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D23 Expo 2024: All the highlights from Star Wars to Marvel

12.8.2024

Translation: machine translated

At this year's D23 Fan Expo, Disney took the opportunity to make many new trailers and announcements about upcoming projects from the Disney, Marvel and Star Wars universes. Among others: "Skeleton Crew" and "Snow White".

Every year, Disney fans celebrate their heroes and heroines at what is now the largest Disney fan fair in the world - the D23 Expo. It has long been a tradition for Disney to use the opportunity to contribute to the general euphoria with new trailers and announcements.

Let's take a look at the most important revelations and trailers that have been made.

Star Wars

First "LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy" trailer

"The Lego Movie", but in the "Star Wars" universe? Hell, yeah! In it, young Sig, voiced by "Stranger Things" star Gaten Matarazzo, accidentally uproots the so-called cornerstone. As a result, the galaxy far, far away disintegrates and is completely reassembled. Now Sig must do everything in his power to somehow put the galaxy back in order before dark creatures like Darth Jar Jar or the evil C-3PO spread fear and terror forever. Who knows, maybe Luke Skywalker will help out?

Start: 13 September
Where: Disney+

First "Skeleton Crew" trailer

Let's address the Sarlacc in the pit: the slightly futuristic, typically American 1980s suburbia in the trailer. It somehow doesn't fit in with "Star Wars" at all. We were warned in advance: two years ago, we were told that "Skeleton Crew" was a mixture of "The Goonies", "E.T." and "Stranger Things" - just in space!

Does that bother me? Not at all. In the style of a 1980s Amblin entertainment film by Steven Spielberg, the film centres on a group of 10-year-old suburban kids who get lost on an alien planet and have to find their way home. And as beautifully nostalgic and cosy as "Skeleton Crew" captures this feeling of adventure, excitement and childlike magic, I can't help but get goosebumps. And Jude Law as a (supposed) Jedi: can it get any better?

Start: 3 December
Where: Disney+

Other announcements

The filming of "The Mandalorian and Grogu" has begun. A trailer was shown at the trade fair. Cinema release: 22 May 2026.

Marvel

New "Agatha All Along" trailer

Agatha Harkness, the old witch from the comics, stole the show in the greatly rejuvenated version of the MCU in "WandaVision". Her groovy song "Agatha All Along" in particular, the big plot twist, took fans' hearts by storm.

No wonder she is now getting her own show. It picks up where "WandaVision" left off: Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlett Witch, drained Agatha of her powers and put her in a hex that made her believe she was in a prison in the form of a fake world, similar to "The Matrix". But now that Wanda herself has been killed in "Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness", the hex has disintegrated - and with it Agatha's prison. This means she has her freedom back, but not her powers.

How does she get them back? The trailer talks about the "Witches' Road". I already talked about this in my episode reviews for "WandaVision". In short: The Witches' Road is a mystical path that serves powerful witches as a connection between different magical realities. In the comics, it symbolises the opportunity for Wanda Maximoff to make amends for her mistakes and find inner peace. In "Agatha All Along", she probably does too - but for Agatha. Let's hope that the series will still be as dark and creepy as the trailer suggests.

Start: 18 September
Where: Disney+

Other announcements

Only on-site footage of "Marvel's Daredevil: Born Again" features the return of Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock, Vincent D'Onofrio as Kingpin and Jon Bernthal as Punisher, as well as new hero White Tiger and a new villain: Muse. The series is scheduled to appear on Disney+ from March 2025.
Shooting has begun on "The Fantastic Four: First Steps". The targeted cinema release date is 25 July 2025 and the main musical theme was unveiled live on location: click!
Executive producer and "Black Panther" director Ryan Coogler unveiled the upcoming Disney+ series "Ironheart", which follows Riri Williams from "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" as she faces a new threat.
Marvel Animation showed exclusive sneak peeks of upcoming shows like "What If...?", "X-Men '97: Season 2", "Eyes of Wakanda", "Marvel Zombies" and "Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man".

Walt Disney Studios

New "Mufasa: The Lion King" trailer

Not that Mufasa's death in "The Lion King" wasn't traumatic enough. Now we also learn that Mufasa and Scar, his murderer, were still friends as children and went through thick and thin together.

The trailer already reveals a few things: Scar was of course not called Scar from birth, but Taka. Who would name their child Scar before it even had a single scar? We also learn that Mufasa doesn't actually have royal blood, but was a stray who was found and adopted by Taka's royal family - thanks to Taka. So when Scar later in "The Lion King" talks about how he should have been king, these words suddenly have a completely different weight.

What I can already see from the trailer: The animals now seem to be animated in a slightly more expressionistic way than before. Is that a good or bad thing? At least the makers have realised that the live-action adaptation of "The Lion King" came across as somewhat emotionless. This was because the photorealistically animated animals showed just as many emotions in their facial features as real animals - namely none at all.

Start: 20 December
Where: cinema

First "Snow White" trailer

So this is it. The first "Snow White" trailer. And the polemics are not getting any less. We remember: In 2022, Disney announced that it was replacing the seven dwarves with "seven magical creatures", as it was no longer appropriate to cast dwarves of small stature who dug for diamonds in caves. A year later, confirmation came in the form of unofficial set photos: Instead of the seven dwarves, there were seven people of different genders, sizes, skin colours and ethnicities. Truly a diversity flagship.

But that's not all: shortly afterwards, lead actress Rachel Ziegler added fuel to the fire when she described the prince from the 1937 original as a peeping Tom who might be removed from the film altogether. After all, the remake is no longer about who is "the most beautiful", but "the best leader in all the land". So why do we still need a prince?

The PR debacle was perfect. So perfect, in fact, that Disney was forced to make massive reshoots and postponed the film's release until 2025. The result? This trailer, in which the seven dwarves are back. Computer animated. And presumably digging diamonds. Whatever was said in 2022 - it was taken ad absurdum. But the fans got their way. Because the trailer, to Disney's credit, now actually looks like a very faithful adaptation.

Start: 21 March 2025
Where: Cinema

Other announcements

The live-action adaptation of "Lilo & Stitch" may not yet have a trailer, but it does have its first moving footage of the little monster Stitch - the most dangerous creature in the entire universe. The film will be released in cinemas in summer 2025. Watch the short clip here: click!
The music for "Tron: Ares", the sequel to "Tron: Legacy", is written by Nine Inch Nails. They are taking over from Daft Punk, who previously composed the music. "Tron: Ares" is due to be released in cinemas on 10 October 2025.
"Avatar 3" has an official title: "Avatar: Fire and Ash". According to director James Cameron, the film is not what we expect, but it is what we wanted. Cameron also promised that the film would introduce "new cultures, locations and more Pandora than ever before". The planned cinema release date is 20 December 2025.
This is the moment you've been waiting for: "The Greatest Showman" is being turned into a Broadway musical. The song "This is the Greatest Show" was performed on stage. goosebumps.

Walt Disney Animation Studios

New "Moana 2" trailer

In "Moana", the young Polynesian heroine's tribe still thought of nothing but their own small, idyllic island. Only Moana longed for the distance. Not without reason. Because at the end of the film, it turns out that her tribe was once a great seafaring nation - and so Moana ultimately sailed off into the distance in search of new worlds.

In the new film, the young Moana is now a tribal leader and has a little sister. And apparently her search doesn't seem to have borne much fruit. According to the trailer, her people are under a curse that will only be lifted if Moana succeeds in gaining a foothold on an island shrouded in gloomy clouds.

Start: 27 November
Where: Cinema

Other announcements

It's official: "Frozen" is getting two more sequels. Because "Frozen 3" and "Frozen 4" are set to tell a single, big story. The cinema release date for "Frozen 3" is 2027.
Apropos: The Broadway musical version of "Frozen" is due to be released on Disney+ in 2025 - staged in a similar way to Lin-Manuel Miranda's "Hamilton".
Meanwhile, Pixar announces a new Disney+ series: "Dream Productions", a spin-off of "Inside Out" that deals with the production of our nocturnal dreams.
New information about Pixar's "Toy Story 5": The film is said to deal with the question of what happens when children develop an addiction to electronic devices. Planned cinema release: summer 2026.
Pixar announces something incredible: "Incredibles 3" is in the making. As work has only just begun, no release date is yet known.

Header image: Lucasfilm / Disney

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Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.

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D23 Expo 2024: All the highlights from Star Wars to Marvel

Star Wars

First "LEGO Star Wars: Rebuild the Galaxy" trailer

First "Skeleton Crew" trailer

Other announcements

Marvel

New "Agatha All Along" trailer

Other announcements

Walt Disney Studios

New "Mufasa: The Lion King" trailer

First "Snow White" trailer

Other announcements

Walt Disney Animation Studios

New "Moana 2" trailer

Other announcements

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