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Key Takeaways
San Diego Comic-Con 2024 has been one of the year’s most hotly anticipated pop culture events. The convention causes ripples of speculation and excitement every year. The return of an in-person Comic-Con International in 2022 was a milestone, signaling the film and entertainment industry’s gradual return to normality. This was a promising sign for film fans, a stark contrast to the 2023 Comic-Con, which was reported to be an anti-climax due to the TV and film writers’ strike.
This year’s Comic-Con was also guaranteed to make its mark with the official Marvel Studios panel in San Diego Convention Center’s Hall H as the headline act. Headed by the Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, this is the panel that has generated the most speculation… Some were convinced we’d be hearing the official title of the latest Avengers installment. Others were sure we get a sneak glimpse at snippets of MarvelStudio’s Fantastic Four and Thunderbolts, both slated for release in mid-2025.
A lot is resting on the latest slate of Marvel projects for 2025, and Nerdspin has put together the latest news from the MCU.
Captain America: Brave New World
Whether Marvel fans would get a sneak preview of the new Captain America was probably touch and go. In light of the recent assassination attempt on President Trump, Marvel had to rapidly release an updated edition of its Captain America: Brave New World trailer, editing out a scene showing an attempt on the life of President “Thunderbolt” Ross.
Captain America may be over six months from its February 2025 release date. Still, ComicCon attendees were treated to an exclusive look at the first appearances of Anthony Mackie in the headline role and Giancarlo Esposito as the central villain.
An extra special surprise was Esposito joining the cast on the Hall H stage and revealing that Captain America’s villain would be Sidewinder, aka the King of the Serpent Society (real name Seth Voelker). The new footage also featured Harrison Ford as Thunderbolt Ross and confirmed the rumors that Ross would be transforming into one of the franchise’s most iconic characters: the Red Hulk. Ford’s impression of the Red Hulk’s angry roar was the extra special touch that’ll be sure to pull fans into movie theatres in early 2025.
Thunderbolts* – The New Superhero Dream Team
Thunderbolts* has been generating new since late 2022, when Marvel revealed the all-star cast, including Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes and Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova.
Thunderbolts* is a villain-turned-hero story with echoes of DC Comics Suicide Squad, with a team of reformed villains now fighting the bad guys, led by Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. The stars have been front-and-center of the PR for Thunderbolts since production began in Atlanta in early 2024. Pugh has even treated fans to a behind-the-scenes snapshot of her in full bodysuit as Yelena Belova.
The Marvel Panel revealed some new details. The cast, with director Jake Schreier, joined Kevin Feige on the stage, but only David Harbour was in full costume as Red Guardian (jokes all around: “Oh my god, you guys didn’t dress up?”). We got some snippets of backstory from each of the actors, but this was a slot that still get kept a lot under wraps. A question from the floor asked about the asterisk in the film title. Schreler was still secretive (‘You’ll have to see the film’). We also saw exclusive footage showing some of the stunts with kick-ass moves from Pugh’s Yelen. This one is going to be worth wait.
Fantastic Four: First Steps
Marvel’s production schedule is full of back-to-back action. It’s common knowledge that the next Fantastic Four will go into production the week following Comic-Con International. We weren’t the first to think that Comic-Con would be an obvious stop-off on the way to production at London’s Pinewood Studios to show off the full cast. So, we weren’t disappointed when Kevin Feige bought the cast out onto the stage to introduce them to the public for the first time.
We have Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards (or Mister. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby as Susan Storm (or The Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm (or the Human Torch), and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm (or the Thing). An inflatable replica of the Fantasticar also made waves, with its style looking like a 1960s-style old Cadillac. The director, Matt Shakman, confirmed that the 1960s inspired the film and that the Fantastic Four wants to capture the revolutionary spirit of the decade. Now that we’ve seen the entire cast, we’re even more excited ahead of the production shoot, and we’re sitting with our fingers crossed that Fantastic Four will be on our screens next year.
Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars
This reveal was one of the biggest surprises from the MCU this year. The Avengers series has been through a difficult period in the wake of Jonathan Majors’ departure from the series after being fired by Marvel due to convictions of assault and harassment. But Comic-Con confirmed that we have a new twist and take on the Avengers waiting for us.
The Russo brothers, who directed Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018), are returning to direct the next two Avengers movies. The first will be Avengers: Doomsday (scheduled for release in May 2026), with another dream project the following year, Avengers: Secret Wars (May 2027).
The other big reveal that had the crowd roaring was the casting of the Avengers supervillain Dr. Doom. The actor walked onto the stage in a steel mask and costume to reveal none other than Robert Downey Jr., who Marvel fans will know from Iron Man in the MCU. The Avengers are going to come back bigger and better with this uber-talented team at the helm.
What Next and Are Marvel Fans Ready?
And that’s it for highlights for this year’s Marvel Panel at Comic-Con. The crowd and atmosphere were electric, and you could tell that Marvel was on something of a high. The new Deadpool & Wolverine movie, headed by stars including Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, is set to rake in between $160 million and $165 million in its opening weekend in the U.S. alone. We hope that means more X-Men announcements will be on our radar in the future. We also hope next year is time to squeeze in some big reveals about Marve Studios’ hot-anticipated Disney+ projects. For now, we have new vital details about next year’s Marvel releases that are sure to have crowds flocking to the movie theatres.
