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Disney+ is getting an animated MCU show to explore alternate takes on key points in Marvel history

At D23, we learned about plenty about Disney’s upcoming movies, including Jungle Cruise, Star Wars: Episode 9, Marvel’s Black Widow, and more. However, one big surprise came from the details to the 101 Dalmatians prequel. We got to see what Cruella DeVille would look like in the upcoming live-action movie.

Starring Emma Stone as the titular character, those that attended the movies panel on Saturday at the Disney convention learned a bit more about the movie, which won’t hit theaters until 2021, on the 50th anniversary of the animated classic, 101 Dalmatians.

Fans got their first look at Stone from the set, complete with the half-black, half-white hair, which you can see above. In a behind-the-scenes video filmed by Stone for the D23 crowd, she revealed the movie would be set in 1960s London. Stone appeared on screen, discussing the film, while yelling at a poor dog off screen. Emma Thompson, Stone’s co-star in the film, was also mentioned. However, details about her character have yet to be revealed. There have been rumors she’ll be playing Baroness, but as to who or what that character is, no one knows at this time.

We’ll learn more in the upcoming year, but Cruella is still a ways off, as it won’t be released theatrically until May 28, 2021.

D23 was a huge weekend for news, as those in attendance got to see eight minutes of footage of the upcoming Tom Holland/Chris Pretty Pixar movie, Onward. Additionally, we learned a lot more about plenty of Disney+ TV series, including the Star Wars shows The Mandalorian and Obi-Wan. As for Marvel, three new Disney+ TV series were announced at the convention She-Hulk, Moon Knight, and Ms. Marvel.

During the D23 Movies panel, which gave us a look at Star Wars: Episode 9, as well as more info on Black Panther 2, and The Eternals, fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe were in for quite a treat when they got to see footage from the upcoming Black Widow movie.

Set to release in 2020, those attending the panel learned that the movie is still filming as they watched an on-set video of Scarlett Johansson, David Harbour, and Florence Pugh. The cast was on a helicopter saying they wanted to attend D23, but they’re in the middle of making the movie.

Johansson is a major part of the movie, and many of these scenes show to the crowd featured her and Pugh’s character, assassin Yelena Belova. Some of this footage was shown at Comic-Con back in July.

Panel-goers got a quick recap of Black Widow from previous movies before seeing what the new movie had to offer. The new footage with Natasha Romanova walking through the empty streets of Budapest. She gets into an elevator. Then, Nat and Yelena have guns drawn on each other in an apartment. What follows is an intense battle where the two characters are trying to kill each other in the kitchen, which gets demolished. Yelena charges at Nat with a knife, and they try to strangle each other with a curtain.

In the next shot, Nat says, “It’s good to see you too, sis,” as they drink vodka together. There is a shot of the Nat, Yelena and Red Guardian (Harbour) all in costume and bearing people up, which leads to a face-to-face moment with Nat and the movie’s main villain, Taskmaster.

Black Widow will hit theaters on May 1, 2020. In other Marvel news, a Ms. Marvel TV show was announced for Disney+, Game of Thrones star Kit Harington joined MCU in The Eternals, and Moon Knight is getting a Disney+ series too. If that wasn’t enough She-Hulk is also getting her own show. You can see all the latest news in our D23 roundup.

The cast of Marvel’s Eternals just keeps on adding star power. This weekend, at Disney’s D23 Expo, it was announced that both Kit Harington and Gemma Chan would be joining the cast.

News of Harington’s reported involvement in the MCU broke before the official announcement, prompting fans to speculate about every possibility, including the potential re-casting of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine in the wake of the Disney/Fox merge. Similarly, the news that Chan was being courted for the project broke earlier this month, leading fans to wonder how this new role would affect her Captain Marvel involvement.

In Harington’s case, the truth turned out to be much simpler than the fantasy that theorizing created. He will play Dane Whitman, aka Black Knight, a superhero who–this is not a joke–dresses like a medieval knight and rides around on a pegasus-like flying horse (maybe he and Valkyrie will have something to talk about?)

Things for Chan are a bit more complicated. She will not be reprising her Captain Marvel role as the Kree soldier Minn-Erva, and instead, be re-cast as the trickster Eternal Sersi. This is a rare case of an actor playing two different characters in the MCU–and likely means we won’t be seeing Minn-Erva around in future Captain Marvel instalments.

Though, interestingly, Sersi’s superpowers do revolve around matter manipulation and shapeshifting, which could potentially make for a very interesting in-universe loophole to explain how and why Chan could be two unrelated characters at once. Perhaps the Minn-Erva we briefly saw back in the 90s wasn’t actually Minn-Erva at all.

The Eternals hits theaters on November 6, 2020.

It’s been a pretty big weekend for Star Wars fans, thanks to D23. The trailer for The Mandalorian dropped, and we learned more about the Obi-Wan TV series. Both of these are landing on Disney+ this fall. And during the Disney Movies panel at the convention on Saturday, those attending got to see new footage for Star Wars Episode IX: Rise of Skywalker.

Although the only people who actually got to watch the new footage were those who attended the panel, GameSpot’s Chris E. Hayner was on the ground to tell us exactly what went down during the fast-paced video sequence. It opens up with Rey, Poe Dameron, Finn, Chewbacca, and C-3PO arriving on a planet. A fleet of Resistance fighters are coming out of lightspeed, which then turns into a reveal of a fleet of Star Destroyers, lined up in space in an attack position.

Back on the ground, Rey chops down a tree by throwing her lightsaber at it. This leads to a battle between Rey and Kylo Ren on what seems to be the planet from the end of the first Star Wars: Episode 9 trailer. At one point, Rey is using a double-sided, red lightsaber. What’s different about this lightsaber is that it’s like a switchblade knife. It started originally with two red beams, side by side, then snapped out to become double-sided. During this, Rey is wearing a hooded robe, which paired with the red lightsaber gives her a serious Dark Side vibe.

During the panel, the cast hit the stage to talk a little bit about their characters. Keri Russell spoke a bit about her role as Zorri Bliss, who has been a bit of a mystery to fans. “I had this amazing costume and this helmet, which I actually loved to wear and didn’t take it off for the first two days,” explained Russell. “I found it strangely empowering and exciting. [Zorri Bliss is] very cool and a little bit shady. She’s kind of a criminal and sort of this old friend of Poe’s.”

Additionally, a new movie poster was revealed for the movie. It features Rey and Kylo Ren battling each other. A star-lit space is the backdrop, as well as the transparent face of The Emperor, who died in Return of the Jedi but makes his return in The Rise of Skywalker. Check it out below.

We’ll have to wait and learn more about Zorri Bliss and the rest of Episode 9 until the movie hits theaters on December 20. Additionally, the Disney Movies Panel at D23 also revealed more info on the Black Widow, Eternals, and Black Panther 2 films.

Black Panther director Ryan Coogler took the stage alongside Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige this weekend during Disney’s D23 Expo to officially announce the release date for the upcoming Black Panther sequel–which, apparently, will not be officially called Black Panther 2.

Whatever the sequel’s real name may be, it will be hitting theaters as part of Marvel’s ever-expanding Phase 4 efforts on May 6, 2022.

That may seem far away–because it is. Coogler, who returns as writer and director for the sequel, admitted as much, but explained that they’re eager to get this one right.

“We’re definitely not taking our time with this one,” the director said. “We just want it to be right.”

That’s understandable. The first Black Panther movie, released in 2018, was exceptionally well-received, building plenty of hype for Avengers Infinity War, which released shortly afterward. The Avengers’ arrival in Wakanda partway through Infinity War was one of the movie’s highlights.

In our original Black Panther review, we said it’s “a top tier Marvel movie with all the humor, style, action, passion, and fun that the MCU has come to embody” and “a cultural event that’s going to be hard for Marvel to top.” Naturally, we’re looking forward to the sequel.

We don’t know a heck of a lot else about Black Panther 2, however. The movie was conspicuously absent during Marvel’s San Diego Comic-Con panel in July, and the portion of Disney’s D23 presentation devoted to BP2 was brief. That said, there’s been plenty of other news out of D23: more returning MCU characters in WandaVision’s cast, the reveal of Disney Plus’s Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and Moon Knight shows, more details about the Loki and Falcon and Winter Soldier shows, and more.

On the Star Wars side, Disney confirmed that Ewan McGregor is returning to the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, announced the release date for Star Wars Clone Wars Season 7, and revealed a Disney+ show starring very dead Rogue One characters.

A movie that continues the story of AMC critically-acclaimed drama series Breaking Bad is on the way. A listing for “El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie” appeared on Netflix, with the description reading, “Fugitive Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) runs from his captors, the law and his past.”

According to the listing Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan is writing and directing the movie. The New York Times reports that Netflix will officially announce the Breaking Bad movie on August 26 and then it will become available to stream on October 11. The publication also says AMC will air the movie at a later date.

“It’s a chapter of Breaking Bad that I didn’t realize that I wanted,” said Aaron Paul in an interview. “And now that I have it, I’m so happy that it’s there. It was a hard, emotional thing for all of us and when the finale happened, we all got together and hugged it out and said I love you. And that was it.”

According to Paul, Gilligan contacted him about two years ago and presented the idea for bringing Jesse back. Of course, Paul agreed and, addressing skepticism that will inevitably arise when fans learn that the story will continue, he said his own misgivings were cast aside when he read the script for El Camino.

“I couldn’t speak for a good 30, 60 seconds,” he said. “I was just lost in my thoughts. As the guy who played the guy, I was so happy that Vince wanted to take me on this journey.” Asked about whether Brian Cranston would appear as Walter White, he said, “all I can say, I think people will be really happy with what they see.”

Breaking Bad followed the dysfunctional relationship between Jesse Pinkman, a meth cook and his science-teacher-turned-partner, Walter White. The show ended in September 2013, and, for the most part, is regarded as having a strong finale. Naturally, people will wonder whether bringing it back for a movie is the right move, given how well the series ended. We’ll find out in October, it seems.

Every Campus is part of an “interconnected story.”

Like Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, which focuses on the new planet Batuu, Avengers Campus will involve an original story set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe–or, well, sort of set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Unlike Batuu which is functionally “time-locked” in a narrative sense to exist at a fixed point in the Star Wars timeline, Avengers Campus is set at some point or in some version of the MCU where Tony Stark is still alive and threats like Thanos apparently never happened.

There will likely be more news to come out of D23 Expo this weekend about the official story that will weave through all the different Avengers Campus locations, whether or not they’ll play into the bigger MCU multiverse, have something to do with the splintered timelines, or are part of something else entirely. Until then, we know that the Avengers are building these campus locations around the world, traveling from destination to destination, and using them as opportunities to train new heroes (i.e. park guests.)

While there was plenty of Star Wars and Marvel news to talk about from the Walt Disney Studios panel during the 2019 D23 Expo, that’s not all that was unveiled. Among the many titles teased for the D23 crowd was Jungle Cruise, which stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Emily Blunt. And yes, it’s that Jungle Cruise–the iconic Disneyland boat ride–that is the basis of the movie.

Johnson and Blunt were both on hand to talk about the film, bringing dueling trailers. Johnson put his character Frank, the skipper of a jungle riverboat, firmly in the spotlight. Blunt, on the other hand, cast her character Lily Houghton as the true hero of the story as she set off on an adventure and hired Johnson to help her along the way.

The trailers played up a humorous competitive relationship between Blunt and Johnson, as they battled for attention in the panel with both even getting elaborate entrances–Johnson arrived on an actual Jungle Cruise boat, while Blunt was driven into the arena in a classic car. However, these first looks at the film also have an idea of what the audience can expect from the film.

With Blunt’s character in search of this mystical tree, which has healing powers, she enlists Frank to take her up-river. Along the way, they encounter marauders and wild animals, find themselves in fights–one of which ends when Lily accidentally punches Frank in the face. In addition to the comedy, there are plenty of nods to the theme park ride. At one point, while giving a tour, Johnson shows his passengers the “eighth wonder of the world,” the backside of water. On the ride, this is done by going behind a waterfall. For Frank’s boat tour, though, he simply turns on a faucet, in one of the sillier moments of his trailer.

Both trailers led to the same moment, which revealed a man-made of snakes. While a full shot of the slithering character wasn’t shown, Frank and Lilly had very different reactions. “That’s impossible,” a dumbfounded Frank uttered. Lily, on the other hand, was astonished. “It’s real,” she said.

Neither of these trailers has been released to the public, and unfortunately, it’ll be a while before you can see the movie. Jungle Cruise is in theaters on July 24, 2020.

It has been a wild week for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as it may lose one of its biggest characters–Spider-Man–because of a dispute between Sony and Disney over the rights. In the middle of the madness is actor Tom Holland who plays Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the MCU films. Regardless of the final outcome though, Holland showed up to D23 on Saturday to promote his upcoming Pixar movie, Onward, which is set for release in Spring 2020.

The portion of the panel kicked off with a video. The movie takes place in a magical world filled with faeries, mermaids, elves, and more. Then, a jet flies by, and the magical world is gone, and it’s our modern day, filled with these creatures living what seems to be a normal life–there are gnomes mowing lawns!

Director Dan Scanlon, producer Kori Rae, actor Chris Pratt were in attendance, alongside Holland, who previously starred with Pratt in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. “Firstly, it’s so good to be back here at D23,” Holland said. “This is the best day of the year. Last time we were here, we were space buddies fighting on Titan. And now we’re elf buddies fighting in LA.”

At this point, nothing about Spider-Man had been mentioned. However, after the new footage was shown to the crowd–detailed below–Holland turned to the crowd and said, “It’s been a crazy week, and I want you to know I am grateful from the bottom of my heart, and I love you 3000.” He left the stage with the audience screaming.

Eight minutes of footage was then shown to everyone attending the D23 panel. The scenes shown were from early on in the film, and Tom Holland jumped down to watch it. Here’s what happens: The mother of the two elf boys, played by Julia Louis Dreyfus, tells her kids their dad left something for them. Pratt’s character says it is a wizard staff. The boys learn that magic used to exist, and their father left them a spell that would bring him back for one day only to see how they turned out when they grow up.

Pratt’s character tried to do the spell over and over again, but it never works. Both of the elf boys are bummed, especially Holland’s character who has no memories of his father. Holland’s character begins to successfully do the spell, but Pratt’s character breaks it before it’s complete. As a result, their father’s bottom half is there, just walking around. The boys have 24 hours to finish the spell and make him whole, but they need to find a “Phoenix Gem” to do so, as it powers the wizard staff. So, they head off on a quest.

In the final clip shown, the boys are off on their adventure, and the van they’re traveling in ran out of gas. They try using magic to get it back on the road, but Holland’s character accidentally shrinks his brother.

As for the future of Spider-Man in the MCU, the future is uncertain. Both fans and Sony remain optimistic about Spider-Man’s inclusion in future MCU films though. “Much of today’s news about Spider-Man has mischaracterized recent discussions about Kevin Feige’s involvement in the franchise,” Sony said in a series of tweets. “We are disappointed, but respect Disney’s decision not to have him continue as a lead producer of our next live-action Spider-Man film. We hope this might change in the future, but understand that the many new responsibilities that Disney has given him–including all their newly added Marvel properties–do not allow time for him to work on IP they do not own. Kevin is terrific and we are grateful for his help and guidance and appreciate the path he has helped put us on, which we will continue.”

Disney is also hopeful a deal will be worked out between the two companies, as Marvel Studios executive producer Jon Favreau told ET: “As a fan, [I’m] cautiously hopeful that something will come together, because I think all the fans wanna see those characters together. … Things don’t always–what you read isn’t always indicative of where things are now, so hopefully, I’ll find out more while I’m here. Holding out hope that this isn’t the final chapter of that story.”

Regardless of any potential Spider-Man involvement in the future of the MCU, Marvel Studios isn’t slowing down anytime soon. It was revealed yesterday that in addition to the MCU shows previously announced for Disney+ that Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and Moon Knight would each get their own original series.