Marvel Studios made a host of announcements at San Diego Comic-Con this year, from the next two phases of the MCU, including two Avengers movies due out in 2025, to the release of the first Black Panther: Wakanda Forever trailer:
The solemn, almost entirely wordless trailer for Ryan Coogler’s follow-up to the 2018 smash hit sees Wakanda descend into war with Atlantis — led by Tenoch Huerta’s Namor — after the death of the late Chadwick Boseman’s King T’Challa. Set to a cover/remix of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright,” the footage also teases the journey of Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) to becoming Ironheart, and concludes with the rise of a new Black Panther.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige confirmed Wakanda Forever, which releases on November 11, will mark the end of the MCU’s Phase Four. It will be preceded by the August 17 premiere of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, which also received a new trailer, revealing Jennifer Walters’s ability to break the fourth wall has been retained for the show, and that Daredevil (Charlie Cox) will return, this time wearing his comics counterpart’s original red-and-yellow suit.
Feige revealed Phase Five will include the following films and Disney+ shows:
– Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (February 17, 2023): The threequel had a teaser poster released by concept artist Andy Park, giving us our first look at Jonathan Majors’s Kang the Conqueror, and Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton)’s Stinger costume. Footage from the panel revealed Bill Murray will play a character Michelle Pfeiffer’s Janet van Dyne encountered in the Quantum Realm, as well as another villain director Peyton Reed all but confirmed was MODOK.
– Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (May 5, 2023): Chukwudi Iwuji appeared in-costume to announce he will be playing Rocket’s villainous creator, the High Evolutionary, who has come to reclaim him; Maria Bakalova was also revealed to be voicing Cosmo the Spacedog. Footage showed the Gamora variant from Avengers: Endgame is now leading the Ravagers, and that the film will feature music from the 2000s.
– Secret Invasion (Spring 2023): Footage from the Disney+ series of a conversation between Samuel L. Jackson’s Nick Fury and Cobie Smulders’s Maria Hill was shown, revealing the former director of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been avoiding returning to Earth.
– Loki season two (Summer 2023)
– Echo (Summer 2023)
– The Marvels (July 28, 2023)
– Blade (November 3, 2023)
– Ironheart (Fall 2023)
– Agatha: Coven of Chaos (formerly known as Agatha: House of Harkness, coming Winter 2024)
– Daredevil: Born Again (Spring 2024), which will consist of 18 episodes.
– Captain America: New World Order (May 3, 2024)
– Thunderbolts (July 26, 2024)
Phase Six will include the Fantastic Four reboot on November 8, 2024, and Avengers: The Kang Dynasty on May 2, 2025. Avengers: Secret Wars will conclude the phase, and what has now been officially branded the Multiverse Saga, on November 7, 2025. No directors or writers were announced for any of the newly revealed films.
Marvel also held their first designated animation panel on Friday, which was hosted by moderator Paul F. Tompkins. It featured a panel of individuals from across the animation sector, namely the studio’s head of streaming television and animation, Brad Winderbaum, and head of visual development, Ryan Meinerding; Bryan Andrews, director of What If…?, and executive producer on Marvel Zombies; What If…? writer and EP A.C. Bradley; X-Men ’97 writer/EP Beau DeMayo; Kirsten Lepore, writer, director, and executive producer of I Am Groot; and Spider-Man: Freshman Year writer/EP Jeff Trammell.
– A trailer and poster for the upcoming five-part series of shorts, I Am Groot, was released, ahead of its debut on Disney+ on August 10, along with the announcement that the series will be returning for a second five-part season at an unspecified time. Lepore also revealed that Bradley Cooper will return as Rocket Raccoon in the series.
– The upcoming Spider-Man series, Spider-Man: Freshman Year had a host of characters confirmed to be making appearances in the show, including Nico Minoru from “Runaways,” Amadeus Cho, Norman and Harry Osborn, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, and the villains Chameleon, Scorpion, Tarantula, Rhino, and Doctor Octopus. Charlie Cox is set to reprise the role of Daredevil, although other potential returning voices, such as Lyrica Okano from Hulu’s Runaways, or Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, were not confirmed. The show will debut in 2024, with a second season, Sophomore Year, already confirmed.
Continued below– What If…? Season 2 was confirmed for a 2023 debut, with preview footage confirming the return of Captain Carter, Steve Rogers, and Black Panther/T’Challa, and that Shang-Chi and Avengers: Infinity War will be the subject of some of the series’ alternate timelines. An episode will be set in 1602, likely inspired by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert, and Richard Isanove’s series “Marvel 1602.” A third season of What If…? was also announced.
– Marvel Zombies will be written by Zeb Wells, with a team of heroes consisting of Yelena Belova, Kate Bishop, Kamala Khan, Shang-Chi, his pal Katy Chen, Red Guardian, Jimmy Woo, and Death Dealer, set to be pitted against the undead forces of Scarlet Witch, Captain Marvel, Ikaris, and more. The voice cast for the series was not revealed, while the premiere will be sometime in 2024.
– Details about X-Men ’97 were unveiled with characters from the original series — Professor X, Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Jubilee, Rogue, Storm, Gambit, Magneto, and more — confirmed to be returning. Nightcrawler and Sunspot were named as two heroic additions to the show, with Magneto set to lead the team following Professor X’s departure in the original series finale. Larry Houston, director of the original series, as well as writers Eric and Julia Lewald, were in the audience, with DeMayo remarking that “the MCU probably wouldn’t exist without the show you made.” A second season of X-Men ’97 was also confirmed and following the panel, it was revealed that the episode order of X-Men: The Animated Series will be adjusted on Disney+ to reflect the original story order.
You can read more about all these projects, and check out the logos on Marvel.com, and the Walt Disney Company’s press release.
