D23 Expo Recap: Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios and 20th Century Studios Reveal Exclusive Content

A massive screening space was dedicated to showing behindthescenes featurettes of Thor Love and Thunder and the Disney series Loki with costumes on display from recent MCU titles including Moon Knight WandaVision and Ms Marvel The Lucasfilm exhibit also had clips from its projects playing on screens around illustrious costumes on display from The Mandalorian Indiana Jones and the upcoming Disney series Willow 20th Century Studios ended up surprising fans with a massive interactive exhibit but we39ll get into that belowInvite job candidates to apply live during the Media and Advertising Communityamp8217s Black Talent Outreach Week at MediaVillagecom and AdvancingDiversityorg October 1720 Apply for jobssubmit your resume hereamp160Lucasfilmamp160Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy whose extensive resume includes the Indiana Jones Jurassic Park and Back to the Future franchises introduced the latest Lucasfilm project Andor a spy thriller series that serves as a prequel to 201639s Rogue One A Star Wars Story It39s the story of fanfavorite rebel Cassian Andor played by Diego Luna who also serves as executive producer After the debut of the series39 final trailer before its September 21st release on Disney Luna and Kennedy were joined onstage by Genevieve O39Reilly reprising her role of Mon Mothma from 200539s Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith along with Kyle Soller and Adria ArjonaNext up was the magical fantasyadventure series Willow introduced by the title sorcerer himself Warwick Davis who first entered the Lucasfilm family in 198339s Return of the Jedi as Wicket and portrayed several other characters throughout the franchise Among the ensemble cast is Joanne Whalley returning as Sorsha from the 1988 film and much to the surprise of fans Christian Slater whose involvement was announced during the presentation The series will premiere November 30th on DisneyOn the animation side longtime Lucasfilm collaborator and executive producer Dave Filoni shared an exclusive image from the second season of Star Wars The Bad Batch with voiceover legend Dee Bradley Baker returning to voice each of the clone troopers from the title squad Also announced was Star Wars Tales of the Jedi a sixpart series of animated shorts that takes place during the prequel trilogy and explores the backstories of such characters as Ahsoka Tano and JediturnedSith lord Count Dooku originally played by the late Christopher LeeDirector executive producer and actor Jon Favreau Iron Man The Mandalorian joined Filoni onstage to share more about the next liveaction series in the everexpanding universe Ahsoka stars Rosario Dawson reprising the role of the exiled Jedi turned lone warrior first seen in a liveaction setting in The Mandalorian and later in The Book of Boba Fett Another liveaction series announced was Star Wars Skeleton Crew created by Jon Watts director of the MCU SpiderMan trilogy and his longtime collaborator producer and writer Chris Ford The adventure series will center on four kids lost in space trying to find their way home and will star Jude LawLast on the Star Wars side of Lucasfilm was the highly anticipated third season of The Mandalorian which picks up after the climactic battle in The Book of Boba Fett Frequent director of the series Rick Famuyiwa will be part of the producing team as executive producer for the third season He joined Favreau and Filoni onstage along with the Mandalorian himself Pedro Pascal as well as Katee Sackhoff Amy Sedaris Giancarlo Esposito and Emily Swallow Esposito shared his excitement regarding the third season quotGreat storytelling great action great characters who are involved in something that is real and with purposequot he said passionately quotIt is the hero and the heroine39s journey that matters It39s a wonderful place to be in the childlike wonder of this franchisequotWrapping up the Lucasfilm presentation was an announcement that earned one of the loudest eruptions of cheers from the audience the return of Indiana Jones The crowd only got louder when the crusader himself Harrison Ford joined Kennedy and director James Mangold Logan on stage along with his costar Phoebe WallerBridge When the film premieres in 2023 Ford will have been playing the iconic character for a total of 42 years across five films a record bested by his Star Wars costar Mark Hamill who has portrayed Luke Skywalker for 43 years Ford was very moved by the response from the crowd and got a bit choked up when addressing the fans quotThank you for making these films such an incredible experience for all of usquot he said quotThese movies are about fantasy and mystery but they39re also about heart amp8230 and this movie will kick your assquotMarvel StudiosIt seemed like there were dozens of announcements from Marvel Studios President and producer Kevin Feige But first a musical number A spectacular cast of singers and dancers burst onto the stage and into song Feige described it as quotthe first and maybe the last Marvel musical sequencequot The ensemble performed quotI Could Do This All Dayquot as seen in the Disney series Hawkeye from the fictional Rogers The Musical written by Emmy Grammy and Tony Awardwinning composer Marc ShaimanFans were then treated to an exclusive first look at the upcoming film Black Panther Wakanda Forever with director Ryan Coogler and cast members Angela Bassett Letitia Wright and Winston Duke reprising their respective roles of Queen Ramonda Shuri and M39Baku MCU newcomer Tenoch Huerta plays the role of Namor ruler of Talocan changed from the SubMariner comics39 Atlantis and instead focusing on the cultural legends of ancient Mayan and Aztec civilizations The film will premiere exclusively in theatres November 11Picking up after the events of Wakanda Forever is Disney series Ironheart executive produced by Coogler and starring Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams a young inventor who builds armored suits similar to the Iron Man suit Coogler shared that the series will incorporate and show the dynamics between both technology and magic the latter thanks to Parker Robbins aka The Hood played by MCU newcomer Anthony Ramos Another Latino actor joining the MCU is Gael GarciaBernal who will star alongside Laura Donnelly in the firstever MCU special presentation this Halloween Werewolf By Night inspired by the horror specials of the Golden Age of Hollywood and described by Feige as quotfunscaryquotKicking off Phase 5 of the MCU is AntMan and the Wasp Quantumania and amping up the crowd were the actors who portray the title duo Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly respectively along with Jonathan Majors reprising his role of Kang first seen in Disney series Loki as the mysterious quotHe Who Remainsquot The film will hit theaters in February 2023 and follows the AntMan team entering the Quantum Realm a place that bends the laws of reality Feige shared that the film will directly connect with Avengers The Kang DynastyNext up were two Disney series that will feature Don Cheadle returning as James Rhodes aka War Machine The first was Secret Invasion also starring Nick Fury himself Samuel L Jackson who after his first runin with the shapeshifting Skrulls in Captain Marvel is on the hunt for a faction of Skrulls who have been infiltrating human society and hiding among us The series features an allstar cast including Olivia Coleman Emilia Clarke and Kingsley BenAdir and also sees the return of Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill and Ben Mendelsohn as the Skrull Talos The second series is Armor Wars which Feige described as the series as quotbased in part on a very popular comic series involving Stark armor getting into the wrong hands There39s one man standing who can help us with that and that39s Jim Rhodesquot The series goes into production in 2023And then came Loki the first MCU series to receive a second season order The villain everyone loved to hate and now loves to root for Asgardian trickster Loki is back with none other than Tom Hiddleston reprising his role Hiddleston joined Feige onstage along with returning costars Sophia Di Martino and Owen Wilson and their new costar Ke Huy Quan Everything Everywhere All At Once quotIs this not the Indiana Jones panelquot he joked Quan made his feature film debut in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as Short Round After the presentation Quan posted a backstage selfie with Harrison Ford with the caption quotI Love You Indy Indiana Jones and Short Round reunited after 38 yearsquot on his InstagramIn other news Feige announced that WandaVision director Matt Shakman would be directing Fantastic 4 Hawkeye spinoff Echo which recently wrapped production will be the first MCU property with an Indigenous actor in a leading role and a nearly allIndigenous cast with Alaqua Cox in the title role alongside Devery Jacobs Reservation Dogs Academy Award nominee Graham Greene Cody Lightning and reprising the role of villainous Wilson Fiske from Hawkeye and Daredevil Vincent D39Onofrio After an exclusive first look at the series the cast left the stage while D39Onofrio lingered and asked Feige quotAren39t you supposed to talk about my showquot to which an offstage voice replied quotDon39t you mean my showquotCheers and applause erupted from the audience as Daredevil himself Charlie Cox then joined his costar onstage After the cancellation of the many Marvel series on Netflix the fate of those characters were left up in the air But Cox reprised his role of Matt Murdock in SpiderMan No Way Home while D39Onofrio returned in Hawkeye The series has yet to begin production so there was no first look for Daredevil Born Again but they did share a clip from his guest appearance in an upcoming episode of SheHulk Attorney At Law where we see Cox back in his Daredevil costume for the first time since 2018Next was the announcement of the fourth Captain America film Captain America New World Order which sees the return of Anthony Mackie as Captain America with Danny Ramirez reprising his role of Joaquin Torres from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier presumably as the new Falcon Carl Lumbly as Isaiah Bradley the Black super soldier we met in the aforementioned series and Tim Blake Nelson who first appeared in the second MCU film The Incredible Hulk and now officially plays The Leader first teased in that 2008 filmThunderbolts follows a ragtag team of super soldiers and enhanced individuals working for Valentina Allegra de Fontaine played by Julia LouisDreyfus It was first teased in Falcon and the Winter Soldier when Valentina recruited US Agent Wyatt Russell to join a team she39s assembling Next we saw her recruit Yelena Belova Florence Pugh The rest of the team was announced at D23 They include Yelena39s adoptive father Red Guardian David Harbour Ghost Hannah JohnKamen who first appeared in AntMan and the Wasp Black Widow antagonist The Taskmaster Olga Kurylenko and lastly Sebastian Stan returning as Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier The film is set for a theatrical release July 26 2024Marvel Studios wrapped things up with an exclusive first look at The Marvels which reunites Captain Marvel Brie Larson with a now grownup Monica Rambeau Teyonah Parris who we met in WandaVision and Avengers superfan Kamala Khan aka Ms Marvel Iman Vellani all of whom joined Feige onstage along with the film39s director Nia DaCosta Candyman who has become the youngest person to direct a Marvel film a title previously held by Ryan Coogler It39s crazy to think that DaCosta was still a teenager when the MCU kicked off in 2008 and now she39s directing her own film 14 years later20th Century StudiosWrapping up the threehour long presentation was a special look at the longawaited Avatar The Way of Water Executive Producer and Director James Cameron appeared on screen from New Zealand where he was still working on the film and its planned sequels Then cast members including Sam Worthington Zoe Saldaamp241a Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver who plays a new role after her character39s death in the 2009 film and producer Jon Landau appeared inperson on the Hall D23 stageThe Avatar team surprised fans with the announcement that they were about to enjoy a fully immersive experience the first of anyone worldwide and in a matter of minutes Hall D23 was converted into a 3D theater Dolby 3D glasses were handed to each audience member to get a full feel of what the theatrical experience would be like when the film opens this DecemberAs I said in my previous D23 recap it truly is amazing to see how much diversity there is among these titles As this presentation made clear there39s a whole new class of Black Latinx Asian and Indigenous actors joining the everexpanding Star Wars and Marvel Cinematic UniversesClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160

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D23 Expo Recap: Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios and 20th Century Studios Reveal Exclusive Content

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