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All Of Marvel’s Disney+ Reveals!

Do I even have time to talk about anything that’s not Marvel on this blog? Probably not. Probably never. Certainly not with the amount of Marvel content that’s just been announced for Disney’s new Disney+ streaming service.

(Don’t worry: I will certainly talk about some of the other Disney+ reveals that were dropped at tonight’s D23 panel in California, possibly even that AWESOME trailer for The World According To Jeff Goldblum; but basically, it’s Jeff Goldblum being himself, and that’s all you need to know).

So let’s break down all the Marvel content you’ll be seeing on Disney+ in coming years, starting with The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, which should air in fall 2020. The main cast, including Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Emily VanCamp and Daniel Brühl, were all confirmed, as well as one surprising addition: Wyatt Russell will be joining the show as the probable antagonist John Walker, a US agent who, in comics lore, is genetically modified to become a super-soldier of comparable strength to Captain America – Walker is an extremist/basically terrorist who is endorsed by the United States government, leading to a confrontation between him and Falcon. There will certainly be a lot of ruminations on what it means to bear the mantle and shield of the iconic hero in the upcoming series, as both characters fight for the honor of being the one true Captain America.

Next up was Loki, about which we learned almost nothing new. It will be six episodes long, air in spring of 2021, and link the events of Avengers: Endgame and the upcoming film Thor: Love And Thunder, by exploring what happened to the god of mischief after he vanished into an alternate timeline with the Tesseract. No cast has been officially confirmed, though I’ve been seeing rumors that Idris Elba’s Heimdall will be returning for the series, as well as a new character played by legendary actor Ian McKellen (another clear indicator, if true, that Marvel will be ignoring Fox X-Men continuity). Michael Waldron will helm the series.

WandaVision was also confirmed at the panel for a summer 2021 release date: one of the weirdest upcoming Marvel projects, the show does not yet have a director attached, but it does have a screenwriter in Jac Schaeffer (who is also writing Marvel’s Black Widow), and a large and surprising cast: alongside Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch, and Paul Bettany’s Vision, the following have been confirmed: Teyonah Parris will play a grown-up version of Captain Marvel‘s Monica Rambeau; Kat Dennings will return to the role of Darcy, a fan-favorite last seen in Thor: The Dark World; Randall Parks will reprise the role of Agent Jimmy Woo, a lovable and humorous cop; and Kathryn Hahn will play an unnamed “nosy neighbor”, in what was described by Marvel president Kevin Feige as a mix between an epic MCU adventure and old episodes of 50’s sitcoms. Honestly, that sounds amazing: the show will apparently also include some horror elements, and will be absolutely bizarre.

For some reason, absolutely nothing was said about the Hawkeye show. That can’t have been an accidental omission, but it’s surprising nonetheless.

The What If? animated series planned for summer 2021 teased a series of 23 episodes for each existing Marvel movie; episodes in which there will be drastic changes to current MCU canon, resulting in alternate realities. Almost all of the main Marvel cast will be lending their voices to the series: Hayley Atwell has been receiving the most attention, however, since she gets to portray a version of Peggy Carter who took the super-soldier serum during World War II and became Captain Britain. Variations on Captain America and Star Lord were also shown.

Following that were three of the night’s most startling and crowd-pleasing reveals. A Ms. Marvel series documenting the origins of Kamala Khan, one of Marvel’s only Muslim superheroines was already widely rumored, and actress Mindy Kaling had supposedly approached the studio with ideas for the show: the rumors were officially confirmed today, and it looks like Khan will not only be the star of a Disney+ series, but will also make appearances in MCU movies going forward (probably Captain Marvel films, since the teenage heroine from Jersey City is known for being a Captain Marvel fangirl). Comedian Bisha K. Ali will produce the show.

Next, a Moon Knight series was confirmed, and received probably the best Disney+ title logo so far. Marc Spector, the Moon Knight, is a very complex character who some thought might have been better suited for a Hulu series, where he could have been darker, grittier, and more risque. Well, we’ll see. I have faith in the series, if only because its logo is actually awesome. No director or cast is attached.

Finally, She-Hulk, a.k.a. Jennifer Walters, is confirmed for a series: one of Marvel Comics’ most beloved heroines, the quick-witted lawyer retains her human personality when she transforms into a female equivalent of Bruce Banner’s Hulk, meaning she’s “the brains and the brawn” right from the get-go, whereas Banner had to progress through several films before reaching that point in his transformation. No director or cast is attached, but fans are already rallying for the series to be a superhero action/courtroom drama crossover.

So…what do you think of Marvel’s upcoming slate of shows? Personally, each and every one sounds awesome, and I can’t wait for a chance to sit down and try to figure out more about them: expect many more theories and predictions in the days ahead!

Until then, go watch the trailer for Jeff Goldblum’s new show. You’ll thank me.

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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!