“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is currently still running quite successfully in cinemas worldwide, but as was the case recently with “Thor 4” and “Doctor Strange 2”, Marvel and Disney are nevertheless banking on an early streaming launch on Disney+…
A pattern is slowly emerging: After “Shang-Chi”, “Eternals”, “Doctor Strange 2” and “Thor 4” premiered on Disney+ only about two months after their theatrical release, this will apparently be the case again with the latest Marvel film: “Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever” will probably be released on Disney+ on 20 January 2023. This is reported by several US sites with reference to their own sources and the Disney+ team.
We have already contacted the responsible press agency and asked whether the date also applies to Germany. There is no official information on this yet – we will keep you up to date. However, we strongly assume that 20 January 2023 will also apply to Germany. After all, “Shang-Chi And The Ten Rings”, “Eternals”, “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness” and “Thor: Love And Thunder” also started in parallel in the USA and in Germany as subscriptions to Disney+.
The fact that the film is already listed on Disney’s streaming service also suggests that “Black Panther 2” will be launched soon. At Disney+ in Germany, “Wakanda Forever” is currently still listed as “Coming soon to Disney+”, i.e. without a specific date.
At least one important thing can be gathered from the entry: Like a number of other MCU films, “Black Panther 2” will be available in the so-called “Imax Enhanced” version on Disney+. In plain language, this means that in addition to the classic widescreen format, you can also watch “Wakanda Forever” in a version that was shown in IMAX cinemas and offers a significantly larger image section in selected (action) scenes.
The relatively early streaming start of “Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever” is also interesting for another reason: It shows once and for all that Marvel and Disney continue to release films that are successful in cinemas on Disney+ after a short period of time.
With 820 million dollars worldwide so far, “Wakanda Forever” does not come close to the box office takings of the first part (1.38 billion dollars worldwide), but it is still running quite strongly in cinemas. This puts “Black Panther 2” pretty much right between the other MCU films of 2022: “Thor 4” with 760 million and “Doctor Strange 2” with 955 million.
After the pandemic-related underperforming “Black Widow”, “Eternals” and “Shang-Chi”, the MCU is now (almost) back to its old cinema form – but Disney is still sticking to the early streaming releases introduced during Corona. Another film with a top-class cast, which has just been released in cinemas, will also be released in a few days on Disney+: