Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania may not be coming to Disney+ as soon as hoped following a disappointing release update.
Disney+ made MCU content more accessible at home than ever, with the latest superhero blockbusters coming to the streamer – although Black Panther: Wakanda Forever set a frustrating record on that front.
After Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania struggled to gain as much traction as expected at the box office, the MCU threequel recently announced when it will be available for digital and physical purchase, with no Disney+ release in sight.
Ant-Man 3 already made MCU Disney+ history thanks to its Loki Season 2-related post-credits scene teasing a new Variant of Jonathan Majors’ Kang.
Ant-Man 3 May Not Come To Disney+ for a While
Marvel Studios and Disney recently confirmed Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania will be released for digital purchase on April 18 to be followed by the Blu-ray and 4K release on May 16.
However, the home release marketing failed to mention when Ant-Man 3 will be coming to Disney+, with the shrinking threequel being specifically promoted in a tweet from Marvel Studios as “ONLY on digital” on April 18.
This marks the first time since the launch of Disney+ in 2019 that a Marvel Studios movie is being promoted with such “ONLY on digital” verbiage that omits mention of the streamer.
Over the past year, fans have gotten used to Marvel Studios advertising its digital and streaming releases alongside each other with both dropping on the same day.
Disney seems to be eyeing a change to its current streaming release strategy, as Avatar: The Way of Water recently applied a similar principle in pushing the Disney+ marketing and release till after the digital and Blu-ray drops.
Avatar 2 finally came to digital on March 28, eleven days ago at the time of writing, and has still yet to announce its Blu-ray or Disney+ release dates – although the service was recently updated with its spec details.
Is Disney Overhauling Its Home Release Strategy for Ant-Man 3?
Between Avatar 2 and Ant-Man 3, two major Disney movies in a row have now omitted a streaming date from their initial home release marketing. This comes after almost every Disney movie since the service launched has had Disney+ at the center of their home release announcements and marketing.
While movies such as Avatar 2 and Black Panther 2 have come with above-average theatrical-to-digital release windows, Ant-Man 3 is fairly standard for recent MCU movies at 60 days. So, Disney’s goal here doesn’t seem to be to extend its theatrical runs with hopes of furthering box office potential.
This may be a decision from newly-returned Disney CEO Bob Iger, who replaced his fired predecessor Bob Chapek in November. Disney+ was integral to Chapek’s content strategy, going as far as to deprive most animated movies of a theatrical release in favor of a straight-to-streaming model.
Debuting movies for digital purchase and Disney+ streaming on the same day will likely have brought with it a hit to the House of Mouse’s PVOD sales. Perhaps as Iger now aims to course-correct any damage done by Chapek, part of that endeavor comes the return of having to wait for streaming releases.
With regard to when Ant-Man 3 will come to Disney+, that’s tough to say for now, but it will probably be sometime after the threequel comes to Blu-ray on May 16.
Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania will release for digital purchase on April 18 to be followed by a Blu-ray release on May 16.
