Last Updated on August 12, 2024
Fresh off of blowing up Hall H at Comic-Con with their announcement that Robert Downey Jr is back in the MCU (playing Doctor Doom) comes D23, the ultimate Disney fan event that just happened in Anaheim. Our man Alex Maidy was on the ground, in the audience, and sent us a blow-by-blow of the presentation, so if you missed it, we’ve got you covered.
Here are the announcements:
The First (Tiny) Peaks at Snow White & Tron: Ares revealed:
Just like they did with Comic-Con, the presentation started with a quick sizzle reel teasing some of the footage being doled out during the presentation. Most noteworthy was the fact that it contained tiny snippets of Gal Gadot in character as the Evil Queen in Snow White and a glimpse at Tron Ares (check out more about that movie HERE).
Moana 2:
The presentation started with Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson teasing Moana 2, which began life as a Disney Plus series before pivoting to a feature. In the presentation, they teased that this time, the villain would be the “storm of all storms.” Here’s the new trailer, which dropped during the presentation:
Monster Jam:
It looks like Moana 2‘s not the only thing keeping Johnson in-house at Disney. He’ll also be making a movie out of the Monster Jam event where trucks battle each other in an arena:
Avatar 3 gets an official title.
None other than James Cameron then took the stage to tease the next instalment in the Avatar franchise, which he promises is going into “challenging territory” and is “not what you expect, but it’s definitely what you want.” He also promised we’ll see more of Pandora than ever before. He then brought his stars, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, on stage, who announced the official new title, Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Pixar and Disney Animation:
Fresh off its juggernaut success at the box office, Inside Out 2 is getting a Disney Plus spin-off from Pixar called Dream Productions, coming in 2025. It’s set between the first two films and explains where Riley’s dreams come from. Even cooler is that they officially announced Toy Story 5 for 2026, with none other than Andrew Stanton (Wall-E, Finding Nemo) writing and directing! This time, the movie will feature an all-out battle between toys and electronics, which sounds pretty promising indeed. Pixar also announced a new movie, Hoppers, which follows a man (to be voiced by Jon Hamm) who puts his brain into the body of a pig.
Finally, the presentation concluded with a look at Pixar’s next big animated movie, Elio, with them using the event to announce that Zoe Saldana has joined the cast. They then showed the new trailer, and while it hasn’t dropped online yet, here’s a new pic:
They also announced that Brad Bird is developing The Incredibles 3, although no further news was revealed. So take that with a grain of salt, as we likely won’t see it for a long time. Zootopia 2 also was teased, with it revealed that the great Ke Huy Quan will be adding his voice to the cast, which includes returning actors Jason Bateman and Ginnifer Goodwin. This instalment features a new species we didn’t see in the last film – reptiles! Frozen III was also teased, with it set to open in 2027, and it will be followed by a Frozen IV as well, with Disney (understandably) investing heavily in this perennial favourite.
Skeleton Crew:
None other than the great Jude Law was on-hand to introduce Skeleton Crew, the highly anticipated new Star Wars Disney Plus series that features him (as a Jedi) alongside four child actors in what seems like Star Wars meets The Goonies. In fact, on stage they promised it would be Amblin-esque (Amblin, of course, was the production company owned by Steven Spielberg that produced movies like The Goonies and Gremlins in the 80s).
Check out the trailer:
More Lucasfilm:
They also showed footage from Andor: Season 2, which revealed Ben Mendelsohn’s return as his Rogue One antagonist, Orson Krennic. They also showed some teaser footage from The Mandalorian and Grogu, but sadly, it has not made its way online (read more about it here).
Marvel:
While the MCU brought out their big guns for Comic-Con just a few weeks ago, D23 did offer us a few tantalizing glimpses into the studio’s future. Notably, a behind-the-scenes pic revealed our first look at an official Fantastic Four suit in action:
Marvel’s streaming series were also revealed, with our man giving Ryan Coogler’s Ironheart high marks for what he said were feature-quality effects in the trailer they showed. They also revealed the new logo for Daredevil: Born Again, with Jon Bernthal also showing up to tease his return as The Punisher alongside The Man Without Fear himself, Charlie Cox!
The first trailer was also shown. Apparently, it is as violent as the original Netflix show and sports no less than three different Daredevil suits. The series will be released this March on Disney Plus! And then, last but not least (from Marvel anyway) was the Agatha All Along trailer:
Disney Live Action:
Last but certainly not least was a peak at Disney’s live-action offerings. First up was Freaky Friday 2, or as it’s now official called, Freakier Friday, with Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan on stage to tease the sequel to one of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite modern Disney films. Here’s the first pics:
Disney also revealed a first look at Lilo & Stitch’s live-action adaptation, due next year. Here’s what a “live-action” Stitch looks like:
Up next was the controversial (to some) Snow White re-imagining, with stars Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot on-hand to introduce some footage from the film. Gadot said it was “delicious” playing the Evil Queen opposite Zegler’s Snow White. They then showed the trailer, which you can see below:
Finally, in one of the coolest reveals of the night, Tron: Ares was teased, with Flynn himself, Jeff Bridges coming out on-stage:
The hook of the film was revealed as centering around the digital world of Tron visiting our own world, which hasn’t been done before and could be really cool. According to our man on the ground, the footage shown included Lifecycles racing through the streets of our real world and more pretty arresting imagery. Leto’s Ares seems to be the villain, with him looking to take over our world. Here’s a look at Leto on-stage:
As our guy at D23, Alex, described it to me, “the movie looks nuts! Video games in the real world!” Tron: Ares comes out October 10th, 2025! And, if that wasn’t awesome enough, none other than NINE INCH NAILS is doing the soundtrack. Not Trent Reznor mind you – NINE INCH NAILS.
And finally, Barry Jenkins was on hand to introduce the new Mufasa trailer. He was joined on stage by Lin Manuel Miranda, who contributed new songs to the soundtrack; among the reveals, Scar’s name is actually Taka, and Jenkins says it’s an honour to depict Mufasa’s origin.
Here’s the trailer:
And that’s it! What D23 reveal has you the most pumped? Let us know in the comments!
Originally published at https://www.joblo.com/d23-keep-up-with-all-the-announcements-here/
