Getting into Hall H during any Comic-Con is a difficult task in and of itself. Getting into Hall H on a Marvel Studios year? Seemingly impossible. Why? Because most of the time, it’s incredibly worth it.
2026 was no exception. Despite taking a break in 2025, the Kevin Feige-led studio made a grand return to the 6000-seat venue, and not a single seat was left unoccupied. Many were lined up to see exclusive footage for the announced projects coming this year: Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday. However, given that only 3 upcoming films from the studio have been publicly announced, the SDCC audiences were hungry for new announcements, with many speculating announcements of Phase 7 projects, or big news surrounding the MCU’s upcoming X-Men reboot.
While we got neither of those specific announcements, what Feige and team did reveal was still full of pleasant surprises, as we got a very light glimpse of projects to come following Avengers: Secret Wars.
AVENGERS: ENDGAME – ENCORE
The panel began with an announcement many already knew about. Marvel Studios is re-releasing Avengers: Endgame to catch everyone up for Avengers: Doomsday. The new release will feature a new end credits scene that will tie directly into Doomsday as well. They’re also likely trying to get that “highest grossing movie of all time” title back from Avatar. We’ll see how it goes.
Thankfully, Feige and the Marvel Studios team weren’t there to talk about the past. They wanted to give us all a (short) glimpse of what’s to come.
GHOST RIDER
And that’s what they hit us with immediately. After a short back and forth with “Happy Sad Confused” podcaster, Josh Horowitz, in which Horowitz tried to get Feige to confirm whether or not a Ghost Rider film was happening and whether or not A-Lister, Ryan Gosling, would play the title character, the lights went down in Hall H, and the screens flashed a bright red logo reading Ghost Rider. Johnny Blaze confirmed. However, who was going to get the role was something else Feige wanted to address.
As the lights came on, the audience shrieked in excitement, because standing there, all of a sudden, was the rumored star of the film, Gosling himself.
As is the case with most Marvel Studios Hall H presentations, few words were necessary to build audience excitement, but thankfully, Gosling still managed to throw a few in. “Is this really happening?” he joked. “As we know this is a character I’ve wanted to play for a long time… So thank you!”
The project had the perfect star announced. Now it just needed the perfect director. Instead they announced Shawn Levy. Don’t get me wrong, Levy has been on a terrific hot streak with recent films like Free Guy and of course, Deadpool & Wolverine. And with films like Real Steel and The Adam Project being decent hits, his resume is solid. However, when you think of a dark superhero cursed by the devil, whose ultimate power is instilling lethal penance onto his victims, the director of the Steve Martin Pink Panther films is not exactly what one has in mind as an ideal filmmaker. Nevertheless, with Star Wars: Starfighter having impressed Feige, perhaps the benefit of any and all doubt is warranted for Levy. The director came out with a terrific amount of excitement. He mused about being back in Hall H two years after the debut of Deadpool & Wolverine, and discussed how much he enjoyed working with Gosling on Starfighter, and now again on Ghost Rider. Feige then announced that the film would be out in 2028, before Gosling and Levy parted the stage.
SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY
Before getting ahead of themselves too much, it was time for Feige and team to discuss the present in the form of Spider-Man: Brand New Day. To assist with this, none other than The Punisher himself, Jon Bernthal, came out on stage to unveil a clip from this week’s highly anticipated release.
The clip showcased an epic three-way battle royale, which saw Peter Parker teaming up with Frank Castle to attempt to subdue The Hulk. Unfortunately, The Hulk is not an easy opponent for a college kid with powers and a vigilante marksman to take down. Every punch, smash, and bang was felt in the brutal clip, which delighted all comic book fans waiting forever to see these characters share the screen together.
AVENGERS: DOOMSDAY
Now it was time for the main course. Feige brought out the Russo Brothers to kick things off, and naturally, in grand fashion, the duo couldn’t resist mixing things up a bit. With so many huge stars in the film the duo decided to turn a single stage environment within Hall H into a multi-stage setting, by adding two additional stages in the rear of the auditorium, to assist with introducing the massive cast roster. The first stage, adorned with a giant X-Men logo, showcased stars Tenoch Huerta, Kelsey Grammer, Rebecca Romijn, James Marsden, Lewis Pullman, Hannah John-Kamen, and David Harbour.
The next stage, with the Avengers logo emblazoned on it, consisted of Winston Duke, Letitia Wright, Paul Rudd, Anthony Mackie, Simu Liu, and Danny Ramirez.
And up front, the Russos brought out Pedro Pascal, Hayley Atwell, Chris Evans, and Robert Downey Jr.
Downey spent a few minutes cracking wise about how Victor Von Doom is the most powerful villain in the MCU, before many more minutes were spent having the stars in the back of the auditorium walk down the corridors to make their way to the front of the auditorium, hi-fiving lucky attendees sitting in the center edges of the auditorium (no such luck on my end, given I was at the rear left edge of the auditorium). To be honest, most of the time they had for this panel was spent on the theatrics of cast announcements and walking down the aisles.
Once the full cast assembled on stage, Downey made the suggestion they take a selfie with the audience in Hall H, since attendees were given Dr. Doom masks before the presentation. So more minutes were spent on that.
Hilariously and ironically, it’s not like any of the attendees in Hall H could possibly be seen in the photo, so let’s just acknowledge that the whole thing was simply for the massive cast to take a promotional picture to show off the star power and prove they were at Comic-Con.
There was a very rushed “Q&A” between Feige and the cast, featuring questions that were more or less obvious (“Is Doom more powerful than Thanos;” “Do Reed Richards and Victor Von Doom have a complex relationship;” etc.). The massive cast the studio was boasting about frankly didn’t really do much talking, simply keeping it to Downey, Rudd, and Pascal to chime in with a word or two for the most part.
The one special part of the faux Q&A that was entertaining was a fun cameo by Ryan Reynolds, dressed in a grey X-Force Deadpool outfit.
The cheeky merc with a mouth asked about why Thor was crying (alluding to a scene we were teased in Deadpool & Wolverine), to which Rudd quipped “Because he’s a Wrexham fan.” He then asked about whether filming was done on Doomsday, to which everyone responded “yes” except for Anthony Russo who stated they are never done working on the film. None of this resulted in a direct answer about whether or not Deadpool would be featured in the film, though at this juncture it feels obvious that he will be in one form or another.
Following the cameo, the Russos unveiled a rather exciting SDCC-exclusive trailer for the film, which teased more about the storyline behind the rise of Victor Von Doom. The footage began with Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) stating that Victor was always the smartest man in the room, and used to be a kind and caring individual before he (surprise, surprise) lost everything. “I knew he was lost, but I didn’t realize he was broken,” Sue says. They showed several shots of universes being destroyed, to which a horrified Reed Richards (Pascal) continuously asks Doom “Victor, did you do this?” in both disbelief and shock. There are brief glimpses of Magneto, Gambit, Cyclops, Loki, Steve Rogers, and the Wakandans. Doom says “All of you have lived stolen lives.” They showed an expanded shot of Thor fighting Doom from the recently released trailer. Thor says, “You’ll beg for death before I grant it.” To which Doom replies, “Death answers to me. I. AM. DOOM.” Victor then conjures up an army of Sentinels from the ground before the trailer cuts to the Avengers: Doomsday logo. The footage was definitely impressive, and frankly would have made an excellent official trailer. Was it worth the 24-36 hour wait many Hall H attendees had to endure to be in the room? I’ll let them be the judge of that (though frankly, Comic-Con International needs to answer for their incompetence and ineptitude in mismanaging the entire situation, wherein hundreds of attendees previously guaranteed access into the arena were denied entry because many others were able to forge wristbands to get in).
Following the debut of the footage, the cast waved goodbye and walked off stage.
BLACK PANTHER III
There was one final surprise for the panel. As the Doomsday presentation ended, Feige came back on stage and gave a brief monologue about how he loves it when directors return to the MCU, such as Levy, Shang-Chi‘s Destin Daniel Cretton, and the Russos. He then called out how some went on to do other movies, won Oscars, and returned to the MCU for their next film (alluding to director Ryan Coogler’s massive and incredible success with Sinners). With that, he announced Black Panther III, and brought out Coogler.
Coogler brought out Wright and Duke, still present from the Doomsday cast roll call, and revealed the film would be out December 15, 2028, and would be shot horizontally to capture more of the screen (similar to VistaVision). However, the most important announcement was that the third installment in the culturally significant Black Panther franchise would feature an adult version of King T’Challa’s son, T’Challa II from the finale of Wakanda Forever. And that the adult T’Challa, who will be inheriting the mantle of “Black Panther” would be played by brilliant actor, David Jonsson (The Long Walk, Alien: Romulus).
Jonsson, being of few words, but abundant in strong emotion, closed the panel saying “Thank you, so much! Thank you Ryan. Thank you Kevin. Thank you to this amazing family I have the honor, the privilege, and the blessing to join. I don’t want to say too much, because I want to let the screen do the talking. But believe me the honor is entirely mine.”
It was a very sweet moment serving as an emotional tribute to fallen star, Chadwick Boseman, but also a wonderful way to look into the future.
Overall, admittedly, it was a lighter than average Marvel Studios presentation. While a lot of what they brought out was impressive, from Gosling’s reveal as Ghost Rider (which let’s face it, is meant to be a substitute for a Blade film that never got off the ground), to Jonsson’s announcement as the new Black Panther, much of it was spent with hollow peacocking of the Avengers: Doomsday cast without any real substance or conversation with the massive roster of A-List talent. In short, it wasn’t really a panel, so much as it was purely an Instagrammable social media showcase. Was it entertaining? Of course. Were we lucky to be in the room? Sure, by the skin of our teeth, no less. However, in a lot of ways, it would be incredibly justified to see all of this as a bit underwhelming; so much sizzle, not enough steak.
With Disney’s D23 Expo happening in a few weeks, one could see how they could scale back on announcements at San Diego Comic-Con, if the studio has plans to make some major announcements at that convention. However, given the grueling and daunting Herculean task of trying to even get into the Hall H arena that most attendees have to endure, one can see where many would find this year’s Marvel Studios Hall H presentation to be somewhat disappointing. Let’s hope the house of Feige levels up its game for some truly noteworthy announcements to come in the following weeks.
Stay tuned to The Nerds of Color for Marvel Studios news coming out of D23 Expo later this year!
