The Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Chapek makes announcements at the Investor Day 2020 presentation. (© The Walt Disney Co. 2020.)
By Andrew A. Smith
Tribune Content Agency
Dec. 17, 2020 — OK, that’s … a lot to process.
I’m talking about Disney’s Investor Day meeting on Dec. 11, where they unleashed a whopping four hours of announcements, teases and trailers about upcoming content. (Yeah, it was just an investment meeting. But Disney just can’t pass up putting on a show, can it?)
The focus was on the streaming service Disney+, as has been true for a while at the House of Mouse. And of the five categories on the service, it was Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm that got the most love.
MARVEL MANIA
Marvel announced three new live-action TV shows, bringing the total we know about to 10. (For those of you counting at home, that number doesn’t include Helstrom, which has ended after one season, or animated fare such as What If and M.O.D.O.K.)
We’re already eagerly anticipating WandaVision (Jan. 15), Falcon & Winter Soldier (March 19), Loki (May 2021), Hawkeye (Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop confirmed), She-Hulk (Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters confirmed), Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan confirmed) and Moon Knight.
And we actually kinda knew about one of the new shows; a series starring Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has been mentioned before. But it’s not going to be Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.— instead it’s an adaptation of one of Marvel’s most famous crossovers, "Secret Invasion."
Marvel’s WandaVision will appear on Disney+ beginning Jan. 15, starring Paul Bettany (left) and Elizabeth Olsen. But it’s just the vanguard. Disney+ plans on nine more Marvel shows, and 10 Star Wars shows. Buckle up. (© Marvel Studios 2020.)
In the comics, “Secret Invasion” involves evil Skrulls capturing and impersonating various powerful people on Earth, especially superheroes, especially Avengers, in order to conquer the planet from within, in accordance with an ancient religious prophecy. Nothing like a good, old-fashioned Holy War to get the blood racing, eh?
But in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Skrulls are sympathetic refugees, hounded by the Kree. Their leader Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) is friends with both Fury and Captain Marvel (Brie Larson). Will he go bad? Is there another sect of Skrulls that will pull off the infiltration, pitting Skrull against Skrull? Will it be revealed that some dead Avengers were Skrulls at the time? (Opening the door for characters like Black Widow and Quicksilver to return.) Every scenario I imagine to implant “Secret Invasion” into existing MCU continuity is more exciting than the last.
The second new show is Ironheart, adapting the character Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) from the comics, a genius teenager who reverse engineers her own Iron Man suit, and wears it with Tony Stark’s blessing. So we get another ersatz Iron Man (we already have War Machine), but there’s a bonus: With every teenage character Marvel Studios introduces, we get closer to Young Avengers and/or The Champions, fan favorite series starring teen heroes like Hawkeye (Kate Bishop version), Ironheart and Ms. Marvel.
Speaking of Tony Stark, in the comics he polices the use of his Iron Man technology — sometimes extra-legally. On two occasions, Stark went on global missions to destroy all tech and computer records using his inventions, making him an outlaw. (He got forgiven, somehow.) These two storylines were called “Armor Wars,” which is the third new TV series, starring James “War Machine” Rhodes (Don Cheadle).
Will we see a new Iron Monger? Crimson Dynamo? Titanium Man? The real Mandarin? A series like this could introduce Iron Man’s entire rogues gallery with the flick of a repulsor ray. Even though he’s technically, you know, dead.
As if that wasn’t enough, Marvel had tons of movie announcements.
For example, Christian Bale will portray Gorr the God-Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder. Gorr is the butcher who makes sure Asgardians get proper cuts of meat at the supermarket. Ha ha! Just kidding. He kills gods. Like Thor. Or maybe Thors.
The third Ant-Man movie was announced, Quantumania, which will include all the original cast, plus Kathryn Newton as a now-grown-up Cassie Lang, who will likely join the growing (and shrinking) family business as the superhero Stature. They’ll face off with Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors), an Avengers-level threat unlikely to be thwarted by a bunch of ants.
A new stab at Fantastic Four was announced, which had me swooning (but my wife rolling her eyes). We also got our first word about two new animated shows, the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special for 2022 and I Am Groot, a series of film shorts.
These shows are scratching itches I didn’t know I had.
STAR WARS TSUNAMI
When Disney bought Lucasfilm, they said they wouldn’t use the EU, the Extended Universe of Star Wars material found in comics, animated shows and novels. Just the movies, folks — nothing else counts!
Shee-right. They’re mining those properties like crazy. Maybe because they announced nine new TV shows and a movie, and they’ve got to fill them with something! Here’s what they told us:
First up is Andor, which features Diego Luna’s ruthless spy from Rogue One. Obi-Wan Kenobi stars Ewen McGregor and Hayden Christensen as Kenobi and Darth Vader, respectively, after the events of Revenge of the Sith, which every fan has been waiting for.
The Mandalorian, starring (from left) Gina Carano, Pedro Pascal and Carl Weathers, has been a huge success for Disney. (© The Walt Disney Co. 2020.)
Ahsoka stars fan-favorite actress Rosario Dawson as a fan-favorite Jedi (from the animated Clone Wars), who recently appeared in The Mandalorian. Another show, Rangers of the New Republic, takes place during the same timeline, and could potentially include Mandalorian characters like Cara Dune (Gina Carano), Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison), Bo Katan (Katie Sackhoff), Greef Karga (Carl Weathers), Miks Mayfeld (Bill Burr), Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) and Cobb Vanth (Timothy Olyphant). Are you listening, Disney? It is the way.
There’s more: Star Wars: The Bad Batch is an animated show involving super-powered clones. The Acolyte has something to do with the rise of the Dark Side of The Force. Lando stars the Calrissian you know, presumably before he becomes Billy Dee Williams.
Finally, there’s Rogue Squadron, a new film for 2022. We aren’t given much to chew on, content-wise, but we do know it’s being directed by Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman), and that’s enough.
In fact, it might be too much. I guess I’m going to have to watch endless hours of new Marvel and Star Wars content on my TV, to the exclusion of family, friends and yardwork. Them’s the breaks!
Find Captain Comics by email (capncomics@aol.com), on his website (captaincomics.ning.com), on Facebook (Andrew Alan Smith) or on Twitter (@CaptainComics).
Replies
Wait ... did you say Tatiana Maslany?!?!
Oh ... wait ... I don't get Disney streaming ...
Tatiana Maslany was announced for She-Hulk months ago, to much fan enthusiasm. Then, weirdly, she strenuously denied it. I mean, sure, I can see being cagey, but she almost seemed angry. So I was half-convinced she really wasn't going to be in it.
Then came the announcements above, and her participation confirmed. I'm delighted, and whatever weird denial thing was going on is now just a blip. Or maybe it was method acting, and she was practicing becoming a rage monster. Whatever, looking forward to it!