After three years of waiting, Disney Studios’ D23 Expo has finally returned with several announcements, interactive events, Q&As, and more for fans to sink their teeth in.
The fan convention introduced a wide variety of new projects from Walt Disney Studios, Pixar, Marvel, and LucasFilm, as well as many revisited and revitalized productions for audiences old and new.
Kicking off the expo, the reboot of “Haunted Mansion” was announced with original scream queen, Jamie Lee Curtis set to star with director Justin Simien, who previously worked on the successful black-comedy “Dear White People.”
New live-action projects announced include “Snow White,” starring Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler, “Mufasa,” a prequel to Barry Jenkins’ “Lion King,”, “Percy Jackson and The Olympians,” with Walker Scobell, and “American Born Chinese” with Michelle Yeoh as main character, Guanyin.
Returning and revamped titles include “Disenchanted,” the sequel to 2007’s “Enchanted,” “Hocus Pocus 2” with Anne Fletcher set to direct, “The Santa Clauses,” with Tim Allen returning, and “National Treasure: Edge of History,” a new show connecting and continuing off of the Nicholas Cage starring film series.
Fans also got their first long-awaited look at Halle Bailey’s Ariel in a never before seen clip of the new live-action “The Little Mermaid” movie, set to release in May 2023.
Pixar projects set for release later this year and next include feature film “Elemental,” “Win or Lose,” a new limited series, “Elio,” starring America Ferrera, “Strange World,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Lucy Liu.
“Wish,” a film that will imply a new form of animation provoking water-colored paintings was also slated to release later this year.
Day 2 of the D23 Expo kicked off with the announcement and detail reveals of several Marvel projects including “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” which will release later this year, introducing Namor to the MCU.
Other upcoming shows include “Echo,” with Alaqua Cox returning, “Armor Wars,” with Don Cheadle, the debut of “Iron Heart,” starring Dominique Thorne, and Charlie Cox’s “Daredevil” making a return to the MCU in an 18 episode series.
Special looks and trailers were given for highly anticipated projects including “Ant Man: Quantumania” and “Werewolf by Night,” introducing Gael Garcia Bernal as Jack Russell.
“Captain America: New World Order,” with Tim Blake Nelson returning as The Leader, and even “Secret Invasion,” starring Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury was also showed during D23.
LucasFilm projects on the way include “Andor,” following Diego Luna’s Rogue One character Cassian Andor, which releases later this year and “Tales of The Jedi,” a limited 3D animated anthology series.
Another LucasFilm projects are “Skeleton Crew,” starring Jude Law, and Season 3 of Emmy-nominated series “The Mandalorian.”
Other LucasFilm reveals included a new trailer for “Willow,” the sequel series to the 1988 Warwick Davis starring film and a panel with the cast of “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
There is also the heartfelt reunion between Harrison Ford and Ke Huy Quan for the fifth “Indiana Jones” film.
