Now that Spider-Man: Far From Home has wrapped up the Infinity Saga, Marvel Cinematic Universe fans are wondering what the next phase will entail. Some films are in various stages of production, like the Black Widow solo movie and Shang-Chi -- but we still don’t know if these movies are leading up to something larger. To give con-goers a little taste of what’s to come, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and several surprise stars assembled at Comic-Con International to discuss the future of the MCU.
The panel began with a clip package showcasing all the Marvel movies and their heroes with the end card saying "The Infinity Saga."
Host Jessica Chobot introduced Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios.
Kevin Feige began by thanking the fans for the success of the 23 films that have released as part of the Infinity Saga. He then introduced Louis Esposito and Stephen Broussard, among others, who all play significant roles at Marvel Studios to make all the movies that were seen in the clips. The crowd applauded them. Feige just heard that in a matter of days Avengers: Endgame will be the biggest film of all time replacing Avatar.
Feige then introduced Phase Four. November 6, 2020 will be The Eternals. Director Chloe Zhao came out and talked about how she's always wanted to direct a Marvel movie and for The Eternals, "It's about this group of incredible immortals and we get to explore humanity." The cast of The Eternals came onstage with Salma Hayek playing the leader. Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden and Kumail Nanjiani also joined the stage.
According to Richard Madden, the Eternals are a race of immortal aliens, "and I play Ikaris who is the sexiest of all of them."
"I am very emotional," sighed Kumail Nanjiani. About Marvel movies, Kumail says it's like a throwback to other movies like Casablanca because they have everything from comedy to drama.
Salma Hayek said, "It feels great! I take my inspiration from our leader Chloe, who's also a strong woman. It takes a strong woman to do a movie like this because it's so big. ... The way she approaches leadership as a woman is that she sees them as a family, so there's a lot of mother instincts in this Eternal who's not supposed to have kids... I feel very honored to be a part of a movie that's going to allow people who didn't feel represented to be represented... I'm proud to have a diverse family."
The next thing announced was Fall 2020 for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier show coming to Disney+. Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan came onstage with Anthony allowing Sebastian to hold his shield briefly before taking it back.
They joked about what they want to see from each other's characters. "We have a lot of fun onset. We're living our dream... so why would you mess that up by not respecting the opportunity that you're given. So when we go to work, we have a REALLY good time." The Winter Soldier trigger words then played, introducing Baron Zemo seizing control of the panel onscreen.
February 12, 2021 will be Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings premiere date. The Ten Rings is a callback to the Iron Man franchise. Tony Leung will be playing The Mandarin, with Awkwafina also joining the film.
The director of the film announced who will capture the character of Shang-Chi "with all of the dimensions he deserves," and it's Simu Liu who was just cast on Tuesday. "I"m really happy that I'm not a doctor," joked the actor, who also talked about his parents immigrating from China to Canada twenty years ago.
Spring 2021 will be the release of the WandaVision show, and Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany joined Kevin Feige onstage. "We're finally going to understand Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch," said Olsen.
Paul Bettany still doesn't know much about his character since it's after Endgame. And other characters from the MCU will be in it including Monica Rambeau, who as an adult will be played by Teyonah Parris.
Spring 2021 will also be the release of the Loki show. About seeing him die, Kevin Feige played the clip where Loki escaped with the Tesseract. "This series will tell you what happened to Loki right after that," said Feige, and then Tom Hiddleston came onstage to Hall H.
The last thing that happened to that Loki was the events of Avengers, and he got Hulk-smashed. Kevin showed Tom his plans for Loki and "it's one of the most exciting creative opportunities I've ever come across... and I cannot wait to get started."
May 7, 2021 will be Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The director came on stage to talk about Doctor Strange and its "psychedelic weirdness... and we're gonna make the first scary MCU movie."
Benedict Cumberbatch came on stage to talk about the dawn of this project and "it will maintain the integrity of humor with the twist of horror that will have people gripped... he'll be facing unexpected things, he'll be in the position of the audience with not knowing what's coming at him... we're going back to trying to destroy him, I think."
Scarlet Witch will be appearing in the movie and the events of Wandavision will be reflected and tied into Doctor Strange.
Summer 2021 will be the release What If..?, the first animated series from Marvel Studios and the actors will be reprising their roles. The Watcher will be played by Jeffrey Wright.
Hawkeye clips then played, with Jeremy Renner coming in through the Hall H audience. The Disney+ Hawkeye show is confirmed to have Kate Bishop in it with more Ronin.
November 5, 2021 will be Thor: Love and Thunder with Chris Hemsworth, Taika Waititi and Tessa Thompson coming to the stage. "Because there's nothing more powerful in the world than love," said Taika with Chris adding "and thunder." About Valkyrie's changes for New Asgard, "as new King, she needs to find her new queen, so that'll be her first order of business, she has some ideas. I'll keep you posted," said Tessa.
About other storylines Taika pulled from, Taika mentioned The Mighty Thor and how it's full of emotion and love and thunder and how it introduces for the first time, female Thor.
"So for us, there's only one person who could play that role, please welcome Natalie Portman," said Taika Waititi as he introduced Natalie Portman to the stage.
The director and cast of the Black Widow movie then came to the stage. The director talked about how Natasha is a great heroine because she has so many secrets and vulnerability. Scarlet said, "I don't think I could've played this iteration of Natasha 10 years ago... I get to play Natasha as a fully realized woman and in all of her many facets, and I'm excited for fans to see the flawed side of her, or what she perceives as the flawed side of her, and I'm looking to wipe out some of the red in my ledger."
Scarlet Johanssen then introduced the trailer for the movie, which at least a portion of which will be in Budapest. The cast and directors from the previously announced projects joined the stage all wearing Black Widow hats, which were passed out to the crowd.
Kevin Feige teased Black Panther 2, Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and Captain Marvel 2. "I didn't even have time to talk about the Fantastic Four. I didn't even have time to talk about mutants," teased Kevin Feige. Mahershala Ali was announced as Blade, and then the panel ended.