Disney’s D23 Expo: Disney+ Presents Marvel, Star Wars, and More (Full Recap)

On Friday afternoon, Disney+ played host to the Hall D23 event of the day at Disney’s D23 Expo in Anaheim, California. The presentation showcases content for the upcoming streaming service, ranging from Marvel Studios to Star Wars to National Geographic. Footage and announcements will be aplenty.

The Disney+ presentation is slated to begin at 3:30pm PT. This story will feature live updates from the presentation.

The presentation began with a musical performance based on the upcoming High School Musical series headed to Disney+. After the performance, host of the presentation Yvette Nicole Brown introduced Kevin Mayer to the stage. “I am really excited to be here and to talk to all of you about Disney+,” he said. “For nearly a century the Walt Disney Company has sought to inspire and entertain audiences of all ages.” He points out the Disney+ is benefiting from having Fox properties. “Within the first year of the service, we will have the entire Pixar library,” he points out, along with the entire collection of animated Disney classics, Marvel, Star Wars, Moana, Frozen, and more.

Disney Channel

A Disney+ sizzle shows off many of the titles headed to the service. It ranges from Star Wars to Tinkerbell and The Lion King. The Simpsons are there, Captain Marvel is there, Rogue One is there. Toy Story, Peter Pan, Iron Man, Wall-E… all the Disney titles. Mayer tosses the stage to Gary Marsh.

Marsh focuses on Disney Channel content, ranging from DuckTales to Descendants and Hannah Montana and beyond. Marsh announced Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Candace Against The Universe. It will send the characters on a cosmic rescue mission to get their sister. 

Mayer also announced the return of Lizzie McGuire, who is different now because “she grew up.” Hilary Duff takes the stage. 

“The good news is, like me and everyone who’s watched, is Lizzie’s also grown up,” Duff said. “She has her dream job. She has kind of the perfect life right now. Shje’s working as an apprentice to a fancy New York City decorator…She has her dream apartment in Brooklyn and she’s getting ready to celebrate her 30th birthday…She is still dealing with that thirteen year old, no holds barred, animated Lizzie that is constantly battling her in her head. 

On to High Shool Musical… New songs, comic texture and tone, reminiscent of the original but also “quite a departure” according to Mayer. A preview of the series plays and the cast emerge to discuss it.

Continued

Yvette Nicole Brown announces Forky Asks A Question, a collectin of Pixar short films. Tony Hale emerges to discuss. He introduces the first look at the series. The logo sees a handful of Forky’s pondering a question.

In the footage, Forky trots across a room, talking about some of his questions, like “What is money?” To help him out is Ham. He accidentally calls in Hand. He ends up goofing off while he tries to get his questions answered. Meanwhile, Ham explains what a quarter is and how money is used to purchase things. Forky’s mind is blown. 

Monsters at Work is also coming to Disney+. Monsters. Inc has switched from scare power to laugh power. 

Marvel Studios

Kevin Feige takes the stage to discuss Marvel’s Disney+ plans. He reflects on showing Infinity War footage at D23 two years ago. He announces that Avengers: Endgame will be available on Disney+ on December 11. 

The first topic: What If…? “What If…? is based on a comic series we’ve loved for years,” he says. “THe 23 films you know of the MCU are going to showcase one change in each episode.” 

They compliment the series and its cast, enthusiastically describing it as fun and cinematic, before introducing footage.

The footage sees Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and several key MCU moments. Jeffrey Wright narrates how time is a prison of endless possibilities. In animated form, Captain America goes in to get his super soldier transformation but the room explodes. Star-Lord is someone else. Bucky and Cap fight on a train — because Cap is a Marvel zombie. Peggy Carter gets the super soldier treatment. She is Captain Britain. She stops a car with the shield and flips it over her. The Watcher is shown. Comic-like panels make-up the What If…? logo with images from episodes. It ends with Peggy coming face to face with Steve Rogers in an iron army suit and she rides it into the sky.

Next is Loki. Michael Walter, the head writer, takes the stage and with the series’ director. The series will explore Loki possibly making friends and possibly having the sun shine on him again. Tom Hiddleston sends a message from the screen. “I wish that I could be there with you but I can’t,” he said. “It’s your boundless enthusiasm and your support that means Loki still has more story left to tell. It will never stop surprising and delighting me that you think he’s cool…” He promises the journey has “only just begun.”

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier is next. Mackie and Stan get on the stage. Feige promises a much deeper dive on “both opf their pasts and both of their presents post-Endgame.” Sharon Carter will be returning and Wyatt Russell will be playing John Walker. 

WandaVision offers up a tease: Footage from Infinity War, Age of Ulltron, and more. Black and white TV from the Dick van Dyke intercut with shots of Wanda and Vision together. “I’m afraid you might find out there’s something wrong with us,” the woman on the TV show says. The couple breaks up as things intensify in the clips. It’s all footage from other movies. 

It is very much inspired by Disney Legend Dick van dyke and his show. It is promised as “half-sitcom and half epic-MCU-adventure.” Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen take the stage. Olsen discusses how excited they are to start shooting, promising it wil lbe “wacky and fun.” Bettany says the scripts are “so funny and it just ends up being this huge epic and the writing is so extraordinary.”

Kat Dennings is back in the MCU as Darcy from the Thor movies. Randall Park is Jimmy Wu. Kathryn Han is the nosy neighbor.

Feige announces Ms. Marvel, She Hulk, and Moon Knight shows for Disney+.

Next

Jeff Goldblum takes the Hall D23 stage to enthusiastically show off his The World According to Jeff Goldblum series which appears to be a fun, non-fiction travel series full of interesting experiences. 

Next is Encore, a show hosted by Kristen Belll which is another non-fiction show about people overcoming hard times and following passions. For example, a man who danced as a child was in a car accident and found a way to dance from his wheelchair. 

Star Girl is next. It will be an empowering show for kids by the sound of it. “Star Girl, she’s just completely herself,” Grace Vanderwaal promises. A trailer plays, singing about being true to your school. It is followed by the Disney+ original Mistakes Were Made. 

Lady and The Tramp is next. Yvette Nicole Brown, one of the film’s stars, takes the stage with a couple of pups. She kept one of the rescue dogs used in the film. It won’t be the only dog movie on Disney+ as Togo will quickly follow. Next is Noelle, which has a stacked cast, and will be featured on Disney+ at launch. 

Muppets Now is not prepared to reveal exactly what it will be but it arrives in 2020. 

Diary of a Female President tells the story of a young girl who becomes President. 

Star Wars

Kathleen Kennedy takes the stage to talk about Star Wars content. She promises the Disney+ shows will feature the quality of shows will match that of the movies.

Tudyk and Luna take the stage to discuss the Rogue One prequel. They can’t say the title quite yet. Tudyk suggests “K2 Fast, K2 Furious: A Cassian Andor Story.” They joke about bringing telenovelas to Star Wars. They head off stage to get to production in London. 

Next is The Mandalorian. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni get on the stage. Filoni brought Favreau to his first Star Wars Celebration. Now, Favreau is bringing Filoni to his first D23 Expo. “Around 2007 on Clone Wars with George Lucas up at Skywalker Ranch anmd I heard Jon Favreau was there mixing an obscure comic book movie called Iron Man.” Filoni explains. Favreau called to ask if he and his son could come up and watch Clone Wars. He allowed it, if he could see Iron Man. They made a deal. Favreau offered his voice and ended up becoming a Mandalorian. 

“I came in,” Favreau said. “Pitched Kathleen Kennedy a version of a show that took place after Return of the Jedi, after the revolution, after everybody is done celebrating…and then chaos reigns because there is no central government…the gunfighters are roaming and people are fighting…I told them that I wanted the lead character to be a Mandalorian.” 

Filoni read the script and said “That is Star Wars, and I don’t say that lightly.”

“It’s a whole new set of characters..in a whole new time frame,” Favreau said. “but if you are a Star Wars fan, whether you like the prequels, the sequels, or the original trilogy, the extended universe…we got something for everybody.”

The trailer plays before it dropped online. Kathleen Kennedy takes the stage one more time. Ewan McGregor emerges to confirm he will be back as Obi-Wan in a Disney+ series which will shoot next year.