It was a blessed day for Marvel fans.
On Saturday, the studio held its much-anticipated Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con, where it revealed major plans for MCU’s phase 4. Studio boss Kevin Feige kicked off the event by announcing Avengers: Endgame—the final film of the franchise—was on track to become the highest-grossing movie of all time, surpassing James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar.
Feige then provided details about The Eternals, the Chloe Zhao-directed film starring Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden, Brian Tyree Henry, and Kumail Nanjiani. The Marvel president told the audience that the movie would deliver something “entirely new and entirely different.” Zhao told the audience that it’s “about this group about immortals but we will learn about humanity.” Jolie also made an appearance. “I’m going to work 10 times harder” than regular action movies, she said. “The fans deserve it.”
Next, it was announced that The Falcon and The Winter Soldier will stream on Disney+ next fall, and will follow Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan’s characters post-Endgame. “We have the job everyone else would kill to have,” Mackie said.
The release date for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was also announced. It will hit theaters on Feb 12, 2021, and Simu Liu will play the titular hero, while Tony Leung will star as the real Mandarin. Awkwafina also stars. Director Destin Daniel Cretton teased that the film will somehow be linked to Iron Man 3.
Next up was the announcement of WandaVision, which will begin streaming on Disney+ in Spring 2021. Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany will reprise their roles as Scarlet Witch and Vision. “It’s gonna get weird,” Olsen said.
Loki will also begin streaming on Disney+ in Spring 2021, and will chronicle the adventures of Tom Hiddleston’s anti-hero post-Endgame.
It looks like Marvel will finally be dipping its toes in the horror genre with Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness, which director Scott Derrickson said will be “the first scary MCU film.” The film’s star, Benedict Cumberbatch, was also on hand. “He’ll be in a position of not knowing what’s coming at him,” he said. “We’re going to go back to trying to destroy him a bit.”
One of the most surprising announcements of the evening came with What If…?, an animated series that begins streaming on Disney+ in the summer of 2021. The series will re-imagine previous events in the MCU and will feature the voice of Jeffrey Wright as The Watcher, an all-knowing being who “observes all things and watches the multiverse,” according to Wright himself.
Marvel will look to continue its streaming takeover with Hawkeye, the Jeremy Renner-starring standalone series that begins streaming on Disney+ in Fall 2021. The series will track Hawkeye as he mentors Kate Bishop to “be a better version of me,” Renner said.
In one of the panel’s biggest announcements, we learned that the Taika Waititi-directed sequel to Thor: Ragnarok will hit theaters on November 5, 2021. Not only will Tessa Thompson return as Valkyrie, but Natalie Portman is also back as Jane Foster, who will play a female Thor. “It feels pretty good. I’ve always had hammer envy,” Portman said, as she picked up Thor’s hammer in front of the elated audience.
Details of the hugely anticipated Black Widow standalone movie also crystallized on Saturday, when it was announced that Black Widow will hit theater on May 1, 2020. Scarlett Johansson, David Harbour, Florence Pugh, O-T Fagbenle, and Rachel Weisz will star, with Cate Shortland set to direct. “I don’t think I could have portrayed this iteration of Natasha 10 years ago,” Johansson said.
Last, but certainly not least, Marvel announced that it’s rebooting Blade starring Mahershala Ali as the titular vampire hunter. Unfortunately, no release date is set.
We also learned that Fantastic Four, Black Panther 2, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Captain Marvel 2 are all on deck. Oh, and for all you X-Men fans out there, there will be mutants.
So while Iron Man and Captain America are dunzo, the MCU’s future is blindingly bright.
