While Disney has been relatively quiet in the past few months on upcoming projects and their release dates, during The Walt Disney Company’s Investor Day, they announced many new projects while also updating viewers on films and TV shows that have been on Disney’s slate for a few months now.
Disney split the presentation up into sections, being sure to keep “Star Wars” and “Marvel” project announcements separate so viewers had to watch their original content announcements in between.
There were many “Star Wars” announcements, such as a third season of the hit Disney+ original series, “The Mandalorian,” an “Andor,” a spin-off series centered around the character Cassian Andor from the 2016 film, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” two spin-offs of “The Mandalorian,” “Rangers of the New Republic” and “Ahsoka.”
The last two TV shows mentioned will be taking place around the same time as “The Mandalorian,” which as of now is an unexplored time period in the Star Wars franchise.
There were also new announcements, such as a series on fan-favorite scoundrel, Lando Calrissain, titled “Lando,” a spin-off series from the praised TV show “The Clone Wars” called “The Bad Batch,” about a group of clones after the events of “The Clone Wars.” The long awaited “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series was finally given a logo while also confirming that Hayden Christensen, actor who portrayed Anain Skywalker in the prequel trilogy (Episodes 1-3), will be returning in the role of Darth Vader. It was also announced that the “Wonder Woman” director would be helming the film “Rogue Squadron.” Nothing else has been announced about this project.
Out of everything Star Wars, fans are most excited for the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” Disney+ original series after the long awaited return of Obi-Wan Kenobi actor, Ewan McGregor.
Marvel stole the show near the end of all the presentations. Marvel Studios head, Kevin Fiege, presented the next few projects in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
Fans have been waiting for months to hear news about their favorite Marvel comic book characters because COVID-19 has continued to push back movies and Disney has refused to let the Marvel Studios project go straight to Disney.
The Disney+ original series and first MCU project since 2019’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” “Wandavision” was given a new trailer and premiered on January 15.
“Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness” was presented next, fittingly following “Wandavision” as the year before, it was confirmed the Elizabeth Olsen, who plays Scarlet Witch or Wanda Maximoff, joined the cast and it was to be directed by Sam Raimi, who previously directed the “Spider-Man” trilogy from 2002-2007.
Xochitl Gomez was announced to play America Chavez (Miss America) who is Marvel’s first Latin-American and LGBTQ+ character. Fiegi said how this movie will tie directly into the “Untitled Spider-Man: Far From Home sequel.”
The long awaited trailer for “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” series was finally released showcasing the witty banter between fan-favorites Sam Wilson (Anothony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan).
Fiegi also confirmed that they will not be releasing any theatrical releases on Disney+ and they will wait until the films can release in theaters. This would include the three films in post-production, “Black Widow” starring Scarlett Johanson, releasing May 7,2021, “Shang-Chi” starring Simu Liu, reasling July 9, 2021, and “The Eternals” starring Angelina Jolie, releasing on November 5, 2021.
The Disney+ original series “Loki,” was given it’s first trailer after many set pictures were leaked months prior. This is an important series to pay attention to because Loki (played by Tom Hiddleston) died in 2018’s “Avengers: Infinity War,” so it is a mystery as to how his story will play out.
First looks for the Disney+ original series “Ms. Marvel,” and “What If?” were also shown along with other quick announcements such as “Captain Marvel 2,” Disney+ original series’ “Hawkeye,” starring Jeremy Renner returning in the role of Hakweye as he trains Kate Bishop, played by Hailey Steinfield, who will take up the mantle as Hawkeye.
These announcements were followed by, “She-Hulk,” starring Tatiana Maslany,”Moon Knight,” starring Oscar Issac, “Secret Invasion,” following the same named comic series about skrulls (a shapeshifting alien species) infiltrating earth and its leaders, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelson returning as Nick Fury and Talos respectively, “Ironheart”, starring Dominique Thorne as she plays Riri Willaims building “the most advanced suit of armour since Iron Man,” according to Marvel Studios.
A Disney+ original series centered around long-time MCU character, James Rhones or War Machine called “Armour Wars” was also announced along with two “Guardians of the Galaxy” projects titled “The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special” and “I Am Groot.” Five other movies were talked about, starting with the reboot “Blade” movie starring Mahershala Ali, “Thor: Love and Thunder” has Academy-Award winner, Christain Bale join the cast, the third Ant-Man film was announced to b titled “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantanium” which recast the character of Ant-Man’s daughter, Cassie Lang with Kathryn Newton and will introduce a major villain, Kang the Conqueror, played by Jonathan Majors, “Black Panther II” was announced to not be recasting the role of T’Challa out of respect of the memory of late Chadwick Boseman, and Marvel’s first family, the Fantastic Four, was announced to be getting introduced into the MCU with “Spider-Man: Homecoming & Far From Home” director, Jon Watts, helming the film.
Marvel Studios dropped a lot of content at this year’s Investors Day, but the shows and movies to look out for the most are “Wandavaison,” “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness,” the “Untitled Spider-Man: Far From Home” sequel, as they will also be connected in some way, probably having something to do with the multiverses. Many fans have speculated that old Spider-Man actors such as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield are returning to reprise their version of the titular wall-crawler in the next Tom Holland lead installment.
At this point everything is all speculation, but just from Star Wars and Marvel Studios alone, Disney has a lot of content that is going to be released sometime in the near future as Fiegi has in fact more recently stated that Marvel Studios has planned the MCU through the year 2029. “Deadpool 3” was also announced to be set in the MCU, even after his first two movies took place in the Fox Marvel Universe as Disney did not yet own the rights to the character. Feigi confirmed that the Merc with mouth will stay foul-mouthed with an “R” rating, pleasing many comic book fans.