San Diego Comic Con Round Up And Reveals
Article by Kieran Burt
San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) has wrapped up for another year. There have been several major announcements across the four days, with Marvel, DC, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars announcing their plans for the future. Now that all of these announcements have been made, it’s important to look back and recap what happened.
Starting with the franchise that everyone had their eyes on, is Marvel. Kevin Feige himself took to the stage and updated the franchise’s phase structure, introducing several films and TV shows for phases five and six. Release dates and windows were provided. Trailers were also released for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever: and She-Hulk. Feige also stated that Phases four, five and six would collectively be known as ‘The Multiverse Saga’ A full list of announcements is below
She Hulk: Attorney At Law – Disney+ series releasing August 17th 2022
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – releasing in cinemas November 11th 2022
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania – releasing in cinemas February 17th 2023
Secret Invasion – Disney+ series releasing Spring 2023
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 – releasing in cinemas May 5th 2023
Echo – Disney+ series releasing Summer 2023
Loki Season 2 – Disney+ series releasing Summer 2023
Ironheart – Disney+ series releasing Fall 2023
Blade – releasing in cinemas November 3rd 2023
Agatha: Coven of Chaos – Disney+ series releasing Winter 2023
Daredevil: Born Again – Disney+ series releasing Spring 2024
Captain America: New World Order – releasing in cinemas May 3rd 2024
Thunderbolts – releasing in cinemas July 26th 2024
Fantastic Four – releasing in cinemas November 8th 2024
Avengers: The Kang Dynasty – releasing May 2nd 2025
Avengers: Secret Wars – releasing November 7th November 2025
Not mentioned were The Marvels (releasing in cinemas July 28th 2023) and Armour Wars (coming to Disney+).
While this is it for Marvel’s live action news, the day before they had even more in animation. What If season two will release in 2023, and What If season three has also been confirmed. More familiar faces will appear in the multiverse spanning show, with Young Peter Parker, Ego, Shang-Chi, Wenwu, Red Guardian and more coming.
I am Groot, Marvel’s spin off series following Baby Groot and his misadventures, received a short, lighthearted teaser trailer showing the activities audiences can look forward to Groot going on. The show also got an August 10th 2022 release date, with all five episodes debuting on that day.
DC’s presence at SDCC was much smaller than Marvel’s, but their panel revealed a hint of what’s to come in the future. A new teaser was posted online further showing Black Adam’s origin. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson appeared in costume, and explained he hopes that the Justice Society will give the DC Universe a new start. Shazam! Fury of the Gods also has a new trailer showing Helen Mirron and Lucy Liu as ancient goddesses, furious at Shazam.
No update was given on any other upcoming DC projects, including The Flash project.
Star Trek got several updates on its many shows. Picard season three reveals the return of The Next Generation characters, such as Worf and Geordi LaForge. Lower Decks season three trailer teases a return to Deep Space Nine and familiar faces appearing in the show. Strange New Worlds also got an update – it will be crossing over with Lower Decks! You can read about more of the Star Trek news here.
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power got an awesome new trailer, and the panel spoke about several aspects of the show. Showrunners Patrick McKay and JD Payne explained that:
“It’s a human story – how far into the darkness are you willing to go to reach the good. The world is in a different state, the Second Age. It’s about reintroducing this world and there’s a new evil” The pair went onto say “We didn’t want to do a spin-off – we wanted to find a huge Tolkian epic” and “This is material that is sometimes scary – and sometimes very intense, sometimes quite political, sometimes quite sophisticated – but it’s also heartwarming and life-affirming and optimistic. It’s about friendship and it’s about brotherhood and underdogs overcoming great darkness.”
Addressing the creation of original characters for the show, Tolkien scholars were brought in to make sure that any new elements were consistent with Tolkien’s work. On creating new cultures for the show, the showrunners explained that “We piece the clues together and then do what Tolkien did and look to real world myths”.
Star Wars had an ever lighter presence than DC but released some news about its upcoming slate of books. At the Lucasfilm publishing panel, creative director Michael Siglain was joined by eight Star Wars authors to showcase some upcoming publishing efforts. The most notable of these is a High Republic book titled The Battle of Jedha. There was a casting announcement for The Acolyte Disney+ series, with Amandla Stenburg set to star in the series.
Audiences have a lot to look forward to in the future, both in the coming months and in the years down the line. Marvel, DC, Lord of the Rings, Star Trek and Star Wars all got impressive line-ups announced for the future with many new TV, films and books on their way.
