CinemaCon 2024: Disney Brings Marvel, Alien, Moana 2, and More

On Thursday afternoon, Disney hosted the final presentation of 2024’s CinemaCon event in Las Vegas. The studio has a packed slate of films over the next couple of years, with a number of titles previewed for exhibitors and press during the event. Marvel Studios, Fox, Lucasfilm, Pixar, and more studio banners were plastered onto the screens outside of the Colosseum in Caesar’s Palace ahead of the event. 

The presentation kicked off with Deadpool & Wolverine walking through a tunnel. “So, I heard Secret Wars is finally gonna introduce….” Deadpool says. A phone starts ringing. Wolverine pushes him out of the way and looks into the camera. “Hey, bub! You’re in a movie theater, turn off you’re f-cking phone!” Wolverine declares, followed by more obscenities and f-words. Deadpool jumps back into the frame to say hearing him talk that way make his d-ck vibrate. “Nice fourth wall break, didn’t think ya had it in ya!”

This leads to a sizzle of upcoming films. Captain Ameirca: Brave New World with Harrison Ford in the footage, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Deadpool & Wolverine, Snow White, Mufasa, Inside Out 2, Moana 2, and more are featured. The presentation emphasized wanting movies to feel like events with Disney noting biggest franchises, Avatar, Avengers, Star Wars, Toy Story, and Frozen have new installments coming.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes CinemaCon Footage

The footage starts very peacefully, following a bird high above a very green world. Apes are running free, swinging on the overgrown remains of what was once a metal building but this city is now all trees and rivers. A trio come upon a nest of bird eggs and the older ape instills the law and lessons upon them, reminding them they have to leave one egg behind and can’t take all of them as it is the law. 

“We will raise them together like we were raised,” one of the apes says.

They come to a gap between the structures and Noa, the apparent leader of the bunch, uses a piece of metal to lunge ahead and lock into the other structure. Climbing to the top, he finds four more eggs in a nest perched above the structure. As he reaches for it, a bird comes flying in and strikes him with its talons. Noa falls down and the concrete crumbles, he continues to fall and is unable to get a grip on anything. He eventually slides off the edge and grabs a piece of the hanging structure. His friends are terrified until relief consumes them when they find he survived. 

The Fox logo takes the screen and scenes start to play out more quickly. Noa’s father is waiting for him at the village. “There are dangers beyond our village,” one ape says. A king declares, “What a wonderful day,” before his followers. Chaos begins as Noa’s village seems to be torches with apes on horseback raiding it. Noa tries to reach his father to save him but an enemy, a much bigger ape, has gotten there first. Noa fights the gorilla but it unsuccessful and falls away from his father to the fiery ground, waking to the ash in a sunny, gray scene. Noa stumbles through the rubble and finds a vulture picking at the area, only to move closer and discover his fallen father. A tremendously performed and animated facial expression captures the weight of the moment as Noa shrinks into a ball beside the corpse. Moments later, he has buried his father. 

“Father, I will find them, I will bring them home,” he says to the grave. A bird chirps to him and flies, guiding him. He rides out on horseback, taking one last look at his destroyed village before leaving, spear in hand. A vast, overgrown skyline concludes the footage. 

Young Woman and the Sea was the next title, with producer Jerry Bruckheimer introducing it. Daisy Ridley plays a swimmer wanting to get across a 21 mile journey with the world watching and largely doubting her while also trying to hold her down.

Next up is Inside Out 2, with Amy Pohler taking the stage to talk about it. “Inside Out is such an incredible story told by the brilliant filmmakers at Pixar,” she said. “There was not even a millisecond of pause when they asked me to return for Inside Out 2.” She notes that this movie captures all of the emotions we experience on a daily basis. She introduced the first 35 minutes of the movie. 

Kevin Feige takes the stage and goes with no teleprompter. “We make movies for movie theaters,” he said. “I love when a popcorn bucket can capture the zeitgeist and go viral.” 

Florence Pugh sent a video while eating macaroni and cheese on the set of Thunderbolts*, referencing her character enjoying it in Hawkeye. 

Feige notices theater owners want more types of movies across the calendar. The first movie he talks in-depth about is Captain America: Brave New World, due out in February 2025. 

“10 years ago, we release a movie called Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In the 10 years that has gone by…it really has stayed with the fans, with the audience…One [reason] is the genre. It is a fast-paced political thriller…The other thing is it introduced the world to Sam Wilson played by the great Anthony Mackie. That is what we’re doing…it is a relatively grounded action thriller…Sam Wilson has taken on the mantle of Captain America.”

Captain America: Brave New World CinemaCon Footage

Anthony Mackie takes the stage to inroduce footage. Harrison Ford is President Ross, greeting Sam Wilson in the White House. 

“I have to admit, I’m still not used to the new look,” Sam says. 

“Me either, they said lose the mustache or lose the election.” Ross admits he is no fan of heroes but won’t deny the good Sam has done. “I want Captain America to help me rebuild the Avengers,” he said. Sam questions what happens if they don’t agree on how to handle a situation. 

Later, elsewhere, Ross explains to an audience that Joaquin Torres and Captain America successfully completed a mission to grant the world their safety again. “What we do next with this discovery, will determine how history…” Music starts playing, prompting the President to stop talking. Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) is in the audience and the music activates him as though he were part of the Winter Soldier program. He takes a security guard’s gun and shoots him, then blasts through glass with it. He grabs Sam by the neck and launches him. Another man is moving as though possessed, as well. The President is evacuated. Gun shots ring out. World leaders are shot at. Sam helps save them. The White House is in chaos. Bradley launches a table at people before jumping out of a window. “Next year….” the screen says. Sam Wilson is explaining the inner circle has been compromised. He is attached by men with electric batons, blocking them, kneeled down with his shield over his head. 

“You’re not Steve Rogers,” Ross tells him. 

“You’re right, I’m not,” he responds. 

Deadpool & Wolverine CinemaCon Footage

Kevin Feige turns to Deadpool & Wolverine. “It’s f-cking awesome,” he declares, before bringing director Shawn Levy to the stage.

“If you’re a director and you get to play in the most audacious sandbox there is which is the phenomenal Deadpool franchise… to get to be there everyday, seeing this team up that all of us as fans and audience members have waited 15 years for…to get to see Hugh and Ryan in their most iconic roles, bringing their A+ of A-games everyday was remarkable,” Levy said. “Maybe the most sweet part of this is imagining the team of medical professionals that are monitoring the entire Disney executive staff…We’re about to release the first R-rated movie in the MCU.”

Levy thanks the audience for the “endless stream of rumors.” He says theres “so many spoilers” and he lives in fear or Ryan trying to assassinate him. A “spoiler-ish free 9 minutes” are being played.

Wade Wilson gears up to sell cars and in the car, riding in the back between two kids, he curses about the car while describing it and jokes that he doesn’t “have a lot of vaginal sex.” Peter is back, seeing Wade back at their lockers, and suggests he go back to super hero-ing. Wade says, “I’m done and I’m fine with being done.” He does admit, “is this the life I always imagined for myself? F-ck no.”

Elsewhere in New York, Peter and Wade ride bikes. “We’re Deadpool,” Peter tells him, which Wade disputes. Someone across the street is taking photos of them and Wade notices, denying that today being his birthday is throwing him of. In his apartment, a surprise part is waiting for him. “This was fiveyears ago, you’d all be dead,” he jokes. Shatterstar is there, not entertained by Dopinder’s stories. Blind Al asks Wade about his sales and is getting impatient about waiting for money from him.

“I pray everyday that fire finds your body and finishes the job that God didn’t have the nuts to do,” she tells him.

Colossus has been watching Great British Bakeoff. Negasonic and Yuko are still together. Blind Al wants to do cocaine and Wade says, “Cocaine is the one thing Feige said is off limits!” Wade catches up with Vanessa, who is seeing a guy named Dermot. Wade is left sad before talking to the group. “It’s been a challenging few years,” he says. “But I’m happy and that’s because of each and every one of you and this is about how proud I am, how grateful I am, to be standing in a room with every single person I love. I’m the luckiest man alive..” He makes a wish and blows out the candle. Someone knocks on the door. It’s the TVA.

Wade thinks they’re strippers and that their pruning sticks are for pegging. A portal opens and Wade is pulled through it. He wakes up to Paradox sitting across from him.

“We’re in charge of defending what’s known as The Sacred Timeline,” Paradox said.

“That’s a shit ton of exposition for a threequel. Is this because I used Cable’s time device?” Wade says

The TVA is aware of the “abuse” of the timeline but this has nothing to do with that. Instead, Paraodox claims Wade can save the entire timeline .

“I suppose I’m going to marvel at how cinematic it is? Indiscriminate cameos?” Wade asks. Paradox tees up footage of Captain America on the screens and Wade salutes them. A clip of Thor hovering over Loki dying in Thor 2 sees Deadpool replacing Loki and Wade is terribly concerned and confused. Paradox believes he is ready to leave his timeline and join the world he has always wanted to.

“I smell what you’re stepping in,” Wade says. “I am a messiah. I am Marvel Jesus.” Wade runs to the camera, pulls the mic in to frame. He headbutts the lens and it shatters. He gets a whole new suit in another room from a man with a stylish beard and some extra booty spanks. He now has adamantium katanas.

“Yes, your underwear is getting tighter,” Wade declares.

The footage cuts to another scene. Wolverine and Deadpool are riding together and Deadpool mocks his suit. “The X-Men make you wear that?” he asks. “Friends don’t let friends leave the house looking like they play for the Los Angeles Rams.”

Alien: Romulus CinemaCon Footage

In a pre-recorded message from Ridley Scott, the director has high praise for Alien: Romulus; “It’s f-cking great.”

Two young girls discover a body. Another man is looking around the ship, glowing with red lights. Samples encased are starting to move. A piece of technology shows that there is a light which can see through body parts, showing ligaments and bones. The man who was looking around had a button in his neck pushed, prompting him to freeze and stare up at the cieling with his eyes rolled back as he reboots. Meanwhile, facehuggers are hatching in front of him and dropping into the water at his feet. The rest of the crew notices something swimming by but are unaware… until one of them gets knocked over. It jumps out and hugs his face but gets launched into the glass. Another jumps off of the frozen Andy onto another’s face, jabbing its legs into his mouth and eyes. The crew tries to close doors behind them and escape but one of the aliens gets through, prompting them to swat it back into glass which cracks and let’s them all in. 

In a clip from later, Navarro is not feeling well and grips their chest. The device to see through the body is used, showing the alien trying to break out of their ribs. Navarro collapses, foams at the mouth, convulses, accidently kicks the ship into motion, and the alien bursts out of their chest in a a bloody, visceral moment. The ship continues floating until it eventually crashes into a bigger one and a teaser trailer with chaos, full grown Xenomorphs, and terror ensues.

Mufasa: The Lion King CinemaCon Footage 

Mufasa: The Lion King promises “new songs” in the movie but can’t say who from, director Barry Jenkins described the movie as an “epic story.” Scar and Mufasa go on a journey to discover the circle of life. “This is a massive f-cking film and my job was to fill it with massive heart,” he said. He worked with the same team form Moonlight to achieve that. 

The footage starts “on the other side of the light.” 

“A lion was born without a drop of nobility in his blood,” the narrator says. Mufasa is a child, ultimately being shown as a cub, trotting across the backs of hippos and growing into a bigger lion that can be a predator in the wild. Many animals flash across the screen and younger versions of familiar characters, like Timon and Pumba and Rafiki. The classic Lion King musical numbers accompany it. 

Moana 2 CinemaCon Footage

Moana 2 closed the presentation. Dwayne Johnson took the stage with a Polynesian performance. He thanks the performers who were with him and then theater owners for their support. 

“Playing the character of Maui has been one of the most lifechanging experiences for me,” he said. “It’s my culture…but also the character of Maui was inspired by my grandfather the High Chief Peter Maivia.” He promises an “unforgettable new adventure” and all new songs with it. NATO emerges to grant Johnson with their “Spirit of the Industry” award.

In the footage from Moana 2, Moana is singing, “Finally we are back to who I’m meant to be,” as she sails to the village. The village is also singing while building and expanding. Moana is the subject of the song, dubbed a “livng legend and she’s besties with a demigod!” Photos etched into cloth are shownto kids. Moana’s dad greets her at sea and races her to shore.