Greetings from the Disney’s 2022 D23 Expo! I attended Marvel and Lucasfilm’s Studio Showcase, where the studios showed off their upcoming films and streaming series. Here are the highlights!
Star Wars news
Lucasfilm’s portion of the event opened with a panel on Andor, the new Star Wars Disney Plus spy thriller that tells the story of the events leading up to the movie Rogue One. Cast members shared some info about what their characters would be going through in the new series, with the most interesting tidbit coming from Genevieve O’Reilly, who will be playing Mon Mothma. According to O’Reilly, Mothma has been seen as a pillar in the previous films she’s been in, but in Andor, the audience will “get to meet and explore her as a woman, trying to navigate the dark shadows of Imperial politics while trying to lead a rebellion.”
Also featured was news and footage about The Bad Batch, Tales of the Jedi, Skeleton Crew, and Ahsoka. Most exciting though, was a new trailer for The Mandalorian season 3. Although the trailer promised plenty of action, cast members couldn’t reveal much about what’s going to happen in the new season. Katee Sackoff said the new season will be “crazy,” but joked that if she said anything more, she’d be shoved off the stage.
Willow on Disney Plus
Warwick Davis, star of the original Willow movie from 1988, took to the stage with Christian Slater to talk about the new Willow series premiering on November 30, 2022 on Disney Plus. In the original movie, Willow was an aspiring sorcerer who had to learn to trust himself so that he could learn the art of magic. In the new series, he’s a legendary sorcerer who guides the next generation of magic users. Check out our full coverage of Willow here!
Indiana Jones 5
We also got our first look at Indiana Jones 5, which sees Indy coming out of retirement to go on (possibly?) one last adventure. One of the most moving parts of the presentation was when Harrison Ford got teary-eyed talking about his return to the role.
Marvel Studios: exclusive footage and a musical number
The presentation then switched gears to Marvel, with Kevin Feige coming out on stage. The first thing Feige said was that it was no fun that Disney got to have musicals, but not Marvel. Then the house lights went out and the music from Rogers: The Musical cued up.
That’s right. Marvel Studios performed the entire Rogers: The Musical number from Hawkeye. The photos I took ended up just being shots of hundreds of other people taking photos, but someone from IGN got some good pics:
It’s not clear whether it was the original cast performing, but it was great.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
After that, Ryan Coogler and the cast of Wakanda Forever came out to talk about the new Black Panther sequel, and we got some exclusive new footage. In the scene we were shown, Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) visits the U.N., where multiple diplomats take Wakanda to task for not sharing their vibranium sooner. The diplomats claim that Wakanda is putting the world in danger by hoarding a material that could be used for weapons of mass destruction. Queen Ramonda counters that Wakanda is protecting itself against the real danger: the outside world. Then the Dora Milaje bring in a group of soldiers who they caught trying to steal vibranium.
Ironheart, Echo, and Daredevil
We also got our first look at Ironheart, starring Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams. The teaser shows Riri at MIT, although we get a very brief silhouette of her first suit at the very end of the trailer. We also saw a teaser for Echo, which focused heavily on Maya’s Indigenous upbringing. There’s no footage of the new Daredevil series yet, since they haven’t started filming, but we did see a clip featuring Matt Murdock in She-Hulk, which hints that he and Jen Walters will become Marvel’s new superhero lawyer power couple.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
We’ve got full coverage of the Quantumania trailer here, but suffice it to say that Jonathan Majors as Kang is everything.
Aside from the trailer, the best part of the Ant-Man portion of the presentation was the banter between the cast members. Feige asked Paul Rudd about being named Sexiest Man Alive, and Paul Rudd insisted that the honor should go to Michael B. Jordan. Jonathan Majors cut in, saying that both Rudd and Jordan are equally sexy. Evangeline Lilly piped in, proclaiming herself Sexiest Man Alive, and then Rudd announced that we were the sexiest audience alive. Overall, everyone in the room got a healthy ego boost.
Werewolf by Night
Gael Garcia Bernal and Laura Donnelly came out to speak about Werewolf by Night, Marvel’s upcoming Halloween special. When describing his process for creating the special, director Michael Giancchino said that he gathered the cast in a circle and asked them to tell him about something that really scared them as a kid. After each actor shared something, he told them that he wanted this special to create that kind of trauma for other people.
Secret Invasion and Armor Wars
We also got our first peak at Secret Invasion, and some information about Armor Wars. According to Don Cheadle, Armor Wars hasn’t started shooting yet, but the series will pick up where Secret Invasion leaves off, and it’ll focus on Rhodey trying to make sure that Tony Stark’s armor doesn’t get into the wrong hands.
Loki Season 2
Loki Season 2 is still filming in London, so no one seriously expected any news about it this early. However, Tom Hiddleston, Sophia di Martino, Owen Wilson, and new cast member Ke Huy Quan flew out from London just to say hello, and we were shown an exclusive teaser trailer. When asked if season 2 feeds into the Multiverse Saga (spoiler: it totally does), Tom Hiddleston replied with what’s quickly becoming his catch phrase: “Time will tell.”
For a full breakdown of the trailer, check out our coverage here.
Captain America: New World Order and The Thunderbolts
Anthony Mackie came out to promote the fourth Captain America movie, New World Order, which will see Sam Wilson (Mackie) take on the mantle of Captain America for the first time since The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Kevin Feige pointed out that Sam will be stepping into that role at a time when there’s no team of Avengers to back him up, so presumably part of Sam’s job will be assembling a new team for Avengers 5 and 6.
However, Feige said that there is another superhero team in the works in the absence of the Avengers, and the presentation segued into the Thunderbolts movie. We finally got an official Thunderbolts lineup: La Contessa Valentina de Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell), Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), and Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh). Pugh wasn’t able to make it to the panel in person, but she appeared via video to say that she was “gutted” she couldn’t attend.
The Marvels
Finally, we saw the first trailer for The Marvels, which shows Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) haphazardly switching places because of their energy powers. The trailer had a fun and almost silly tone to it, with Carol and Monica coming to explain the situation to Kamala’s family, and Kamala having a terrified reaction to Goose’s powers as a flerkin.
Iman Vellani herself was absolutely lovable onstage, claiming that she was so excited to be there that she was having trouble breathing.
Avatar: the Way of Water
Finally, at the end of the presentation, the audience was given 3D glasses to watch a few clips from Avatar: the Way of Water. The clips highlighted the world of the water Na’vi, along with some conflicts between young members of the community and their elders.
(featured image: Marvel)
