Spoilers for some Marvel movies and TV shows follow.
San Diego Comic-Con is almost here, and understandably, hype is starting to build about what might be announced at this year’s event.
As with previous events – the in-person events that were held before the pandemic, at least – Marvel Studios will be in attendance. And given the massive popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), fans are desperate to find out more about the upcoming slate of Marvel movies and Disney Plus shows.
So what can we expect from Marvel’s main panel? For starters, more information on the rest of the MCU Phase 4 slate. However, we’d like to get some announcements about what the future holds for the giant Marvel franchise, including its plans for Phase 5 superhero movies and Disney Plus TV offerings.
Here, then, are six things we’d love to hear as part of Marvel Studios’ Comic-Con panel this weekend.
When is the Marvel Studios main panel at Comic-Con 2022?
will happen in Saturday, July 23 in Hall H at 5pm PT / 8pm ET. Those based in the UK, India and Australia can tune in on Sunday, July 24 at 1am BST / 5:30am IST / 10am AEST.
For those unable to attend in person, the presentation will be broadcast live on Marvel Entertainment YouTube channel (opens in new tab).
1. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever Trailer
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is the last Marvel movie of the year. It will hit theaters worldwide on November 11th, and when it does, it will be the 30th entry on our ever-expanding list of Marvel movies.
Its release is less than four months away now, but we haven’t seen any footage yet. That is, unless you attended Marvel’s CinemaCon panel back in March, where a reel of footage from Black Panther 2 was shown to attendees.
With She-Hulk: Attorney at Law the only other major MCU release of 2022, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to be Marvel’s headline at this year’s Comic-Con – so it would be fantastic to finally get a trailer for the long-awaited snap.
2. Disney Plus TV MCU Special Release Dates
Black Panther 2 and the She-Hulk TV series will be the biggest projects on display during the Marvel panel – unless we have some surprise announcements, but more on that in a bit.
That doesn’t mean there won’t be other MCU productions later this year. Marvel Studios has two Disney Plus specials launching in 2022, with unique Halloween and Christmas-themed episodes releasing on Disney Plus around these holidays.
We know that the Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special will be Marvel’s Christmas special, while it’s all but confirmed that its Halloween installment will be based on the B-list anti-hero Werewolf at Night. None of the specials have a confirmed release date yet, but we’re confident that Marvel will reveal when these specials will release during their Comic-Con presentation.
Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn has already confirmed that it will be present (opens in new tab) – could we hear from Guardians 3 as well? – so expect Marvel to announce the official release dates for their specials this weekend.
3. Installments, installments and more installments
Moving on to Marvel’s 2023 list, it’s time we learned about the stories their next three movies (those coming after Black Panther 2) will tell.
We still haven’t received official plot summaries for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, or The Wonders. Fortunately, Marvel will reveal some details about what the plots of each of these films will entail.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will hit theaters in February 2023, so we might as well take a look at some early images. In the meantime, Gunn’s presence should mean we’ll learn more about how Guardians 3 will pick up on events following the group’s brief appearance in Thor: Love and Thunder, as well as the Guardians Vacation Special. Finally, given that Ms Marvel’s post-credits scene teased the story of The Marvels, we should hear more about how This one brief sequel sets up the MCU’s next cosmic adventure.
4. A TV list full of release dates
It’s not just the MCU movies that will arrive next year. Marvel’s Disney Plus roster will likely be as stacked as it was in 2021, with potential six TV series potentially debuting on Disney’s streaming platform in 2023.
Secret Invasion, Loki season 2, Echo and Ironheart are all in various stages of development right now, but this quartet will likely hit our screens next year. None of them have official release dates, but we can get an idea of when they will be released at Marvel’s Hall H presentation.
Meanwhile, Marvel is hard at work on the second season of What If…?, its animated anthology series. Additionally, online rumors suggest that WandaVision’s spin-off Agatha: House of Harkness may begin filming in late 2022/early 2023. If development on these shows completes early next year, they might as well. be released at the end of 2023. any idea of when some of these projects will be with us.
5. An unexpected movie ad
Marvel Studios has the way to deliver huge and surprising announcements at Comic-Con. The company did this with the reveal that it was developing a Blade MCU movie during the 2019 event, while studio president Kevin Feige also named the Fantastic Four and the X-Men – or the Mutants as he referred to it. to them–in the same panel.
We suspect Marvel will have updates on where development is at, on its Blade and Fantastic Four films, during this year’s presentation. How cool would it be, however, if Marvel officially confirmed that active development had begun on an X-Men or Mutants movie in the MCU as well?
Marvel teased the arrival of mutants in the MCU in previous productions such as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Doctor Strange 2, before confirming their existence in Ms Marvel. According to Deadline (opens in new tab)a movie called The Mutants could be announced as part of the Marvel panel, while The Kingsman star Taron Egerton confirmed that he met with Marvel Studios to discuss how to play Wolverine in the MCU (for The New York Times newspaper (opens in new tab)).
All signs point to the X-Men – or should it be X-People? — making its MCU debut very soon, and aside from the D23 Expo, Comic-Con would be the best place to announce that such a project was in the works.
6. Taking a step forward in Phase 5
While we know these MCU movies and TV shows are coming, we don’t know if they will form part of Marvel’s Phase 4 or start the next stage of their hugely popular franchise.
What better place than Comic-Con, then, to confirm your Phase 5 plans? The studio revealed its Phase 4 lineup at Comic-Con 2019 and – Blade, Fantastic Four and X-Men aside – all of the announced films and series from that event have been released. So it would make sense for Marvel to confirm if any of the above projects will set their Phase 5 plans in motion.
Of course, it’s possible that Marvel will reveal its plans for Phase 5 at the D23 Expo in September. But considering that Comic-Con is currently a larger event than Disney’s internal fan event, it would be best to reveal its Phase 5 schedule this weekend. Kevin Feige hinted that we’ll learn more about the MCU’s next Thanos-level threat “in the coming months” (via full movie (opens in new tab)), so Comic-Con or the D23 Expo are the most likely events where we’ll hear about Phase 5, the MCU’s next big villain, and more.
For more MCU-based content, check out our ranking of the best Marvel movies and best Marvel villains so far.