Marvel Animation has become a juggernaut, delighting fans with fresh and ambitious takes on the characters we know and love. On Saturday, the studio took to D23 Expo to reveal new looks at X-Men ’97, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and more. Here’s everything you need to know from Marvel Animation’s D23 2024 panel.
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ComicBook’s Brandon Davis is hosting. He brings out Marvel’s Head of Streaming Brad Winderbaum, who talks about the history of Marvel Animation. The future of Marvel Animation will never have a specific house style, just art styles fitting the story.
A sizzle reel plays of past and future Marvel Animation projects. What If Season 3: Shang-Chi in an Old Western setting. Sam leading mech suit Avengers. Ironheart. Moon Knight and other heroes fighting mega Hulks. Eyes of Wakanda; different Black Panthers throughout history. X-Men ’97 Season 2: Wolverine is back. Warlock. Kurt fights in a temple. Multiple shots of Polaris. Jean and Scott combine their powers in a fight while wearing the Morrison costumes. Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man: Peter in his proto suit, fighting bad guys in a very scrappy way. Doctor Strange astral projecting through a car.
Davis and Winderbaum talk X-Men ’97 Season 2. Winderbaum finds it surreal to be working on the X-Men, it really hit him the first time George Bauza got into the booth as Beast. There are characters Winderbaum still wants to use in Season 2. Lenore Zann and Cal Dodd take the stage. They both have too many good memories with both the original series and the revival, Zann cites the ending of Episode 5 and “The Cure” from the original series as particularly special moments. Dodd auditioned for the role with the “egg sucking piece of gutter trash” line. He loved Wolverine’s moments of vulnerability. Zann takes partial credit for the revival after suggesting during a reunion panel in Texas that the show should return. Rogue is on a hero’s journey in Season 2. Dodd is excited for more scenes with Wolverine and Bishop in Season 2.
What If…? is returning for a third and final season and will traverse new worlds while also wrapping up The Watcher’s story. Producer Bryan Andrews takes the stage, he says Season 3 really plays with genre. Footage plays: the intro for an old school animated series titled Go Avengers about them getting their mech suits. Sam leads a modern team of mech Avengers with Monica, Shang-Chi, Red Guardian and Melina, Moon Knight, and Shuri. They combine their mechs like a Voltron to fight a horde of Hulk monsters.
Eyes of Wakanda expanding the mythos of Wakanda across history. Ryan Coogler and series director Todd Harris take the stage. The series came to life while on the set of the first Black Panther, Harris joked that everyone in Wakanda has a six pack. The show is building backwards from the existing framework of the movies. There’s intersection points throughout history. Iron Fists will be in the show. The series is set throughout history to have new storytelling opportunities, the War Dogs will play a role. The animation style came from contemporary African American artists, as well as Dean Cornwell, and they wanted a hand-painted feel. It might introduce new characters into the MCU, including Wakanda’s “disrupters,” with a major one being Nomi. Footage plays showing Nomi fighting various armies across a horde of boats.
Head writer Jeff Trammell arrives to talk Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. The show gets the opportunity to explore who Peter is, and how that impacts who Spider-Man becomes. They pay homage to the classic comics and the previous animated series and films. It’s a Spider-Man that feels like the one you know, but not the one you might expect. A huge spread of characters is shown, including Venom, White Rabbit, and more. Hudson Thames (Peter Parker) and Colman Domingo (Norman Osborn) take the stage. Domingo was drawn to the villain archetype and following in the footsteps of Willem Dafoe. Thames had no idea he was going to voice Spider-Man in a long-term context. Norman is mentoring Peter; Peter is a little less trusting but respects him. Trammell says Norman’s methods might not work out in everyone’s best interests. Thames resonated with the coming-of-age story, is impressed with how modern yet quintessential the show feels. Footage is shown of Peter arriving at high school, immediately getting attacked by Venom, Doctor Strange intervenes. Peter saves and meets Nico Minoru, just as he gets bit by the Spider and passes out. The opening credits play, remixing the classic theme song. A second scene plays, with Peter as Spider-Man and Norman as his guy in the chair.
Winderbaum and Andrews return to the stage to show one more thing: Marvel Zombies. It’s four episodes.
Footage plays: Wenwu drops out of a helicopter into a zombie horde to rescue Shang-Chi and Katy. A zombie bites Shang-Chi, Wenwu gives him the ten rings on his zombified arm and then sacrifices himself in the horde. Shang-Chi narrowly escapes. Five years later, Shang-Chi, Jimmy Woo, and Katy are road tripping through the desert and singing Journey, trying to outrun a Skrull biker gang. Shang-Chi and Katy share the rings to take them out.
