Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
The Marvel Cinematic Universe certainly had a presence at D23, but this year wasn’t about new productions or Slate announcements. It was instead primarily about confirmations and promotion for the television streaming shows that are coming to Disney+ in the future.
On the movie front, Marvel CCO Kevin Feige did appear on stage. A video message from Ryan Reynolds played, thanking fans for the monumental success of Deadpool and Wolverine (the film crossed the $1 mark over the weekend, making it Marvel Studios’ 11th billion-dollar blockbuster). Feige then welcomed Anthony Mackie on stage and D23 attendees got to see new footage from next year’s Captain America: Brave New World. According to reports, the highlight was seeing Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus Ross / Red Hulk in all his glory!
Next, another video message played featuring the stars of The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach) from the set of the film in the United Kingdom.
On the live action television side, the upcoming Disney+ series Iron Heart was promoted with Ryan Coogler joining Dominique Thorne, Anthony Ramos, Lyric Ross, Alden Ehrenreich on stage where exclusive footage from the show was aired for D23 attendees. Anthony Ramos was confirmed to be portraying Parker Robbins / The Hood in the series.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Up next, the stars of Daredevil: Born Again joined Kevin Feige on stage. Further confirming the reports that have surfaced all year, Feige declared that the show will honor the spirit of the original Netflix series, while taking Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk to new and exciting places. Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, Elden Henson, Deborah Ann Woll, and Jon Bernthal all appeared on stage and a March-2025 released date on Disney+ for Daredevil: Born Again was confirmed.
From there, this Fall’s Agatha All Along was promoted, complete with a live musical performance of The Ballad of the Witches’ Road by Kathryn Hahn and members of her supporting cast. The song was catchy and spooky, and the performance was capped off by a cackling Kathryn Hahn wickedly reminding us of why we loved the Agatha character so much in WandaVision! This series is coming out just in time for the Halloween season, and I am really looking forward to it!
If you’ve been following Marvel news over the course of 2024, you’re aware that Kevin Feige’s trusted team has been separated into new divisions. There is now a Marvel Studios banner, a Marvel Television banner (complete with the “Marvel Spotlight” projects), and a Marvel Animation banner. The font style for each of these divisions is similar to the Marvel Studios logo (and this has even extended to the comics division). All of this has been done to express cohesiveness while also reflecting the individual goals of each division. As CCO, Kevin Feige is essentially overseeing and supporting each of the divisions, though it seems pretty clear that most of his attention will be focused on the movie side of things.
So, that brings us to Marvel Animation. Upcoming projects include What If …? Season Three (which will be the final Season of the series), another X-Men ’97 series (in which the X-Men will suit-up in costumes similar to the ones that the team wore in Grant Morrison’s New X-Men run), and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, which will see Hudson Thames voice Peter Parker and Colman Domingo voice Norman Osborn. Also, the upcoming Eyes of Wakanda and Marvel Zombies shows will each be four episodes in length, with Eyes of Wakanda taking place upon the Sacred Timeline and within the MCU 616-Universe.
Coming out of SDCC and now D23, it is clear that the quantity of MCU projects has been significantly scaled back, as was promised when Bob Iger returned to Disney. It looks like we will only be getting three theatrical films (Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps) and two live action shows (Daredevil: Born Again and Ironheart). It also looks like we may not hear any official announcements pertaining to the upcoming MCU Slate until next Summer.
Nonetheless, I’m really excited for Agatha and Daredevil and each of the three theatrical films, so there is certainly a lot to look forward to!
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