With the San Diego Comic-Con back to live and in-person this year, there was something you could rely upon: Marvel was going to bring it with the announcements. And while a lot of what Kevin Feige and his team had to offer had already leaked or otherwise gotten out into the world, there was still room for surprises and plenty of excitement.
Bookended by a look at She-Hulk: Attorney At Law (more on that here) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (read all about that here), the panel was a joyous one, fed by Feige's enthusiasm and what he had to show the crowd.
Split between panels dedicated to upcoming movies with cast and crew present and big reveals for the future, Feige kicked things off by talking about Phase 4 (AKA the one we're in now) and how it'll wrap up with She-Hulk and Wakanda Forever.
That means Phase 5 is around the corner, and Feige outlined what it entails: Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania (Feb 17 2023), Secret Invasion (Spring 2023 on Disney+), Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 (5 May 2023), Hawkeye spin-off Echo (Summer 2023 on Disney+), Loki Season 2 (Summer 2023), The Marvels (28 July 2023), Ironheart (Autumn 2023 on Disney+), Blade (3 November, 2023), WandaVision spin-off Agatha: Coven Of Chaos (Winter 2023/2024 on Disney+), Daredevil: Born Again (Spring 2024 on Disney+), Captain America: New World Order (23 May 2024) and Thunderbolts (28 July 2024).
Secret Invasion's Maria Hill, AKA Cobie Smulders arrived on stage to talk up the darker thriller show, which will see Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury and Ben Mendelsohn's Talos battling a faction of shapeshifting Skrulls who have been infiltrating Earth for years.
Quantumania director Peyton Reed brought Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Jonathan "Kang" Majors, Kathryn Newton and some footage to Hall H. Promising more Quantum Realm madness and fresh threats from Multiverse master Kang the Conqueror.
Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3's James Gunn, meanwhile, brought even more cast (Chris Pratt, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Sean Gunn, Will Poulter and Maria Bakalova) and his own footage, full of all the heart and hilarity you expect from the franchise.
The new movie will explore Rocket's (Bradley Cooper) tragic past, finds Gamora (Zoe Saldana) off with the Ravagers and Groot all grown up.
We learned some new casting details, including the fact that Bakalova is playing Cosmo The Space Dog and that Peacemaker's Chukwudi Iwuji is villain the High Evolutionary. Iwuji even showed up in costume to confirm his role…
One extra little thing to mention – the new Daredevil series, subtitled Born Again and once more starring Charlie Cox and Vincent D'Onofrio, will have 18 episodes.
There was also word on the more distant future of the MCU, including Phase 6. Not much is known about most of that yet, but three big flags were planted: Fantastic Four, which kicks off shooting next year, will finally arrive in cinemas on 8 November, 2024.
And Phase 6 is scheduled to wrap in 2025 with two new Avengers movies – Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, out on 2 May 2025 and Avengers: Secret Wars on 7 November, 2025. Finally, as Phases 1-3 were The Infinity Saga, so 4-6 represent The Multiverse Saga. Okay, so we could have predicted that given everything in Phase 4 so far, but it's nice to have it confirmed.
Marvel will likely offer up more details about the future at Disney's big D23 event this coming September, but for now it's fair to say the company made its usual strong showing at Comic-Con.