Arguably the biggest part of Comic-Con 2022 is the return of the Marvel Comic-Con panel. Marvel Studios exec Kevin Feige has a strong history of owning Hall H and all of Comic-Con, as the MCU announcements roll out for all of the upcoming Marvel movies and series. Though, it appears the Marvel X-Men movie title just leaked.
There is no live stream of the events, unfortunately, but expect news to break hard and fast as it's announced. For example, the 2019 Marvel Comic-Con panel saw Natalie Portman hold Mjolnir to announce Thor: Love and Thunder, Mahershala Ali announced as the new Blade and a Marvel Fantastic Four movie in the works.
So, as we stand on the edge of the panel, we've put together a full preview of what to expect from the Marvel Comic-Con panel this year.
Of course, beware spoilers for recent Marvel movies and shows, as we dive into what's next.
Marvel Comic-Con panel date and time
The Marvel Studios panel at Hall H at San Diego Comic-Con is on Saturday, July 23 at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT / 1 a.m. BST.
Captain America's next adventure
The one thing I truly expect from the Marvel Comic-Con panel is a show of support for Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson as the new Captain America. Everyone who saw The Falcon and The Winter Soldier knows this is truth, but poorly-worded tweets from The Hollywood Reporter seemingly added confusion.
The tweets stated that it was unsure if Mackie would carry the shield in Captain America 4, which has a director, but the tweets didn't speak to Mackie playing Captain America. This led Chris Evans, Steve Rogers himself, to declare that "Sam Wilson is Captain America."
We may learn more about Captain America 4 at Comic-Con, but since it's just at the "we found a director" stage, we're not sure. Maybe we see new armor for the new Cap?
A glimpse of the next MCU big-bad in Ant-Man 3
Marvel movies can sometimes only be as good as their villains, and there's a real gem of one coming soon. As we've known, Jonathan Majors will (kinda) reprise the important role of He Who Remains in Ant-Man 3, due February 17, 2023.
This time, Majors is supposed to feature a variant of that character, named Kang the Conqueror. Kang is a huge piece of the MCU puzzle, in part because of his relations to Reed Richards, who we'll get to in a moment. And since Kang has such a particular look, we're very curious to see how the MCU will debut the character.
Director Peyton Reed revealed that Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantummania production finished last November, so it only makes sense that there's a morsel of a crumb of Kang's look to be shown off. Actual footage of the film, especially if it shows off Bill Murray's TBA villain role, would also be appreciated.
James Gunn's Guardians are ending
Production also wrapped on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which is due in May 2023, after Ant-Man's return. So, we'd expect some set photos at the very least.
This will be Gunn's last Comic-Con working on the series, so we're not sure what they'll do to make it special — but it feels like something is likely.
We need the Fantastic Four at Marvel's Comic-Con panel
The Fantastic Four is potentially one of the biggest upcoming MCU movies, especially with all of its ramifications to the world of mutants and intergalactic baddies (when will we see Galactus and Silver Surfer?)
So, post-Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness, Reed Richards and his fantastic family are in the front of our brains. After the last Marvel Comic-Con panel — 2019 feels like forever ago, doesn't it — we've known that Marvel's Fantastic Four movie was coming. In the time since, many have speculated about who will play Reed, Sue Richards, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm.
And since Marvel's kinda dug itself into a corner on casting — John Krasinski portrayed Earth 838's Reed Richards in the aforementioned Doctor Strange sequel — they will either need to keep Krasinski in the role, or find some actor who doesn't create a backlash. My colleague Tom Pritchard thinks Krasinski is too old for the role/doing a long stint with Marvel, but I disagree.
That leaves Marvel in need of an Invisible Woman, a Human Torch and The Thing. Oh, and The Fantastic Four needs a new director, since MCU Spider-Man director Jon Watts is out.
Give us the X-Men, now
To be frank, the only given about X-Men at this year's Marvel Comic-Con panel is that the animated X-Men 97 series will be previewed at a panel we'll note below. But, let's be honest: ever since former Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the X-Men were coming to the MCU, fans were waiting for moments like what we've already gotten this year.
First, in Doctor Strange 2, Patrick Stewart rolled Professor Charles Xavier's hover-chair on-screen, as the theme from the animated X-Men series hummed in the background. Then, in the Ms. Marvel ending, we heard that song again when Kamala Khan found out that she's the first official mutant of the MCU (her friend Bruno only said she has some mutations in her DNA, but Marvel's already said enough to make us confident).
That said, we're extremely early for anything close to a trailer. Instead, we have simple requests. The bare-bones movie title and release year would probably be enough to get fans more than happy.
If we were getting greedy, we'd like some casting. Rumor has it Taron Egerton has been chatting with Marvel, and people think he could play Wolverine. No offense to Mr. Snikt, though: Egerton seems a bit too polished and attractive for the role. Maybe Cyclops?
As for Wolvie? Karl Urban has basically been playing that role on The Boys, just without the claws. In the Tom's Guide Slack, we've also speculated that Brett Goldstein would be great, if it weren't for the fact that he's just debuted as Hercules in Thor: Love and Thunder's post-credits scene.
Will we get The Marvels news to explain Ms. Marvel's post-credits scene?
Oh, and since we're a year away from The Marvels (Captain Marvel 2), we're hoping we get some follow-up to the tease and hype from the Ms. Marvel post-credit scene. We're plenty hyped to see Kamala Khan connected to Carol Danvers, as the two switched places, for crying out loud.
Production finished in May of this year, so we're not sure how much we're going to get. That said, a moment between Iman Vellani and Brie Larson on stage would be good enough for now. A hint of an explanation to that ending? We'd like that a lot more.
Positive Black Panther: Wakanda Forever casting news, please
Then there's the more immediate matter at hand. Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever just Daniel Kaluuya from its cast. Right now, it feels like we know so little about this movie, except for the fact that it feels like the story will center around finding a new Black Panther (due to the tragic demise of Chadwick Boseman).
It doesn't feel like Lupita Nyong'o's Nakia or Danai Gurira's Okoye will take the mantle, though some think Letitia Wright's Shuri may be next in line (rumors about her unwillingness to get the Covid-19 vaccine decreased her chances a bit, as we doubt Disney would want to give such a big role to an unruly cast members). We know to expect more of Winston Duke's M'Baku, though. And that's a good thing.
Will Wakanda Forever be all about the rise of Dominique Thorne's Riri Williams/Ironheart, who invents the suit of armor that's on-par with Tony Stark's Iron Man gear? We don't think she'll be the new Black Panther, as there's already an announced Disney Plus Ironheart series.
This means the second Black Panther movie, which already had a high bar to meet, is all about questions right now. If Marvel's SDCC panel could help explain who's doing what in this film — by giving us a teaser trailer, perhaps — we might be more calm.
She-Hulk and the rest of the Disney Plus lineup
Oh, and then there's the matter of Marvel's small-screen affairs.
First up, on Friday (July 22), from 12:45 p.m. ET to 2:15 p.m. ET, there's a Marvel Animation panel probably be hearing about the What If…? season two, Marvel Zombies, X-Men ’97 and Spider-Man: Freshman Year.
Then, we've got the incoming She-Hulk: Attorney At Law, which hasn't exactly gotten a warm welcome. The She-Hulk trailer raised many flags about CGI quality, so a scene to preview the show could go a long way to calm that down. Since the series is due in August, we should be able to get that.
Loki season 2, already in production, could give us a taste of what's to come. We hope it's Owen Wilson on a jetski.
Echo, starring Alaqua Cox, will see two other returning cast members: Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin from the Daredevil series. A stage appearance from all three, and some tease of other Defenders Saga cast, would be perfect.
The Secret Invasion series starring Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman and Kingsley Ben-Adir seems too far off for much of a preview, but the cast talking about it on stage seems possible.
A glimpse of the Guardians holiday special? A moment for Agatha: House of Harkness? Armor Wars? Ironheart? That Wakanda-set Disney Plus series?
The other MCU movies on the list
We've just gotten a taste of what Deadpool 3 will give us, as news broke its plot involves making Deadpool the 'lunatic' of the MCU. Storyboard art for that makes some sense, as would a Ryan Reynolds appearance.
Then there's Marvel's Blade, which just entered production this month. We doubt we'll get much from this one, as Mahershala Ali's reveal was one of the big moments from the last Marvel SDCC stage show.
So, what do you think? Did we miss anything? Are our goals too high? Let us know in the comments below.
