Avengers 4 Release Date May Be Changing [Update]

Update: IMAX has reaffirmed that its release schedule is for worldwide debuts, meaning it doesn't necessarily reveal premiere dates for the US or any other specific country. As such, it's possible that Avengers 4 won't actually release any sooner than it's currently slated to. The original story follows.

Avengers 4 may be dropping a little earlier than expected. An updated theater schedule suggests that Marvel might move the anticipated sequel up to sync up a simultaneous worldwide release. Spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War follow.

The IMAX schedule (viaScreenRant) reports that the IMAX schedule claims Avengers 4 will release in April 2019. The film is currently slated for April in France, Germany, and the UK, but is set for May 3, 2019 in the United States and other territories. It's possible that IMAX is listing these European regions for the date, but it lists domestic U.S. release dates for all of the other films.

That would imply that Marvel is planning to move Avengers 4 up to match the European dates, so that it releases worldwide on the same date. This would be a repeat of the stunt Marvel pulled for Avengers: Infinity War, using a social media campaign to announce the change. The move helped avoid spoilers, which were a real threat given the monumental events of Infinity War. In that film, Thanos fulfilled his personal mission to wipe out half of the living things in the universe, including several of our heroes--Spider-Man, Groot, and Black Panther among them.

Avengers 4 will continue and likely conclude that cliffhanger story, so the risk of spoilers is once again very high. There have been plenty of theories about how Marvel will resolve the situation, especially given that some ostensibly deceased characters already have sequels in the works. Marvel is still playing some of its cards close to the vest, though, holding off Phase 4 details until after Avengers 4's release.

This move would also somewhat shorten the gap between the Captain Marvel film, scheduled for March 8, 2019, and Avengers 4. A post-credits scene in Infinity War showed Nick Fury calling for emergency assistance from the powerful superhero, so we expect to see the one film lead neatly into the other.