Over the years, Marvel fans have come to look forward to San Diego's annual Comic-Con International, an event where movies, television and comic books converge. At SDCC, Marvel Studios has often had a big presence in Hall H, with packed panels that have brought first looks at many anticipated films as well as casting reveals and announcements about what is coming next for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Unfortunately, SDCC 2020 was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the virtual experience Comic-Con@Home was set up to replace it. While many studios and companies will take part in this digital event, Marvel Studios will not have a presence. Even though Marvel has no new announcements or big panels planned for this year's Comic-Con, we can still look back at Marvel Studios' five greatest panel moments from the last 10 years of SDCC.
Enter Thanos
In 2014, Marvel Studios' SDCC panel was largely focused on the big movie release of the following year: Avengers: Age of Ultron. The entire cast of the upcoming film was present, from the original Avengers to newcomers Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Paul Bettany and James Spader. At the time, Captain America: The Winter Soldier had recently hit theaters, while Guardians of the Galaxy was nearing its release. Therefore, Marvel dropped a bombshell for fans by revealing that actor Josh Brolin would play the Mad Titan, Thanos, in the MCU.
At the time, Thanos had only appeared in the post-credits scene of 2012's The Avengers, where he was portrayed by Damion Poitier. By revealing Brolin was going the play the villain, Marvel grew excitement around the character exponentially. Brolin burst onto the Hall H stage wearing a toy replica of the Infinity Gauntlet, teasing an exciting and overarching storyline that, as we now know, would reach fruition four years later, in Avengers: Infinity War.
Introducing... Captain Marvel!
In 2016, Marvel Studios used its SDCC panel to hype the release of films that were coming in the next few years: Doctor Strange, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Black Panther. The extended casts of all four films were in attendance, and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige waited until all the actors were assembled on stage to make a surprise announcement: after years of waiting for Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, to arrive in the MCU, the cosmic powerhouse of a character was finally coming, and she would be played by none other than Oscar-winner Brie Larson.
Marvel fans know that Captain Marvel was originally supposed to appear at the end of 2015's Avengers: Age of Ultron. However, that plan was scrapped, and fans kept on waiting for the character to finally join the rest of the Avengers. So, at the time, there was an incredible amount of excitement for the character's debut, and for the arrival of Marvel's first female superhero solo film. Larson joined the panel at its very end, promising a powerful female presence in the MCU that would fly through the stars three years later.
The MCU's Phase 4 Plans Revealed
After the release of Avengers: Endgame, there was a certain amount of mystery as to what was next for the franchise. Therefore, in 2019, Kevin Feige returned to Hall H to unveil Phase 4 of the MCU, and it was packed with surprises. It all started with the unveiling of the full cast of The Eternals, which was easily Marvel's most diverse cast to date. Then, the surprises kept on coming with the announcement that Simu Liu would star as the titular hero in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and that Academy Award-winner Mahershala Ali would play the MCU's Blade.
But that's not all. We also learned Scarlet Witch would join Stephen Strange in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Natalie Portman would become the Goddess of Thunder in Thor: Love and Thunder and the adventures of Hawkeye, Vision, Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes and Loki would all continue on the small screen. As far as sheer amount of surprises go, Marvel's 2019 panel delivered in spades.
A First Look at Infinity War
In 2017, Kevin Feige brought the casts of Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther to SDCC, and while that led to plenty of revelations about the upcoming films, it wasn't the biggest source of excitement at Marvel Studios' panel that year. No, that came when the people in the Hall H audience were treated to the very first trailer of the immeasurably anticipated Avengers: Infinity War, which was set to arrive the following year.
At the time, excitement for the team-up film was at an all-time high, given that it would not only be the culmination of everything that had happened so far in the MCU, but also because it would finally unite the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy. While the trailer would not be released to the general public, there were still enough leaks and articles written about it that fans knew they had been promised something truly epic. And the best part of it all was that it culminated with Thanos throwing a freaking moon at the Avengers. At the time, it was difficult to imagine what that looked like, and it truly helped fan the flames of excitement for what would become one of Marvel's biggest films ever.
The Avengers Assemble
In 2010, the MCU only consisted of three films: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Iron Man 2. At the time, we knew that Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger were already in production, and it was said that Marvel was building towards an ensemble film bringing together Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Therefore, at SDCC 2010, Marvel brought the house down by officially announcing The Avengers was set to arrive in 2012.
The panel brought together the original six Avengers for the first time ever: Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo. In fact, it was at this very panel that both Renner and Ruffalo were officially announced as Clint Barton and the new Bruce Banner, respectively. For Marvel fans, and for Comic-Con International as a whole, this was an unprecedented move, and easily one of the most iconic moments in Marvel history. It's essentially how Marvel Studios earned its reputation at SDCC, and how its panels became can't-miss events in the following years.
Up next for the MCU is Black Widow. Directed by Cate Shortland, the film stars Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, O-T Fagbenle as Rick Mason and Rachel Weisz. The film is scheduled for release on Nov. 6.