D23: Disney’s Massive Fan Event

This year marked the first D23 event since 2019 which functioned as a type of victory lap for then-CEO Bob Iger following the massive success of Toy Story 4, Avengers: Endgame, The Lion King, and the assumed (possibly flawed assumption) incoming success of Frozen 2 and Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. It marked a major gathering of Disney fans to Anaheim to talk about and celebrate what’s to come in movies, Disney+, and the Disney parks. This year is no different and, with the 100th anniversary of the Walt Disney Company coming next year, Disney brought everything they could to this show. Here are some of the topics they covered this year. Any links in the article will bring readers directly to the relevant trailer, if it was made publicly available.

Video Games:

Friday marked the beginning of the festivities with a video game showcase. First off, Bithell Games, developer behind such hits as John Wick Hex and Thomas Was Alone, is creating TRON Identity, described as a visual novel set in the world of the iconic movie TRON. Disney Illusion Island was announced as well and boasts itself to be a Nintendo Switch exclusive “metroidvania” (a 2D nonlinear story with exploration gated behind collecting abilities or weapons that gets its name from the blend of “Metroid” and “Castlevania” which defined the genre) that will feature four player couch cooperative play with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy. Marvel’s Midnight Sons was delayed to December 2nd and will still feature XCOM-style gameplay starring the more occult Marvel characters alongside the standard mainstays Iron Man, Captain America, and Spider-Man. The console will release on the PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X, and PC. Gargoyles for the Sega Genesis is joining The Jungle Book, Aladdin, and The Lion King and is getting a remaster. Marvel announced a partnership with Pokemon Go developer Niantic to release a new augmented reality gaming experience called Marvel: World of Heroes. Time will tell if this catches on in the way Pokemon Go did or if it will fall the way Harry Potter: Wizards Unite or Minecraft: Earth did.

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is getting six more DLC packs. Unlike past Lego games, these will be character packs and not full worlds and levels in the way that past games had their DLC function. If someone already has played through the game, this is unlikely for them, however there will also be a full collection of all the DLC and the base game for those who do not own it already. Last week’s Disney Dreamlight Valley is getting a free Toy Story content update that is about the size of the auxiliary Disney worlds in the game. Hopefully this is a sign that the developers of this game are willing to continue with free content updates into the future, rather than putting characters and décor behind a paywall.

Perhaps the biggest announcement of the day was that Skydance New Media is making a Black Panther (not T’Challa, his grandfather Azzuri) and Captain America (Steve Rodgers) World War II game. No details given besides the announcement of the game’s existence as this was an early cinematic trailer. Amy Hennig (Uncharted) is the lead on the game. Disappointingly for some fans, no details were given about the Sony exclusive Spider-Man 2 or Wolverine as well as the previously announced Kingdom Hearts 4. Considering that Sony will probably have a major announcement event before the end of the year or early next year, a deal was possibly struck to announce these at this event rather than at D23 considering that, except for Disney Illusion Island, everything else discussed was Multiplatform. That’s speculation but those games are still in development for Sony.

Adventures in Live Action:

In terms of what’s coming to Disney+, a lot of live action content was showcased at this year’s event. A full trailer for Hocus Pocus 2 was shown and features the cast of the original returning on September 30th for a new adventure. November 16th marks the arrival of The Santa Clauses, a sequel series to Tim Allen’s The Santa Clause, The Santa Clause 2, and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. This will feature Tim Allen retiring from the job and training his successor played by Kal Penn. Disenchanted, a sequel to the 2007 cult classic with Amy Adams, will be arriving on November 24th. The previously undated National Treasure: Edge of History releases December 14th and will act as a continuation of the National Treasure series, although Nicolas Cage will not be reprising his role in the show. More distantly, a teaser for the Percy Jackson show was released, although production wraps in January so that is still a little far away. Taking Pinocchio’s slot in 2023 will be Peter Pan and Wendy as a live action remake of 1953’s Peter Pan.

In theaters, Haunted Mansion will arrive on March 10th, 2023. It stars Rosario Dawson, Tiffany Haddish, LaKeith Stanfield, Dan Levy, Winona Ryder, Danny DeVito, and Owen Wilson in a reimagining of the iconic ride into a cinematic form set in New Orleans. A trailer for The Little Mermaid released in advance of its May 26th, 2023 release date. It features Halle Bailey as Ariel in a retelling of the story with some new music. In 2024 there are two slated live action adaptations. The first is Mufasa: The Lion King and will serve as a prequel about how Mufasa ascended to the throne. If someone ever read or saw a presentation of Hamlet and wondered how Hamlet’s father became King of Denmark, this film is for them. Also confirmed for 2024 is Snow White with Rachel Zegler (West Side Story) as Snow White and Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) as the Evil Queen. Marc Webb will be directing and Greta Gerwig will be cowriting the script in this “reimagining” of the classic Disney movie that launched the studio’s feature length entries.

Animation:

On the animation side, Pixar really dominated the announcements with only one major reveal coming from Disney Animation. The first is Elemental and it will be coming to theaters on June 16th, 2023. It is about Ember, a fire elemental and Wade, a water elemental who live in a city where fire, earth, water, and air elementals that all work together. After meeting and while living together, Wade and Ember discover they had more in common than they thought. Win or Lose, Pixar’s first original series, coming to Disney+ in 2023. It is about a middle school baseball team in the lead up to a big game. Will Forte is going to be voicing the coach. In 2024 Pixar will be releasing two movies theatrically, indicating that they have realized the error of their ways in moving Turning Red to Disney+. The first of these is Elio which will arrive in spring 2024. It follows an 11-year-old boy named Elio who is brought to space and is assumed to be the ambassador for Earth. That summer will be the arrival of Inside Out 2. Amy Poehler will be reprising her role as Joy and Meg LeFauve is writing the script. This time around Riley will be a teenager and there will be new emotions for her to deal with.

Walt Disney Animation did not bring a ton this year, focusing mostly on their new release coming this year called Strange World. It appears to be heavily inspired by pulp science fiction serials from the 1950s and, hopefully, it can buck the trend where movies like this by Disney are not as well received by audiences when the movies are as good as their other fare. For the 100th anniversary, Wish starring Ariana DeBose will be arriving in November of 2023 and will be a musical about the origin of the wishing star. Also this year is Zootopia+ on Disney+ and will be officially arriving on November 9th. This entry is an anthology series like Baymax or I Am Groot about various characters from Zootopia.

Lucasfilm:

Headed into the convention, there was heavy speculation that there would be an announcement regarding the theatrical future of Star Wars. The last theatrical entry was Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker which was what it was and since then there have been a number of soft announcements with release dates reserved for unnamed movies. To the public knowledge, there is a trilogy of Rian Johnson directed movies in development, a movie from Thor: Love and Thunder director Taika Waititi, a movie from Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins called Rogue Squadron, and a movie from Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige in development. The 2020s were originally supposed to alternate Star Wars and Avatar titles in December, with the first Star Wars title hitting theaters in 2023 followed by titles in 2025 and 2027. Since that announcement, the 2023 date has been vacated and there is no indication as to what is taking the first release slot. At the convention, there was no clarification on this topic.

That said, the Disney+ offerings did come out very strong for Lucasfilm and they did provide information about one theatrical release. A final trailer for this month’s Andor was released in advance of its September 21st release date. This series will chart new territory in showing the origins of the Rebellion and follow Cassian Andor before he meets Jyn Erso in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Season two will be starting production shortly. The anthology series Tales of the Jedi starts October 26th. Each episode of this animated series follows a different Jedi including Mace Windu, Count Dooku, Ahsoka, Anakin, and Qui-Gon Jinn. The sequel series to the 1988 fantasy epic Willow received a new trailer ahead of its November 30th Disney+ release. Despite having been previously announced to be released in September of 2022, Season two of The Bad Batch has been pushed back to January 4th, 2023.

Season three of The Mandalorian is coming in February of 2023. Bo-Katan is back and deals with the aftermath of The Book of Boba Fett’s changes regarding Din Djarin’s place within the religious order of the Mandalorians. Fan favorite Babu Frik from Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker will be returning in this show as well. A trailer for the upcoming Indiana Jones 5 was shown at a panel and was very well received. The movie was confirmed for June 30th, 2023 release with James Mangold (Logan) directing. Looking a little further out, a first look at Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren in Ahsoka was shown and Eman Esfandi joined the cast as Ezra Bridger. Both characters debuted in Star Wars Rebels and are transitioning to live action for the first time in this series coming in mid-2023. Skeleton Crew is currently filming and is slated for release in late-2023. This is Jon Watts’ series that stars Jude Law about a group of kids in a coming-of-age story styled after Amblin movies of the 1980s. It is set in the period after Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, at the same time as the other Disney+ shows.

Marvel:

Despite coming to San Diego Comic Con strapped with every piece of news they could possibly bring, Marvel Studios still managed to bring enough content to D23 to warrant a ton of coverage. Werewolf by Night received a release date, trailer, and poster. The more occult Marvel characters like Werewolf by Night, Elsa Bloodstone, and Man-Thing are all going to be appearing the special that seems inspired by 1950s monster movies. It will be debuting on October 7th on Disney+. New footage from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was shown at the event, highlighting what appears to be an international conflict over Wakanda not sharing its Vibranium with the rest of the world. It is set for release on November 11th, 2022. Secret Invasion had a trailer publicly released. The series stars Cobie Smulders, Samuel L Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Don Cheadle, and Martin Freeman and is boasted to be a massive Avengers-level crossover that focuses on an invasion of evil shapeshifting Skrulls from Captain Marvel. It arrives on Disney+ in early 2023. The same footage from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania that was shown at San Diego Comic Con was shown with a little extra bit confirming that Randall Park is back as Jimmy Woo following his appearances in Ant-Man and the Wasp and WandaVision. Footage from the Hawkeye spinoff Echo was revealed and confirms that Vincent D’Onofrio returns as Kingpin with an eye patch following his encounter with Echo in the finale of Hawkeye. This series will be released in mid-2023.

Footage from Season two of Loki was showcased, confirming the return of all major cast members from the first season, plus the confirmation that Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once) is joining the cast. This series will debut in mid-2023 after Echo. Footage was shown from the upcoming sequel to Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, and WandaVision called The Marvels that illustrates a lack of willingness for Carol and Monica to work as a team, especially with Kamala but they will do it begrudgingly. This movie will be released on July 28th, 2023. Footage from the forthcoming Ironheart series was shown that confirms Anthony Ramos (In The Heights) is the bad guy. After Jon Watts departed the movie for Skeleton Crew and the reboot of Final Destination, it was confirmed that Matt Shakman will be directing Fantastic Four. That said, no information regarding casting was given at this time but it is sticking to its November 8th, 2024 release date.

Captain America: New World Order’s cast reveals the return of Danny Ramirez from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier as the new Falcon and Carl Lumbly will also be returning as Isaiah Bradley. Following his initial arrival, Tim Blake Nelson will be returning as The Leader from The Incredible Hulk. This film will also mark the debut of Shira Haas as the Israeli hero Sabra. It is still scheduled for release on May 3rd, 2024. Speaking of casts, the full lineup of Thunderbolts was revealed as well. Yelena Belova/Black Widow (Florence Pugh), Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), John Walker/USAgent (Wyatt Russell), Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen from Ant-Man and the Wasp), Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) will all be reuniting for a team-up to take down an as of right now unnamed villain. Taskmaster is also shown in concept art so she may also be on the team. Despite not receiving a release date, a new logo was given for Armor Wars and it was confirmed that Don Cheadle will still be leading the show. Walter Goggins will also be reprising as Sonny Birch from Ant-Man and the Wasp for this show.

Disney Parks and Vacation Destinations

Starting in the California parks, Din Djarin/The Mandalorian and Grogu/Baby Yoda will be coming to Galaxy’s Edge in California. The meet and greet experience for Grogu will be expanded via an animatronic. A new ride will be coming to Avengers Campus. It is a Multiversal ride that has the rider face off against King Thanos alongside other Marvel heroes. Also at Avengers Campus, new meet and greet experiences with Hulk will be coming soon through "Project Exo" which are new animatronic exoskeletons. Pacific Wharf at California Adventure is going to be rebranded as San Fransokyo from Big Hero 6 featuring Baymax as a meet and greet character. As of right now, this is largely a shopping and dining area so a new attraction will help revitalize this pocket adjacent to Avengers Campus. Disney Toon Town in Disneyland will also be receiving a new attraction in the form of Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway. This ride blends 2D and 3D in an interesting way and can be seen in the former home of The Great Movie Ride at Hollywood Studios in Florida. Finally, Tiana's Bayou Adventure is replacing Splash Mountain in both Magic Kingdom and Disneyland and will open in 2024. This is designed to eliminate the uncomfortable references to Song of the South from the parks and the story of the ride will pick up after the events of The Princess and the Frog.

Headed into the convention, there was a ton of speculation of what would be announced for the East coast parks in an effort to compete with the opening of a third park on the campus of Universal Studios Orlando. The announcements were not quite as robust as expected, however. Firstly, fan-favorite park exclusive character Figment will be returning for meet and greets in EPCOT. Following his embattled history at Disneyland, the Hat Box Ghost will finally appear at the Haunted Mansion in Magic Kingdom. The cliff-notes version of the story is that this animatronic was created for the original launch of the ride in 1969 but the technology for the effect (the ghost’s head vanishes and reappears in a hat box he is holding) did not work properly and the project was shelved. In 2015, the animatronic was reworked and was reinserted into the ride in Disneyland after 46 years. Finally, Lightcycle Run, a rollercoaster based on TRON is still opening in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom in Spring 2023.

In terms of cruise ships, Disney will be launching a sixth cruise ship is called the Disney Treasure and is heavily influenced by Aladdin. Starting in October 2023, the Disney Wonder will be adding ports of call along a new route in New Zealand and Australia besides its existing routes in Alaska, the Caribbean, and Mexico. New island resort called Lighthouse Point will also be opening in the Bahamas.

Moving on to imminent changes at the international parks, Shanghai Disney Resort characters Duffy and Friends are getting an original series on Disney+ in an effort to introduce them to western audiences. There will be a Zootopia themed land opening in Shanghai as well in 2023. Hong Kong Disneyland is getting a new statue of Walt Disney while new Frozen themed lands will open in 2023. Disneyland Paris is adding a Tangled themed area near the existing Frozen area. Finally, Tokyo Disneyland is adding an area called “Fantasy Springs” focusing on Peter Pan, Frozen, and Tangled. Space Mountain in this park is going to be revamped in 2024 with intent to reopen in 2027.

Looking broadly towards the future, a few major ideas were floated regarding the East coast parks. Firstly, Dinoland USA in Animal Kingdom is going to be rebranded in the future with either Zootopia or Moana. This makes sense as the location has fallen downhill of late with multiple rides closing and having a ride based on 2000’s Dinosaur as an anchor does not make much sense in 2022. Upon inspection of a map (considering the price I personally have not set foot in a Disney Park since 2014), it appears that there is a lot of space to the north of the Magic Kingdom, as well as on either side of Main Street U.S.A. that is ripe for expansion. Fittingly, the Magic Kingdom has two expansions in development, first of which is north of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Frontierland and is going to be Encanto, Coco, or both. Secondly, there is exploration of the idea to build a new land of the park that focuses on Disney Villains. As of right now, the major focus on these characters comes around Halloween, however there is a sizable following around these characters year-round, making this a perfect possible expansion, especially considering that one of the new lands of Universal’s Epic Universe is going to focus on the Universal Monsters.