Do Disney's New Release Plans For Mulan Hint At Huge News For Black Widow?

Mulan is coming to a small screen near you ... for a big price.

As reported by Deadline, the live-action remake of the 1998 animated Disney classic will be released exclusively onto Disney+, where you can also find the original film, on September 4, 2020. However, it'll cost you. On top of Disney+'s subscription fees, which will run you $7 a month, renting House of Mouse's new take on Mulan will cost $29.99.

After several delays — all of which are, of course, due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis that has shuttered movie theaters and movie sets throughout the world — Mulan will bypass theaters entirely. Originally slated for a theatrical release on March 27, 2020, the film was then shuttled to July 24, 2020 before then getting moved to August 21, 2020. In late July, a month after the movie's push to August, Disney removed Mulan from its release calendar entirely. On August 4, 2020, the Mouse House made the announcement that Mulan won't hit silver screens at all.

On one hand, this is good news considering how many times Mulan has been bumped. However, it's also a shocking turn for Disney to shunt a potentially huge blockbuster directly to its streaming service.

With so many films on the back-burner thanks to COVID-19, what does this mean for other Disney-housed blockbusters — particularly Black Widow, which faced similar delays back in the spring of 2020? Here's what Disney's new release plan for Mulan might mean for other hugely anticipated releases.

Mulan might be heading directly to Disney+, but Disney CEO Bob Chapek was careful to note that this isn't the plan for other blockbusters. According to the Deadline report, Chapek said during Disney's Q3 earnings call held on Tuesday, August 4, "We're pleased to bring Mulan to a consumer base that's been waiting for it as we've had to move our [release] dates several times. [...] We're looking at Mulan as a one-off as opposed trying to say that there's a new business windowing model."

To that end, Scarlett Johansson's Marvel origin story Black Widow, which is hanging around in Disney's vault until it can hopefully be released into theaters in November 2020, doesn't seem to be heading directly to streaming any time soon. However, without a safe and easily accessible vaccine available worldwide, COVID-19 will simply continue to ravage communities, particularly throughout the United States. That could potentially delay movies like Black Widow even further as theater chains remain closed over health and safety concerns.

There's no question that Disney and Marvel would prefer to release Black Widow, initially poised to be an enormous financial success for the studios, into movie theaters after its March 2020 release date was also put on hold. Whether or not that will be a safe, viable option is definitely still up in the air — and that could force Black Widow to follow in Mulan's footsteps as a rental on Disney+. Though it seems wild to think that such an important Marvel film could be relegated to streaming-only viewing, these are uncertain times. It may eventually turn out that Marvel simply wants consumers to see the film in any capacity, even if it's not as the company originally planned.

As of this writing, Black Widow is still set for release on November 6, 2020. We'll be sure to keep you updated if plans change once again.