The Marvel Animation D23 panel is finally upon us. The Expo started off strong with a slew of updates and announcements from Walt Disney Studios, including updates to projects from Pixar, Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Animation, and live-action Walt Disney Studios films. From the announcement of the official title for the upcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash to a slew of updates to the Pixar Animation Studios slate (including the announcement of the upcoming Incredibles 3), the presentation gave fans plenty to look forward to in the coming years.
The Marvel Studios side of the D23 Day 1 presentation entirely focused on the live-action movies and series, with brand new trailers for Daredevil: Born Again, Iron Heart, and Agatha All Along. For those who were looking forward to updates on the Marvel Animation side of things, worry not— Marvel Animation is set to have its own presentation on Day 2 of the D23 2024 expo. Many of the announcements from this panel are expected to be about new seasons of existing shows, such as What If? Season 3. After the incredibly successful run of the first season of X-Men ’97, it’s also expected to get some news on the progress of the second season of the legacy series.
Below are all the updates for the Walt Disney Studios D23 2024 Presentation. In addition to all the major announcements, the DiscussingFilm team is in attendance and can provide exclusive footage descriptions straight from the presentation itself.
What If? Season 3
The upcoming third season of What If? Has just been announced as the final season of the series at the Marvel Animation D23 panel. The different alternate universe concepts that will be explored in this final season of the show include a Voltron anime-style episode introduction as an Avengers team led by Sam Wilson and consisting of Moon Knight, Photon, Red Guardian, and more pilot giant mecha suits in order to combat gamma monsters. It was also revealed that other episodes in the final season of What If? will explore characters such as Moon Knight, Ironheart, Shang-Chi, and White Vision.
Created by A. C. Bradley.
Based on Marvel Comics.
Executive Produced by A. C. Bradley, Bryan Andrews, Victoria Alonso, Louis D’Esposito, Kevin Feige, & Brad Winderbaum
Produced by Carrie Wassenaar, Danielle Costa, & Dana Vasquez-Eberhardt
Main Voice Cast: Jeffrey Wright, Sebastian Stan, David Harbour, Anthony Mackie
Composers: Laura Karpman & Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum
Production Company: Marvel Studios Animation.
Episode Count: 18 (Seasons 1 & 2).
X-Men ’97 Season 2
Not much New X-Men ’97 footage was shown at the Marvel Animation D23 panel. However, there were brief snippets of the upcoming season in the sizzle real. The brief footage revealed that the X-Men would wear the Grant Morrison suits in the upcoming season. Moreover, characters such as Havok, Polaris, Bishop, Apocalypse, and Danger will appear in the upcoming season. The brief snippets also seemed to confirm that Wolverine survived Magneto’s attack at the end of the last season. Other than that, no new information was divulged about the series.
Created by Beau DeMayo.
Based on X-Men by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby.
Executive Produced by Brad Winderbaum, Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, & Beau DeMayo.
Produced by Danielle Costa & Sean Gantka.
Main Voice Cast: Ray Chase, Jennifer Hale, Alison Sealy-Smith, Cal Dodd, JP Karliak, Lenore Zann, George Buza, AJ LoCascio, Holly Chou, Isaac Robinson-Smith, Matthew Waterson, Ross Marquand, & Adrian Hough.
Theme Music Composers: Haim Saban & Shuki Levy.
Composers: The Newton Brothers.
Production Company: Marvel Studios Animation.
Episode Count: 10 (Season 1).
Eyes of Wakanda
Fans finally got new information on the upcoming Eyes of Wakanda animated series at the Marvel Animation D23 panel. The series would be exploring new corners of the Marvel Universe. More specifically, the mystical city of K’un-Lun and the culture of that secret society would be explored, along with a new version of the character of Iron Fist would appear in the series, given that he is known as the defender of K’un-Lun in the comics. Ryan Coogler was at the presentation and spoke about the direction of the series and how “Wardogs are challenged with keeping Wakanda secret. So we can go back and look at the sacrifice people made to keep that secret.”
A new character in the series, Noni, will act as a “disruptor” in Wakanda, trying to expose some of the country’s corruption to the people of the hidden nation. You can expect Eyes of Wakanda to be a nice companion piece to the Black Panther films. Moreover, the series delves into the history of its secret and intersection with other locations, such as K’un-Lun. The series is also going to be utilizing 3D animation. Expect different time periods of Wakanda to be explored, almost like an anthology series. Eyes of Wakanda will also be canon in the MCU.
Created by Todd Harris.
Based on Black Panther by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
Executive Produced by Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Victoria Alonso, & Brad Winderbaum
Production Company: Marvel Studios Animation & Proximity Media.
Episode Count: 4
Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man
The upcoming Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man series was introduced at the Marvel Animation D23 panel as being about “A Spider-Man that you know but maybe not the one you expect,” teasing a story that diverts from the one fans saw in the MCU trilogy of movies. That difference was expounded upon at the panel, with the key difference between Peter Parker in this series and the one in the MCU being Peter’s mentor. Whereas he learned from Tony Stark and all of his mistakes and morals in the movies, it’s Norman Osborn who mentors Peter in the show, and Osborn uses methods that some people find questionable. With this news came the casting of Colman Domingo as Norman Osborn.
Exclusive Footage Description:
After this information, exclusive footage of the series was shown. D23 attendees were able to see an animated intro that used the classic Spider-Man theme song before it morphs into a modern rap song. The preview then depicts Peter’s first day of Freshman Year. His arrival at school is immediately interrupted by Doctor Strange fighting a monster that looks a lot like Venom. One of Strange’s portals leads to a radioactive spider from the Venom monster’s universe landing on Peter and biting him as he is meeting Nico Minrou, a character for The Runaways series of comics. The animation style is very comic-book-inspired with cell animation, with shots split into comic panels to evoke the feeling of reading a comic.
There was another scene shown from the series that takes place 5 months after, depicting Peter taking down street-level thugs with advanced tech. One of them is a boy who has metallic booths that give him short bursts of super speed. Another of them is a woman with a cyber blade. Peter, wearing a proto-type suit similar to the one seen in Homecoming but slightly different, is struggling to fight the thugs. However, Norman Osborn rings him on his comms and gives him advice on how to stop the thugs. The footage highlights Norman’s mentor relationship with Peter and the fatherly bond that is developing there. With Norman’s advice, Peter stops the thugs.
Created by Jeff Trammell.
Based on Spider-Man by Stan Lee & Steve Ditko.
Executive Produced by Jeff Trammell, Victoria Alonso, Louis D’Esposito, Kevin Feige & Brad Winderbaum
Main Voice Cast: Hudson Thames, Colman Domingo, Eugene Byrd, Grace Song, Hugh Dancy, Kari Wahlgren, Zeno Robinson, Charlie Cox, & Paul F. Tompkins
Composers: Leo Birenberg & Zach Robinson
Production Company: Marvel Studios Animation.
Marvel Zombies
The upcoming Marvel Zombies animated series was described at the Marvel Animation D23 event as being a “hardcore” TV-MA series. Moreover, the series was revealed to be a 4-episode event.
Exclusive Footage Description:
The footage shown at the panel begins with Shang-Chi, Katy, and Jimmy Woo in the middle of the street fighting zombies. They begin to get overrun until the Mandarin shows up and starts fighting the zombies with the Ten Rings. A particular stand-out moment akin to Attack on Titan is a kaiju0like zombie that the Mandarin kills by throwing the rings at the center of its forehead in a bloody sequence. The Mandarin tells Shangi Chi to leave the civilians and run with him until Shang-Chi is bitten by one of the zombies. The virus begins to progress up his arm.
The Mandarin sacrifices himself by transferring the rings to Shang-Chi, who is then taken by the Death Dealer. He picks them up in a helicopter before this scene ends. The footage cuts to 5 years later, with Shang-Chi and the same group of characters in the wasteland in vehicles that look like something from a Mad Max film. They’re being chased by a Skrull Biker gang, and the footage highlights an action set-piece as they fight the Skrulls with the Ten Rings. It’s a more light-hearted set-piece set to the song “Lights” by Journey, with them taking the Skrull bikers out while Jimmy Woo sings along to the song. Unfortunately, the series was announced as not coming out “for a while.”
Created by Zeb Wells
Based on Marvel Zombies by Robert Kirkman
Sean Phillips.
Executive Produced by Zeb Wells, Victoria Alonso, Louis D’Esposito, Kevin Feige & Brad Winderbaum
Written by Zeb Wells
Main Voice Cast: Iman Vellani.
Production Company: Marvel Studios Animation.
Episode Count: 4
