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D23 MCU Concept Art!

If you weren’t previously hyped for Marvel’s multitude of newly announced Disney+ content, prepare to be. We have a lot to discuss.

Over the weekend, Disney Studios sated the appetites of rabid fans at their D23 Expo with some exclusive reveals, including brief footage, concept art, and official posters for some upcoming projects. But now the public can share in the fun, as some of this stuff, specifically the concept art and posters, are being released. And we, being ravenous fans with a desire to nitpick and study every inch of new material, are going through this stuff with a fine-toothed comb, looking for clues.

The first official poster for The Falcon And The Winter Soldier dropped earlier today, sparking a heated discussion about the most trivial of subjects. Yes, Bucky Barnes, whose gloriously long hair has been a trademark of the character’s appearance since 2013, has finally visited a barber, it seems. Either that, or the graphic designer made a huge blunder by choosing to use 1940’s Bucky as a reference for this poster, rather than modern, stylish-Jesus Bucky.

D23 MCU Concept Art! 1
mcucosmic.com

Apart from Bucky’s new haircut, we can see that the Winter Soldier is donning a slightly new, streamlined outfit, as well as his vibranium arm (which still hasn’t seen any real action: here’s hoping we get to see some epic metal-arm fight scenes in the show). Falcon, who was entrusted with Captain America’s shield in Avengers: Endgame, is…not holding the shield, for whatever reason, and is also positioned behind Bucky, looking more like a supporting character than the lead. Perhaps both men are leads, but it does seem a little unusual to place the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s new shield-bearer in the background. Then again, he does also show up in the top right-corner of the poster, flying across the sky, looking very much like a patriotic fighter-plane. In fact, the poster does seem to be going for a “war-movie” vibe – the pale watercolor sky, the ever-so-slightly antiquated heroic poses from Bucky and Falcon, the red, white and blue logo: it looks almost 1940’s to me – but again, considering that Falcon isn’t a time-displaced character like Bucky, that choice seems peculiar. Who’s the lead on this show, really?

Speaking of old-fashioned stylistic choices, though, the first official concept art/poster for the WandaVision series is blatantly dated: and both lead actress Elizabeth Olsen and Marvel president Kevin Feige have said as much. The show is said to have a retro, 1950’s sitcom style – at first, this seemed like it might have just been a creative reference for the showrunners to draw on, but this art suggests that the entire series will, in fact, look and feel like I Love Lucy, combined with idealized, bright and sunny ads ripped from the pages of an old Sears catalog.

D23 MCU Concept Art! 2
mcucosmic.com

It’s an even more peculiar stylistic choice than that on the previous poster, because neither Wanda Maximoff nor her (currently deceased) partner Vision have any real connection to the 1950’s. Yet here they are, dressed in period-appropriate fashion and sporting upper-class bemused smiles, surrounded by the accouterments of a typical “nuclear family”.

Wanda, the Scarlet Witch, has some untapped potential in the MCU that could explain this perplexing choice – in the comics, she has the ability to warp reality and create entire “pocket dimensions” that exist alongside our own. In such a faux reality, Wanda could presumably resurrect her dead lover and create a perfect, cheery little family for herself in a quaint little suburb: according to reports from D23, Wanda and Vision will have a nosy next-door neighbor, played by Kathryn Hahn, and a bunch of other comedic castmates – including the Thor franchise’s underdog Darcy, and Agent Jimmy Woo. Another sign that Scarlet Witch will use more comics-accurate powers in the new series is a hint, in this poster, of her more comics-accurate costume: Wanda’s shadow, in the top left-hand corner, sports her traditional crescent-moon tiara, something that hasn’t appeared in the MCU as of yet. Fans have been dying to see it on Elizabeth Olsen’s brow, and this poster gives me hope that we will.

Don’t expect WandaVision to be all canned laughter and sunshine, though – the series is rumored to head into dark, even macabre or paranormal territory, which makes sense, considering that it will always lead directly into the events of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, which is being hyped up as Marvel’s first horror film.

What do you think of the new concept art? Does it look cool, or outdated? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Madness In The Multiverse – And On Disney+!

Marvel’s Phase 4 announcements at last night’s San Diego Comic-Con presentation didn’t just include a detailed outline of the movies they will be releasing over the next few years – all of their Disney Plus streaming shows were also officially announced, and even received logos and some casting announcements. There’s so much to go over in this post. Let’s start with the simplest stuff.

So Falcon And The Winter Soldier is coming to Disney Plus in Fall of 2020, and will bring with it a newly redesigned version of the villain Baron Zemo, still played by Daniel Brühl, but no longer looking quite as…dare I say, boring…as he did in Captain America: Civil War. This time around, he’s sporting a comics-accurate mask, and promises to be much more physically intimidating as well. That show looks promising, but there wasn’t much to talk about. Emily Van Camp, who will star alongside Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan, was not present at last night’s panel, so that presentation mostly consisted of the two leads passing around Captain America’s shield for a minute or two.

Loki arrives in the spring of 2021: Tom Hiddleston, who returned to Comic-Con to thunderous applause, will also be returning to the iconic role – Marvel president Kevin Feige confirmed that the Loki we see in the show will indeed be the one from the past who escaped with the Tesseract in Avengers: Endgame, leaving open the possibility of a return – maybe, somehow, Loki will find a way back into the current timeline.

A Hawkeye series was also confirmed last night, and it was revealed that archer, and sometimes Avenger, Clint Barton will be training Kate Bishop, a character who was rumored to appear in Endgame but turned out to be Barton’s daughter. There was no clue as to who would be playing Bishop, but Jeremy Renner will return to the role of Hawkeye – that will be in fall of 2021.

In one of Marvel’s more unusual panels of the night, a What If? animated series was confirmed for the summer of 2021 – Jeffrey Wright will star as The Watcher, a cosmic entity who observes the world’s history. Many of the Marvel stars will be joining the show for voice-acting work, starting with Hayley Atwell and Chris Evans in an episode which will explore what would have happened if Peggy Carter had taken the Super Soldier serum. It sounds…decent. But it will presumably feature the concept of the Multiverse, and that’s where things get interesting.

WandaVision is the Disney Plus show I’m most looking forward to, and we can expect that to drop in spring of 2021 – it will star Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff the Scarlet Witch, and Paul Bettany as the android Vision (Vision kind of died back in Avengers: Infinity War, and Bettany gave no indication of how he will be returning). The show will be set in the 1950s and have a corresponding retro flair (no explanation for that either), and it will also star Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau. That’s right, the sweet little girl from Captain Marvel, whom we last saw in the 1990s, will now be an adult…in the 1950s. If you’re confused now, prepare to be even more baffled as time goes on: Olsen said that this show is “weird”.

Is it any wonder, then, that the events of WandaVision will apparently lead directly into the most bizarre, freaky movie of the next phase – Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness. With a title like that, the film is already promising some seriously trippy weirdness, but apparently it’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before in the MCU – Benedict Cumberbatch came onstage to talk about how this film will stray near, or over, the boundaries of what can be done in a PG-13 film. Apparently it will be Marvel’s first real horror film, and will feature Nightmare as the villain. And, just as many of us had hoped, Scarlet Witch will also be in the film, presumably because of something that happens in WandaVision – possibly, she gets targeted by Doctor Strange’s nemesis Baron Mordo, whom we last saw embarking on a mission to kill magical beings across the world.

Oh yeah, and the title suggests that the whole concept of a Multiverse is real – in Spider-man: Far From Home, we thought we had seen the last of that idea when Quentin Beck revealed that his scriptwriter had made it all up. Looks like that scriptwriter knew a little more than he let on to Beck, because Doctor Strange is about to set out into the Mad Multiverse. This opens so many other possibilities, it’s hard to even think about right now.

Which of these upcoming projects interests you the most? Are you excited that the Multiverse is real? Do you like the idea of Maximoff and Strange teaming up? Share your thoughts in the comments below!