Comic-Con 2023 has been a quiet affair from a movie and TV news perspective, what with the actors and writers strikes meaning most of the Hollywood players who typically show up to promote their projects have been absent this year. But a year ago, Marvel Studios – typically the big Saturday night showstopper in the famed San Diego Convention Center’s big Hall H – dropped a ton of news, including new projects, release dates, trailers, and more.
It was an exciting couple of hours, an MCU info-dump that did exactly what it was designed to do – get fans psyched up about the coming slate of Phase 5 and 6 Marvel movies and TV shows. (The Marvel Animation panel also gave us a bunch of new info that weekend.)
But as is often the case with announcements about projects that are years off, various factors have impacted a bunch of the projects that were revealed that night in San Diego. And with the Hollywood strikes going strong now with no sign of ending in sight, it seems like not just the Marvel slate of upcoming titles, but all movies and TV shows may soon be getting delayed.
So let’s take a look back at what was announced last year and what the status of those projects is right now…
Spider-Man: Freshman Year/Sophomore Year
Peter Parker's early days as Spider-Man will be explored in this Disney+ series, and while it's part of the MCU, it seems that it will be set in an alternate timeline where Norman Osborn is Peter's mentor rather than Tony Stark. The series had been announced in 2021, but at SDCC 2022’s Marvel Animation panel, we learned that it would be debuting in 2024. We also learned that Charlie Cox's Daredevil would appear in the show, and some of the villains who will be in the show were also revealed, including Dr. Octavius, Chameleon, Speed Demon, Scorpion, and Butane the Pyromaniac. Amadeus Cho will be part of the series, and a second season, called Sophomore Year, was also announced.
We haven’t gotten many new details on the show since then, but it appears to still be on track for that 2024 release.
What If…? Seasons 2 and 3
We knew that the alt-reality animated series What If...? would get a second season, but at Comic-Con 2022 an "early 2023" release date was announced. Season 3 was also confirmed. Unfortunately, it seems that 2023 release date has since been rescinded, as the show is now listed as “coming soon” by Disney. A Marvel 1602 episode was also teased, based of course on the 2003 comics miniseries penned by Neil Gaiman and set in the Elizabethan era.
Marvel Zombies
After What If...? featured a Marvel Zombies episode based on the popular comic book story, it was announced in 2021 that the concept would be spun off into its own series for Disney+. At Comic-Con last year, more details on the show were revealed, including that it would feature undead versions of Captain America, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, Ghost, Abomination, Captain Marvel, and Okoye (among others) as well as human heroes like Yelena Belova, Kate Bishop, Red Guardian, Jimmy Woo, Death Dealer, Shang-Chi, Kamala Khan, a team of Black Widows, and a biker gang of Skrulls (!). The Eternals' Ikaris will also figure into things, possibly as a partially changed zombie who retains some Eternal traits.
There has been little news on Marvel Zombies since the panel and it does not currently have a release date.
X-Men '97
X-Men '97 is a continuation of the beloved animated series from, well, the '90s, featuring everyone’s favorite merry mutants. At SDCC 2022, the long-awaited show finally got a release date of Fall 2023, which is right around the corner at this point! A Season 2 was also announced, and a clip was unveiled which teased Magneto as the new leader of the X-Men – playing on a pivotal moment in comics history. Villains previewed at the panel included the Sentinels, Mr. Sinister, the White Queen, and Sebastian Shaw of the Hellfire Club.
As far as we know, that release date is still intact…
Loki Season 2, Echo, Ironheart, and Agatha: Coven of Chaos
The Disney+ shows Loki Season 2, Echo, Ironheart, and Agatha: Coven of Chaos all had 2023 release dates announced at the convention last year. Loki and Echo were planned for Summer 2023, but those dates have been bumped a few months to October 6, 2023, for the former and November 29, 2023, for the latter (which will also be the first Marvel Disney+ show to drop all its episodes in one day, Netflix-style).
The Agatha series, a spin-off of WandaVision, also received the new title Agatha: Coven of Chaos at the con (it had previously been referred to as Agatha: House of Harkness). It and Ironheart, which will feature Riri Williams (who made her MCU debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever), were announced for Winter 2023 at SDCC last year but have since been pushed to 2024.
Captain America: Brave New World
Continuing the story from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Disney+ series, a new Captain America movie, starring Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, a.k.a. the former Falcon and the new Cap, was given a May 2024 release date at the Hall H panel last year. Announced with the title of Captain America: New World Order at the time, it was given a May 3, 2024, release date. Since then, however, the movie has been retitled Captain America: Brave New World and the date has changed slightly to July 26, 2024.
Danny Ramirez, Carl Lumbly, Tim Blake Nelson, Harrison Ford, Liv Tyler, and Shira Haas are co-starring, with Nelson (as Samuel Sterns, a.k.a. The Leader) and Tyler (as Betty Ross) making their first MCU appearances since 2008’s The Incredible Hulk! Ford replaces the late William Hurt as Thunderbolt Ross.
Blade
Marvel's Blade movie has been gestating for a while now – it was first announced by Feige at the 2019 San Diego panel, where he also revealed that it would star Mahershala Ali as the half-vampire vampire slayer! Comic-Con, or its in-person show anyway, was cancelled the following two years due to the Covid pandemic, but when it returned in 2022 Blade was part of the Marvel presentation. It was there that Feige announced a 2023 release date for the film.
The movie has gone through some behind-the-scenes ups and downs since then, however. In early 2021, Bassam Tariq was brought in to direct, but he would depart the project the following year due to good old creative differences. Yann Demange (Lovecraft Country) was hired as the new director in November 2022, and the script has reportedly been undergoing rewrites (True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto was brought in this past spring, reuniting him with Ali). The film has since been pushed from a 2023 release to February 14, 2025.
Mahershala Ali, however, did make a cameo as Blade – well, his voice did – in the Eternals post-credits scene in 2021.
Daredevil: Born Again
Ever since he debuted as the Man Without Fear on Netflix’s Daredevil, Charlie Cox has been a fan favorite. So after the TV rights to the character reverted back to Marvel, there was a ton of speculation that Cox would return as the character. Vincent D’Onofrio showing up again as Kingpin in Hawkeye only added fuel to the fire, and then finally Cox himself returned briefly as Matt Murdock, if not actually in the Daredevil costume, for Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Then at SDCC 2022, it was announced that not only would Cox voice the character (or an alternate reality version of him anyway) in the animated Spider-Man: Freshman Year, but he would also be getting his own 18-episode live-action show called Daredevil: Born Again in Spring 2024. He also showed up on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law last fall, though this version of the character seems subtly changed from his Netflix take.
So far that 2024 release date for Born Again seems to be holding, but as with all of these projects, the writers and actors strikes have now put all production timetables into question.
Thunderbolts
It had been reported that a Thunderbolts movie was in the works prior to last year’s SDCC, but Feige confirmed it at the show. He also confirmed that the film would be the conclusion of Phase 5 and that it would be released on July 26, 2024. That date, however, has since been changed by a few months to December 20, 2024.
The Thunderbolts are a team of sort of Dark(ish) Avengers. We’ve seen Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Valentina Allegra de Fontaine recruiting some members already, as when she sunk her claws into Wyatt Russell’s U.S. Agent in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Other members will include Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), Red Guardian (David Harbour), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), and Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko).
Phase 6 of the MCU
Not only was the remaining line-up of Phase 5 confirmed last Comic-Con with the shows mentioned above as well as the films Captain America: Brave New World, Blade, and Thunderbolts, but Feige also announced Phase 6 – or at least part of it. He also confirmed that just as the first three Phases were called The Infinity Saga, Phases 4-6 are called The Multiverse Saga.
Phase 6 will kick off with the long-awaited Fantastic Four movie. Feige announced a November 8, 2024, date for the new adventures of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm, but all the Phase 6 dates have since shifted (in the case of FF, the film hasn’t even been cast yet). Fantastic Four now sits at a May 2, 2025, release.
Two new Avengers movies were also announced at last year’s con as the culmination of Phase 6. They are Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars and were given release dates of May 2, 2025, and November 7, 2025, respectively. Those dates have since changed as well, however. The Kang Dynasty is now set for May 1, 2026, and Secret Wars is May 7, 2027.
Aside from the strike situation, there are also the legal matters Kang actor Jonathan Majors is facing, along with the accusations of abuse that have been made against him. Majors denies the claims, but clearly these situations are now a consideration for Kevin Feige and his team as they plan out Phases 5 and 6. Recasting Majors or dropping the Kang character very well could be in the cards, but such a move would also further impact the timeline of the films.
For even more on the state of superhero movies, check out why James Gunn’s DCU is perfectly positioned to supplant Marvel Studios. Or dig in on why it’s a good thing that Hollywood's grip on Comic-Con is loosening!
source https://www.ign.com/articles/everything-marvel-announced-at-sdcc-2022-comic-con-2023