Editor's Note: Eternals' Disney Plus release date is January 12, 2022. The original text of this article follows.

The Eternals' Disney Plus release date is as confusing a topic as anything about director Chloe Zhao's upcoming blockbuster film. Disney gave us "The Black Widow" on Disney Plus on the same day as its theatrical release, but there was no such leeway for "Shang Princess and the Legend of the Ten Rings."

Whether this had anything to do with Scarlett Johansson's lawsuit against Disney over the online release of "The Black Widow" (both parties settled), or whether the box office success of "Shang Chi" simply gave Disney the reason it needed, I do not know. So, it appears that Eternals will skip the Disney Plus Premier Access release.

However, how much longer will we have to wait to stream "Eternals" (Marvel's next film) at home? And not through some dubious download, but legally. And those looking for something, anything, new will be pleased to hear that we now know when Encanto will be coming to Disney Plus.

As noted above, Disney Plus has announced that Eternals will arrive on January 12, 2022. The original text of this article is as follows.

So, as a way to hypothesize what will happen next, we turn to the precedent set by Shang Ki. Disney released the film theatrically on September 3, and many expected it to be available on Disney Plus after its 45-day theatrical window.

However, that did not happen. Instead of the October 18 release date many thought, Shang - CHI was released on November 12 and became the centerpiece title of Disney's "Disney Plus Day" event.

From these, several conclusions can be drawn.

1. Disney Plus can get Eternals as early as Monday, December 20. This is a date 45 days later, which is possible but not certain. In fact, there is good reason to believe it will be later.

2. Disney Plus will likely drop Eternals on Friday, December 24. The history of Disney's current movie release dates suggests that Friday is their favorite day of the week for movie releases.

And Christmas Eve? An ideal night, don't you think? It seems too perfect to let Disney open presents on that night. And since Disney has no movies coming out on that date, there is no competition (20th Century Studios' "The Man of Kings" opens on the 22nd).

3. Eternals may not appear on Disney Plus this year. Disney did not rush to get Shang-Chi around its 45-day date. Instead, it waited almost a month extra, presumably to make the Disney Plus date as big as possible. So what if Disney has another date on the calendar that makes more sense? For example, maybe February 18, the Friday after "The Boba Fett Book" (the next big series) is finished? That could be it.

The news first broke to former The Hollywood Reporter editor Matt Belloni, who wrote in his newsletter that "(Disney CEO) Bob Chapek and distribution chief Kareem Daniels have made a decision about the fate of the film in November and really I'm told it will have an exclusive theatrical release," he wrote.

This is probably not the only reason for the box office success of "Shan-Chi," as Deadline broke the news that early demand for "Eternals" had surpassed everything seen so far this year. According to the same article, the film's presale ticket sales in the first 24 hours of its opening day exceeded those of "Shang-Chi" (up 86%) and "Black Widow" (up 30%). Eternals was also AMC's largest first-day presale ticket sale of the year.

With numbers like these, Disney does not even need to come close to Disney Plus to make "Eternals" a success. Especially since families are less likely to purchase a $30 Disney Plus Premier Access than they are to purchase three or more movie tickets.