UPDATE 7/21/19 9:52 a.m. PT: The lineup of movies and TV shows is the entirety of the next phase in the MCU, with one exception. Blade will be in phase five.
Marvel layed out phase four for hungry fans, new trailers for upcoming shows, and a lot more was released yesterday at Comic-Con. Each day gets bigger, and day three might take the cake for the entire convention.
Phase 4 is Coming
To start off, Black Widow showed off some footage while shining light on what to expect. Like the rumors suggested, this prequel will show off the dark side of Scarlett Johansson’s agent who once was not the hero we all have gotten to know. The film is directed by Cate Shortland and stars Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff, David Harbour as Alexi, O-T Fagbenle as Mason, Rachel Weisz as Malena, and Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova.
“I don’t think I could have played this iteration of Natasha 10 years ago,” Johansson said at the panel. “It would’ve been a very different film. I get to play Natasha as a fully realized woman and in all of her many facets. I’m excited for fans to see the flawed side of her, what she perceives to be the flawed side of her. And I’m looking to wipe out some of that red in my ledger, so you guys will be seeing a lot of that.”
While the film has been shooting for 30 days, enough was done to show off a clip to the audience at Hall H. A fight scene with Pugh and Johansson shows off the film’s villain, the iconic Taskmaster. Black Widow is set to release on May 1, 2020.
Next up is Eternals. Chloe Zhao sits in the director’s seat along with her extensive roster of characters including Angelina Jolie (Thena), Richard Madden (Icarus), Kumail Nanjiani (Kingo), Lauren Ridloff (Makkari), Brian Tyree Henry (Phastos), Salma Hayek (Ajak), Lia McHugh (Sprite), and Don Lee (Gilgamesh).
“It’s about this group of incredible immortals but through their journey, we really get to explore what it means to be human and humanity on our time on this planet,” Zhao told the crowd.
The characters are a group of immortals who look after Earth from afar. This will set the groundwork that future phases of the MCU will have a cosmic center around upcoming storylines.
Eternals hits theaters Nov. 6, 2020.
Destin Cretton will head Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, starring Simu Liu. Meanwhile, Tony Leung is the Mandarin, the real one, not the fake from Iron Man 3.
Shang-Chi is scheduled for a Feb. 12, 2021 release date.
Taika Waititi returns after the success of Thor: Ragnarok. While Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson will return in their roles, someone from the old days is too, Natalie Portman. She will wield the mighty hammer, yes she will become her own Thor essentially.
Waititi read Jason Aaron’s comics series, The Mighty Thor, which introduces the female version of the electrified God. He told the audience, ” only one person who could play that role,” which lead to Portman coming on stage while holding on Mjolnir and saying, “I’ve always had a little hammer envy.”
Thor: Love and Thunder will come out Nov. 5, 2021.
Diverting away from the movies briefly, these are some of the Disney+ shows that are on the way to expand the universe.
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is set for fall 2020. The reveal with Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan got interrupted with a video from Civil War villain Daniel Brühl’s Baron Zemo, wearing a comic accurate costume with his iconic purple mask.
Spring 2021 will deliver WandaVision, with Elizabeth Olsen reprising her role as Scarlett Witch and Paul Bettany returns as the recently deceased Vision. Teyonah Parris will also star as the grown-up version of Monica Rambeau, who last appeared as a child in Captain Marvel.
“We’re going to have a lot of fun,” Olsen said. “It’s going to get weird. We’re going to go deep, we’re going to have lots of surprises, and we’re going to finally understand Wanda Maximoff as the Scarlet Witch.”
“Last thing I knew, I died in Infinity War, so I literally have never been this confused in front of this many people in my whole life,” Bettany said.
The long-awaited and teased Loki series will arrive around the same time. The series will center around Loki as he disappeared with the Tesseract in Endgame.
Next is an animated series titled What If…? which will explore the many multiverses in the MCU. While many familiar voices will come and go in the series, one name that has been attached is Westworld actor Jeffery Wright who will play as The Watcher.
“The Watcher is a being, a non-earthly being who observes all things,” Wright told the audience. “He’s watching over the multiverse and occasionally may or may not intervene with the doings of earthlings. Other than that, he’s off doing his own thing.”
Ending the TV series side of the panel, and there is still more news after this, is Jeremy Renner’s own show, Hawkeye. The show follows him teaching Kate Bishop to take on the bow.
Coming back to the movies, Benedict Cumberbatch’s solo flick finally got an official title. Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness sees director Scott Derrickson return with an eye for a May 7, 2021 release date.
“Just because Quentin Beck makes up lies about the multiverse doesn’t mean it isn’t real,” Feige told the audience, referencing to Spider-Man: Far From Home.
WandaVision will be the first Marvel TV series to play a hand in one of the films as Olsen’s telekinetic hero will appear in Doctor Strange’s next adventure.
“He’ll be facing unexpected things,” Cumberbatch said of his character. “I think he’ll be in a position rather like the audience of not knowing what’s coming at him. There was a lot of authority I thought in the Avengers iterations [of Strange], so we’re going back to kind of destroy him, I think.”
Derrickson will use his experience with Sinister to make Multiverse of Madness be the first scary MCU movie, while Fiege quickly tells everyone it will still be PG-13.
Blade returns with Mahershala Ali as the vampire slayer. On top of that Fiege announced, with no release dates, Captain Marvel 2, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Black Panther 2, and acknowledges that the X-Men and Fantastic Four will be coming in the future.
Westworld Season 3 Trailer
HBO’s wildly trippy sci-fi will return. The trailer shows off a World War 2 park, which means Nazi robots, and hints at what to expect with the story after season two.
Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 Info
Season 2 ended with the crew and their ship diving into a wormhole taking them 950 years into the future. The panel reveals hints at what will happen in the upcoming season.
Watchmen Character Returns
The upcoming HBO series showed the return of Doctor Manhatten who was living on Mars and returns back to Earth.
DC is Bringing Back Shows
Both Doom Patrol and Titans will return for another run. Doom Patrol will arrive on DC’s streaming service and HBO Max sometime in 2020. Titans return Sept. 6 on DC Universe.
The Expanse Returns
Amazon saved the sci-fi series The Expanse from cancellation and now has shown off a trailer on what the series will look like.
The Flash Gets a New Villain
Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes) is facing against Flash in season 6 as Dr. Ramsey Rosso/Bloodwork.
Lex Luther is Back
DC’s baddy returns, Lex Luther played by Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men), who will appear on the crossover series Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Arrow Star Set to Direct Episodes on Final Season
Katie Cassidy Rodgers, who plays Laurel on the series, will make her directorial debut with an episode of the show’s final season.
The Goldbergs Go on Vacation
Goldbergs star Troy Gentile told Entertainment Weekly that, ““The first script [of the season], we’re doing Vacation,” and “I’m not going to tell you guys where, but we’re going on vacation.”
Snowpiercer Trailer
The TBS series based on the 2013 movie finally got a trailer.
Header image via Twitter/@mcuromancff
Tristan Zelden 