X-Men 97 logo News 

What We Learned from Disney+ Day 2021

By | November 12th, 2021
Posted in News | % Comments

As part of Disney+ Day 2021, Marvel Studios have announced (and in some cases confirmed) several animated and live-action projects, as part of a 14-minute special on the streaming service:

X-Men ’97, a revival of the animated series that aired from 1992 to 1997, premiering in 2023. Original voice cast members Cal Dodd (Wolverine), Lenore Zann (Rogue), George Buza (Beast), Alison Sealy-Smith (Storm), Chris Potter (Gambit), Catherine Disher (Jean Grey), Adrian Hough (Nightcrawler), and Christopher Britton (Sinister) will return, while new cast members will include Jennifer Hale, Anniwaa Buachie, Ray Chase, Matthew Waterson, J.P. Karliak, Holly Chou, Jeff Bennett, and A.J. LoCascio. Beau DeMayo (The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf) will serve as head writer and executive producer, while original series showrunners Eric and Julia Lewald, and director Larry Houston, will serve as creative consultants.

Spider-Man: Freshman Year, an animated series that “follows Peter Parker on his way to becoming Spider-Man in the MCU, with a journey unlike we’ve ever seen and a style that celebrates the character’s early comic book roots.” It is being written by executive producer Jeff Trammel (Craig of the Creek, Amphibia, and Glitch Techs.)

Marvel Zombies, an animated series following “a new generation of heroes [as they] battle against an ever-spreading zombie scourge,” scripted by current “Amazing Spider-Man” comic co-writer Zeb Wells, and directed by Bryan Andrews (a storyboard artist on many Marvel Studios films.)

Agatha: House of Harkness, a WandaVision spin-off starring Kathryn Hahn as witch Agatha Harkness. WandaVision head writer and executive producer Jac Schaefer will also return for the show.

Echo, a Hawkeye spin-off starring Alaqua Cox as the deaf Native American heroine Maya Lopez. No creative team was announced for the series.

Additionally, the special debuted the first footage from next year’s MCU series, Moon Knight, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel:

– The Moon Knight footage shows Oscar Isaac’s Marc Spector struggling with his mental health, and distant shots of his caped alter-ego in action; it also reveals Isaac’s version of the character is British. Another shot during the final montage shows May Calamawy (Ramy)’s character being pulled into a cave by a malevolent entity.

– The She-Hulk preview showed Tatiana Maslany as lawyer Jennifer Walters and in her large, green, computer-generated form (whose face was not shown.) It also features Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner, still in his Professor Hulk form from Avengers: Endgame, performing medical tests on his cousin, and explaining how fear and anger triggers the transformation. They appear together finally in human form, in a ’70s-style commercial for her law firm, that also homages Banner’s catchphrase from the Bill Bixby TV show.

– The Ms. Marvel segment features Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel, Matt Lintz as her best friend Bruno Carrelli, and a mysterious quartet of villains causing trouble in New Jersey. The footage appears to confirm Kamala’s powers have been changed in the MCU, with her being seen walking through the air by generating violet forcefields.

Test footage of Samuel L. Jackson in the Secret Invasion series was also shown, displaying a much more haggard looking Nick Fury, with a long, gray beard, and no eyepatch. For more of what Marvel exhibited, click here.

Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi concept art

In non-Marvel Studios announcements, Lucasfilm released a brief one-minute featurette for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series on the service, featuring comments from executive producer Deborah Chow and actor Ewan McGregor, and concept art indicating Kenobi will be heading off Tatooine over the course of the story. Another duel with Hayden Christensen’s Darth Vader was heavily teased and shown in the artwork.

Meanwhile, Disney released a trailer for the Big Hero 6 spin-off series Baymax, coming Summer 2022, while Diary of a Wimpy Kid author Jeff Kinney revealed a second animated film, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, will be released on the service next year. (The first will be released on December 3.) For more of Disney +’s announcements today, head to D23 (the official Disney fan club)’s coverage here.


Christopher Chiu-Tabet

Chris is the news manager of Multiversity Comics. A writer from London on the autistic spectrum, he enjoys tweeting and blogging on Medium about his favourite films, TV shows, books, music, and games, plus history and religion. He is Lebanese/Chinese, although he can't speak Cantonese or Arabic.

EMAIL | ARTICLES