision would receive a 2020 release date, moving up from its original 2021 window. Both WandaVision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier will tie into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Much like what The Mandalorian was to Lucasfilm, all eyes will be on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as Marvel’s first big Disney+ series. Since Disney has launched Disney+, big changes behind-the-scenes have shed light on how important the integration between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the TV shows will be going forward. Kevin Feige, the visionary behind the MCU, now oversees all of Marvel Entertainment. Prior to the Disney+ launch, Jeph Loeb oversaw the various Marvel shows on various Disney networks, and streaming services like Hulu and Netflix. That changed late last year.

Now, Feige oversees everything Marvel, both cinematically and on the TV side. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will be joined by the aforementioned WandaVision this year, followed by Loki, Hawkeye, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel, and Moonknight in the coming years.

COLLIDER – On the heels of yesterday’s news that Disney’s upcoming streaming service would be featuring a Winter Soldier/Falcon-focused limited TV series, it looks like the previously announced Scarlet Witch standalone series will be a two-hander. Longtime MCU player Paul Bettany, who has been the voice of JARVIS since 2008’s Iron Man before getting to appear on screen in the artificial flesh as the superheroic android Vision, is now expected to join Elizabeth Olsen in the streaming series.

/Film reports that Bettany will have a significant part to play in the Scarlet Witch limited series in a narrative that will likely focus on the relationship between Vision and Wanda Maximoff before the arrival of Thanos and his dusty fingers. Like the Tom Hiddleston-starring Loki series and the previously mentioned Winter Soldier/Falcon show, Scarlet Witch is expected to be six to eight episodes long and won’t be connected to either the Netflix Marvel TV universe or that of Disney’s broadcast banner, ABC. Production of the streaming series will be handled by Marvel Studios and not Marvel Television, bringing blockbuster-like budgets to each focused, limited season.

Not much more information is available on any of the MCU TV series, except for the fact that Empire writer Malcolm Spellman will write the limited series centering on Falcon and Winter Solidier. We should expect further confirmation from Disney proper once they’ve got their marketing machine all revved up and ready to go with official cast confirmations, title reveals, release dates, and more. Disney’s not alone in trying to get their many-headed streaming service up and available to the masses, but they might just be the furthest along the track in the quest to dethrone Netflix.