Every year fans wait for the Disney D23 Expo, where the studio reveals a collection of updates on highly anticipated projects and many first looks at what's to come to Disney Studios as well in the near or distant future. With the current state of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, superhero mania is at an all-time high and making the Marvel Studios panel one of the most anticipated panels that were held on September 10th. Marvel’s panel began at 10 am PT and ran for about two hours, closing up at 12 pm PT. However, as the panel came to a close, many Marvel Cinematic Universe fans found themselves extremely disappointed in the panel, as nothing really new was unveiled.
The panel included an exclusive teaser of the upcoming Disney Plus series Ironheart which is making its way to Disney Plus in 2023. The series comes from Ryan Coogler and is set to star actress Dominique Throne as RiRi Williams aka Ironheart. The first look at the series showed Williams in a suit of armor, along with a few battle scenes and a glimpse at The Hood (played by Anthony Ramos).
The cast of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania appeared at the expo to unveil a teaser for the upcoming film. The trailer included a look at Kang the Conqueror geared up in some very comic-accurate armor. The trailer also includes an all-grown-up Cassie Lang (played by Kathryn Newton) attempting to signal the Quantum Realm which results in the whole group being pulled in. Following this, fans see Kang (played by Jonathan Majors) kidnapping Cassie as he orders Ant-Man to retrieve something for him for her safe return. The film is set to debut in theaters on February 17, 2023. The cast of both Loki season 2 and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever made appearances as well at the expo. The cast of Loki helped reveal footage from the upcoming season, which showed Loki (played by Tom Hiddleston) wielding a Time Stick in an attempt to shatter a wall with images of TimeKeepers, which revealed a gold sculpture of Kang's face hidden behind them.
In regard to the Black Panther 2 cast, they revealed three minutes of footage from the upcoming movie event along with a new trailer. The new footage depicts Queen Ramonda (played by Angela Bassett) speaking to the UN as they ask that Wakanda trade Vibranium, however, the Queen is hesitant stating she lacks trust in the rest of the world, the footage goes on to include an action-packed scene of soldiers attempting to steal Vibranium from a submarine. Following this audiences were gifted with a brand-new trailer, which had lots of new footage, like someone in the Black Panther suit and Namor (played by Tenoch Huerta) having a conversation with the Queen. There was also another shot of M’Baku (played by) battling Namor. Loki season two’s anticipated release is summer 2023 on Disney Plus and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will hit theaters on November 11, 2022. In the fashion of trailers, fans were also gifted with the trailer for Werewolf By Night
a Disney Plus special that's set to star Gael Garcia Bernal and Laura Donnelly, it's set to be released on the streaming platform next month on October 7th. Fans also got to see War Machine (played by Don Cheadle) and Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson) team up in the new Secret Invasion trailer.
That series will finally unveil the highly anticipated Skrull battle storyline within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was also revealed that Secret Invasion will directly tie into Armor Wars. Nothing of Armor Wars was shown at the expo however it was revealed that Cheadle will reprise his role. Secret Invasion is set to hit Disney Plus in 2023 and Armor Wars is rumored to follow close behind, likely within the same year. Marvel also shared trailers for Echo, The Marvels, along with updates on The Fantastic Four director, Thunderbolts cast, and what's to come in Captain America: New World Order. Such as the return of actor Tim Blake Nelson as The Leader.
Although it may seem like this was a lot of info shared with the Marvel fanbase, pretty much all of these projects were revealed weeks ago at the San Diego Comic Convention, which comes as a major disappointment to fans who expected way more out of the Marvel panel, which usually offers fans a lot of insight into what's to come next to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, now fans are left with many questions, as there are still many gaps in the phases leading up to the two Avengers films that are set to close out the Multiverse saga with a big bang. Many fans have speculated due to a recent scene in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, that the Hulk (played by Mark Ruffalo) would be taking on a solo project adaptation of the comic World War Hulk, but this wasn’t confirmed at the D23 expo to the dismay of many.
Many fans also expected to get a cast release of the highly anticipated Fantastic Four, but this did not come either. It even led to fake cast confirmations circling online that included names like Seth Rogen, John Krasinksi, Jodie Comer, John Boyega, and Henry Cavill. However, this was all false, with the cast yet to be released and no one knowing when it will be made public knowledge.
Fans also faced major disappointment when no news about the X-Men in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was revealed either. Following this it was revealed by Deadline Senior Reporter Justin Kroll revealed that despite Marvel buying the rights back from Fox the X-Men film won’t make way to the universe for a very long time. There were also zero updates on Blade, Spider-Man 4, and Deadpool 3.
Although fans received many trailers for what's to come, this year's Marvel D23 Expo definitely was lackluster when in comparison to ones in the past. As fans await more information about some of the most anticipated projects that were left out at this year's expo, fingers are crossed for some more concrete confirmations about the rest of the Multiverse Saga and what it has to offer.