Disney presented new Star Wars and Marvel games, series and films at the D23 Expo; we have all the information for you in an overview.
Movie giant Disney has announced a slew of news on two of its biggest brands at its in-house D23 Expo, alongside many new animated film announcements and fairy tale adaptations: Star Wars and Marvel.
To keep you on track, we list the most important news about the star saga as well as the superhero series, show you the most exciting trailers and also tell you which eagerly awaited video games were unfortunately not shown First up is laser sabre rattling in the Star Wars universe.
Table of Contents
The biggest Star Wars news from the D23 Expo
The Mandalorian Season 3 Trailer
2023 One of the most popular Star Wars streaming series to date is going into round 3: “The Mandalorian” made its trailer debut for the third season at the D23 Expo, featuring many old acquaintances like Bo-Katan and Greef Karga. Together with baby Yoda Grogu, protagonist Din Djarin is once again a bounty hunter with a heart of gold. Despite being expelled from his Mandalorian sect, the trailer features more Mandalorians than ever before in the series:
New trailer for Star Wars: Andor
Significantly earlier, the twelve-part series revolving around the beginning of the Rebel Alliance, starring Cassian Andor (of “Rogue One” fame). On 21 September 2022, the first three episodes will be released on Disney Plus; further “Andor” episodes will follow at weekly intervals. The new video offers a good mix of character moments, space action and blaster battles between Rebels and Empire on the ground:
Tales of the Jedi brings back many favourite characters
The eagerly awaited animated series “Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi” gives you goosebumps in the trailer, as it features quite a few fan favourites such as Count Dokuu (before he became a Sith), Ahsoka, Anakin Skywalker and Mace Windu. The first of six episodes will be available to stream on Disney Plus from 26 October 2022, it tells short stories from the past of famous Jedi and was developed by Dave Filoni (“The Clone Wars”, “The Bad Batch”). Take a look:
More Star Wars News
- Season 2 of “Star Wars: The Bad Bad” launches on January 4, 2023 with the first two episodes on Disney Plus.
- There was a short clip on location for “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew” featuring actor Jude Law’s character. The series is said to be set during the New Republic era and is about a group of children.
- For the live action series “Ahsoka”, Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau presented some selected images to the fans on location. The production starring Rosario Dawson is scheduled for release in 2023.
The biggest Marvel news from the D23 Expo
Secret Invasion has a trailer
Nick Fury is back! The SHIELD leader played by Samuel L. Jackson returns to Earth from his trip in space after years away – and finds a society where the Skrull aliens are using their shapeshifting abilities to imitate more and more people.
In the new Disney Plus series “Secret Invasion” (start 2023, six episodes), Fury has to avert the threat together with a few allies (including Iron Man’s sidekick War Machine). In the trailer, this looks like a gritty spy thriller:
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
Audience members on hand at the D23 Expo got their first look at the new “Ant-Man” movie, which officially opens Phase 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2023. The trailer is not yet available to view online, but is said to show heroes Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne going up against new MCU villain Kang the Conqueror.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Also restricted to the live audience was a short scene from “Black Panther 2” about the situation after the death of T’Challa: the weakened Wakanda has to defend itself against raids by other nations keen on the fabled raw material vibranium. The film will be released in cinemas on 11 November 2022. As a reminder, here is the first trailer:
A new game with Captain America and Black Panther
Skydance New Media has announced a new video game from Uncharted writer Amy Henning. It is set in World War II and features four playable heroes:
- Steve Rogers aka Captain America
- Azzuri as Black Panther (grandfather of T’Challa)
- Nanali (leader of Wakanda’s spy network)
- Gabriel Jones (Member of the Howling Commandos)
Paris and Wakanda already seem to be confirmed as a scenario. The assumption is that players will fight in four in co-op against Nazis and/or Hydra. In fact, however, it has only been confirmed so far that the player will control each character in the course of the campaign; a later meeting of the heroes is not excluded.
According to Amy Henning, the graphics will meet the highest standards, while the gameplay will be reminiscent of Uncharted. The project does not have a name or release date yet, the teaser trailer only shows render scenes.
These are the Thunderbolts
A slightly different superhero team debuted at the D23 Expo with the Thunderbolts. The film of the same name, set to open in theatres on 26 July 2024, marks the end of Phase 5 of the MCU. The following actors and heroes are involved:
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine
- David Harbour as Red Guardian (from “Black Widow”)
- Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost
- Olga Kurylenko as Task Master (“Black Widow”)
- Wyatt Russel as John Walker aka U.S. Agent (“The Falcon and The Winter Soldier”)
- Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova
- Sebastian Stan as Winter Soldier
Marvel’s Midnight Suns
Surprise: The new game from XCOM makers Firaxis has not been delayed to 2023 after all. Marvel’s Midnight Suns will be released on 2 December 2022 and showed a new trailer. In the tactical game, you build your own main character and then fight all kinds of villains with a team of superheroes, turn by turn. You choose attacks from a deck of playing cards:
Werewolf by Night
You wouldn’t expect a project like this from Marvel Studios: on 7 October 2022, the film “Werewolf by Night” will be released by Disney Plus. Entirely in black and white, the work of director and former composer Michael Giacchino is based on classic monster films of the 1930s and 1940s.
The trailer promises old-fashioned cinematic enjoyment, with a werewolf making short work of a number of monster hunters:
More Marvel News
- In “Captain America: New World Order”, Anthonie Mackie gets to embody the new incarnation of the popular superhero on the big screen for the first time. He showed off to fans with his co-stars Danny Ramiez (as Joaquin Torres), Carl Lumbly (Isaiah Bradley) and Tim Blacke Nelson (Samuel Sterns).
- The second season of “Loki” was teased in a short clip for the D23 audience.
- The new “Fantastic Four” movie was able to secure Matt Shakman as director. Shakman was previously responsible for the Disney Plus series “Wandavision”.
- “Daredevil: Born Again” will be an entirely new series and not simply season 4 of the cancelled Netflix series. Filming has not yet begun. Hero Matthew Murdock has a guest appearance in “She-Hulk”. According to actor Charlie Cox, Daredevil could also appear as part of the Avengers in the future.
- The “Ironheart” series, starring Riri Williams (a young black heroine who follows in the footsteps of Iron Man), is designed to blend elements of technology and magic. Viewers got to see an exclusive clip in which Riri assembles her armor.
- “Echo” is a series about anti-heroine Maya Lopez, known from “Hawkeye”. The silent protagonist is again played by actress Alaqua Cox and communicates with sign language. In addition, Vincent D’Onofrio returns as Kingpin, visibly scarred by the “Hawkeye” finale.
- In the “The Marvels” movie, scheduled for June 28, 2023, the three heroines Captain Marvel, Miss Marvel and Monica Rambeau accidentally teleport to the position of one of their colleagues and swap places when they use their very similar and interconnected powers. The clip shown exclusively at the D23 Expo showed this with a lot of humour, but also a lot of action. In addition, cat Goose, who is actually an extraterrestrial monster named Flerkin, celebrates a return.
- Electronic Arts reportedly has an Iron Man game in the works. It will be developed by Motive Studios (“Dead Space Remake”) and will be released before the rumored Black Panther game.
There was no way to see it
Anyone hoping for news about Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was bitterly disappointed. Other Star Wars projects such as the open-world game from Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment also shone with absence at the D23 Expo.
What kind of news about Star Wars and Marvel did you find most interesting? Write us your opinion in the comments!
