MOVIE PREVIEW – Disney packed its 2026 D23 presentation with announcements, but Marvel Studios was responsible for many of the night’s most consequential reveals. From the first publicly released VisionQuest trailer and fresh Avengers: Doomsday footage to the X-Men cast and Marvel’s developing 2028 theatrical slate, the MCU’s next era is finally coming into much sharper focus.

Disney brought an enormous amount of material to D23 2026. Attendees received an early look at the next Simpsons movie, footage from Star Wars: Starfighter, and updates on projects including Incredibles 3, Coco 2, Zootopia 3, The Princess Diaries 3, the live-action Tangled, and a Kingdom Hearts television series. Even with such a crowded lineup, however, Marvel Studios predictably emerged as one of the presentation’s biggest attractions.

Marvel had already made substantial waves at San Diego Comic-Con by revealing Ryan Gosling as Ghost Rider and David Jonsson as the new Black Panther, but Kevin Feige’s team clearly kept several major announcements in reserve. With Spider-Man: Brand New Day having already provided the first meaningful hints of the MCU’s mutant future, D23 became the place where Marvel finally started talking openly about its new X-Men movie while also publicly unveiling VisionQuest and offering another significant look at Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom.

VisionQuest Finally Brings Ultron Back Into the Spotlight

Marvel opened its portion of the showcase with the new trailer for VisionQuest. Some footage from the series had been screened almost a year earlier at New York Comic-Con, but those scenes had remained exclusive to attendees. D23 marked the first time Marvel allowed the wider public to properly see what the series has in store, including its unusual setting largely within Vision’s own subconscious.

Vision finds himself living in a house populated by human incarnations of artificial intelligences associated with Tony Stark. James D’Arcy returns as J.A.R.V.I.S., Emily Hampshire plays E.D.I.T.H., Orla Brady appears as F.R.I.D.A.Y., Henry Lewis portrays D.U.M.-E., Jonathan Sayer plays U., and James Spader is back as Ultron. The trailer also introduces Ruaridh Mollica as Tommy Maximoff, the reincarnated super-speedster son of Vision and Wanda. VisionQuest will complete the story arc that began with WandaVision and continued through Agatha All Along, with the series premiering on Disney+ on October 14, 2026.

Doctor Doom Gives the Avengers Another Warning

Disney began increasing the pressure around Avengers: Doomsday even before Marvel’s D23 presentation started, releasing additional tickets and unveiling a new poster for the massive crossover. Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Hayley Atwell then appeared onstage as Marvel revisited footage that had previously been screened for the San Diego Comic-Con audience only a few weeks earlier.

This time, Disney followed the presentation by releasing the footage online. The preview hints at a deeply tragic history for Doctor Doom, flashes several unexpected combinations of Marvel heroes, and culminates in the striking image of Downey’s Doom commanding an army of Sentinels. With Spider-Man: Brand New Day already several weeks into its theatrical run by the time of D23, Marvel appears ready to shift the full weight of its promotional campaign toward Doomsday.

Wolverine and Deadpool Keep Circling Avengers: Doomsday

Ryan Reynolds had already crashed Marvel’s San Diego Comic-Con presentation in full Deadpool mode, so D23 provided a fitting opportunity for his Deadpool & Wolverine co-star Hugh Jackman to get involved. During the Avengers: Doomsday segment, Marvel played a video featuring Jackman while Reynolds could be heard coaching him from off camera. Jackman jokingly asked Kevin Feige whether the already enormous cast could use one more person and suggested he might even be able to persuade Reynolds to join him.

Hugh Jackman makes a surprise appearance at #D23 for “Avengers: Doomsday,” with Deadpool teasing Wolverine’s arrival in a voiceover.

— Variety (@Variety) August 15, 2026

The exchange was clearly staged as a joke, but it also functions remarkably well as another deliberate tease about Wolverine and Deadpool potentially appearing in the movie. Neither Jackman nor Reynolds has been officially announced as part of the cast, and Marvel could easily keep the joke running throughout the marketing campaign. Still, the possibility of both characters appearing in at least a small capacity alongside the X-Men contingent now feels increasingly difficult to dismiss.

Marvel’s 2028 Theatrical Calendar Is Starting to Take Shape

Marvel Studios officially confirmed that its new X-Men movie will arrive in U.S. theaters on May 5, 2028, while also unveiling the first version of the film’s logo. The reboot will become the first theatrical entry in Phase Seven and will open only three days after the twentieth anniversary of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, measured from the May 2, 2008 release of Iron Man.

With X-Men occupying the May 5 slot and Black Panther III scheduled for December 15, 2028, another piece of Marvel’s calendar also appears to be falling into place. The Ryan Gosling-led Ghost Rider is already planned for 2028, and the current schedule makes the July 28 theatrical date look like the most obvious remaining destination for that movie, although Marvel has not formally announced that specific date.

The MCU’s First New X-Men Lineup Is Official

Expectations were already extremely high that Marvel would use D23 to reveal at least part of the new X-Men cast, particularly after Sadie Sink appeared as Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Reports in the weeks before the convention had also connected Samara Weaving with Emma Frost and Kit Connor with Cyclops. Kevin Feige and director Jake Schreier finally made the first group official on the D23 stage.

Sadie Sink will play Jean Grey, Kit Connor is Scott Summers/Cyclops, Christopher Abbott takes over as Professor Charles Xavier, Samara Weaving portrays Emma Frost, Maya Boyd is Ororo Munroe/Storm, Inde Navarrette plays Rogue, and Adam Driver has been cast as Mister Sinister. Every announced actor except Driver appeared in person, while Driver joined through a prerecorded video in which he discussed his previous conversations with Feige about finding the right way to enter the MCU.

Feige stressed that this is only part of the eventual ensemble and that further casting announcements are still coming. Several members of the newly assembled group had apparently never even met before encountering one another backstage at D23, emphasizing just how recently Marvel finalized this first wave of its mutant roster.

There is also a neat connection to the franchise’s cinematic beginnings. Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Professor X, and Rogue all appeared in the original X-Men movie released in 2000, which was also the first Marvel production Kevin Feige worked on. More than a quarter-century later, the X-Men are finally being rebuilt as a full-fledged part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Marvel assembling a younger cast capable of carrying the mutant franchise deep into its next era.

-Gergely Herpai „BadSector”-

Source: MovieWeb