Over the weekend, Disney held their massive D23 fan event, which showcased a bunch of things from across their brands including Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, and of course, Disney itself. In this article, we break down all the major announcements and trailers from the weekend in one handy place!
Film Trailers
We’re going to kick things off with film trailers, and Disney is leaning heavily into sequels and remakes at the moment… First up we have ‘Moana 2‘.
Moana 2 – 27th November 2024
‘Moana 2’ reunites Moana (Auli?i Cravalho) and Maui (Dwayne Johnson) three years later for an expansive new voyage alongside a crew of unlikely seafarers. After receiving an unexpected call from her wayfinding ancestors, Moana must journey to the far seas of Oceania and into dangerous, long-lost waters for an adventure unlike anything she’s ever faced. Directed by David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller, and produced by Christina Chen and Yvett Merino, “Moana 2” features music by Grammy winners Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, Grammy nominee Opetaia Foa‘i, and three-time Grammy winner Mark Mancina. Jared Bush and Miller are writing the film, which is executive produced by Jennifer Lee, Bush and Johnson.
Mufasa: The Lion King – 20th December 2024
Exploring the unlikely rise of the beloved king of the Pride Lands, “Mufasa: The Lion King” enlists Rafiki to relay the legend of Mufasa to young lion cub Kiara, daughter of Simba and Nala, with Timon and Pumbaa lending their signature schtick. Told in flashbacks, the story introduces Mufasa as an orphaned cub, lost and alone until he meets a sympathetic lion named Taka—the heir to a royal bloodline. The chance meeting sets in motion an expansive journey of an extraordinary group of misfits searching for their destiny – their bonds will be tested as they work together to evade a threatening and deadly foe. The film features a new song by the great Lin-Manuel Miranda titled “I Always Wanted A Brother” which you can briefly hear in the trailer.
Snow White – 21st March 2025
“Disney’s Snow White” is a live-action musical reimagining of the classic 1937 film. The magical music adventure journeys back to the timeless story with beloved characters Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy. Rachel Zegler takes the tile role with Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen and Andrew Burnap as Jonathan. The film is directed by Marc Webb and produced by Marc Platt and Jared LeBoff, with Callum McDougall serving as executive producer, and features all-new original songs from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.
TV Trailers
Moving from the big screen to small, there were also a number of trailers for upcoming TV shows due to land on Disney+.
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew – 3rd December 2024
Star Wars meets Goonies, as we get a new trailer for ‘Star Wars: Skeleton Crew’. When four kids make a mysterious discovery on their seemingly safe home planet, they get lost in a strange and dangerous galaxy. Finding their way home, and meeting unlikely allies and enemies will be a greater adventure than they ever imagined.
The series stars Jude Law as Jod Na Nawood, who the trailer implies is a Jedi, but Law himself has described him as a “Force user.” The aforementioned four kids – Ravi Cabot-Conyers who plays “Wim”, Kyriana Kratter as “KB”, Robert Timothy Smith as “Neel”, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong as “Fern”. The series also features a droid, SM 33, voiced by the brilliant Nick Frost.
Agatha All Along – 18th September 2024
We first met Wanda’s neighbour-turned-nemesis Agatha in 2021’s ‘WandaVision‘, and fan-favourite Kathryn Hahn returns to the MCU as the irresistible centuries-old witch. In Agatha All Along, the infamous Agatha Harkness finds herself down and out of power after a suspicious goth teen helps break her free from a distorted spell. Her interest is piqued when he begs her to take him on the legendary Witches’ Road, a magical gauntlet of trials that, if survived, rewards a witch with what they’re missing. Together, Agatha and this mysterious teen pull together a desperate coven, and set off down, down, down The Road…
Joining Hahn in the series are Aubrey Plaza as Rio, Patti LuPone as Lilia, Sasheer Zamata as Jen K, Ali Ahn as Alice, and Joe Locke as Billy Kaplan. Other cast members include Emma Caulfield Ford, Maria Dizzia, Miles Gutierrez-Riley and Okwui Okpokwasili.
Pixar’s Win Or Lose – 6th December 2024
Pixar’s first-ever original TV series reveals what it feels like to be in the shoes of eight different characters – the insecure kids, their helicopter parents, even a lovesick umpire – as they prepare for a championship softball game. Will Forte lends his voice to the coach as the series tells the story from different characters’ perspectives and in different animation styles.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Season 2 – 2025
This isn’t so much a “trailer” as a tease for the start of production which began last week on ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians‘, Season 2. However, there is a tiny bit of new footage right at the very end. The new season follows the second novel, The Sea of Monsters.
Film Announcements
With the trailers out of the way, we move on to the various film announcements made over the weekend. Again, there are a lot of sequels coming up!
The first big news was that ‘The Incredibles 3’ is in development, and the legendary man behind the first two instalments, Brad Bird, is returning for this third outing. That was pretty much all the info they gave, so it sounds like it is still very early on in development and I wouldn’t expect it anytime soon, but it is coming!
Sticking with Pixar, they gave a little update on ‘Toy Story 5’. The film will, of course, see Woody, Buzz and Jessy return. The story will see the gang “fighting to stop their new child from becoming an iPad kid” according to Andrew Stanton, who returns as writer and director.
The third bit of Pixar news is a new film, ‘Hoppers’, where scientists have discovered how to “hop” human consciousness into lifelike robotic animals, allowing people to communicate with animals as animals! The adventure introduces Mabel, an animal lover who seizes an opportunity to use the technology, uncovering mysteries within the animal world that are beyond anything she could have imagined. Directed by Daniel Chong, “Hoppers” features the voices of Piper Curda (“May December”), Bobby Moynihan (“SNL”) and Jon Hamm (“Mad Men,” “Fargo”). The film opens exclusively in theatres in Spring 2026.
On the Disney Animation side, ‘Frozen 3’ is coming in 2027 (because when a franchise makes $2.7 billion at the box office, you make more!), and ‘Zootopia 2’, which arrives 26th November 2025, will have a new character, Gary the snake, voiced by the wonderful Ke Huy Quan.
In live-action, “Avatar 2” has a new name and is now officially called ‘Avatar: Fire And Ash’ – It’ll hit theatres on the 19th of December 2025. On stage at D23, they showed some footage of ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ film which lands in 2026, which has, of course, leaked online, although has been swiftly removed by Disney from a lot of places!
There was also a presentation for ‘TRON: Ares’, the third film in the franchise which lands 10th October 2025, and sees Jeff Bridges return to the series set in the world inside a computer mainframe. Co-starring alongside Bridges are Evan Peters, Greta Lee, and Jared Leto as the titular Ares, a highly sophisticated AI sent to the real world for an undisclosed mission. It was also revealed that Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ band Nine Inch Nails will be composing the film’s soundtrack!
TV Announcements
A lot of the TV announcements revolved around the animated series for Disney+, however, there were a few little bits for some live-action shows too.
Supplied by Disney Press
The ‘Daredevil: Born Again‘ panel featured Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock/Daredevil), Vincent D’Onofrio (Kingpin), Deborah Anm Woll (Karen), Elden Henson (Foggy), and Jon Bernthal (The Punisher), all of who reprise their roles in the new series. There was some footage shown to the crowd (again, leaked online and taken down), but if you’re worried about this being “toned down” from the Netflix series, don’t be. It seems as violent, dark and gritty as the original, but we’ll see when it lands in March 2025.
‘Andor‘ Season 2 had some footage shown in the room, but the big announcement was Ben Mendelsohn will be reprising his role as ‘Rogue One’ villain Orson Krennic. Given ‘Andor’ was specifically commissioned for two seasons, and is supposed to dovetail into ‘Rogue One’ in the same way that film dovetailed into ‘A New Hope’, that makes perfect sense.
‘X-Men ’97‘ Season 2 is set to feature several new villains including Apocalypse, Lady Death Strike, and Sabretooth. The X-Men will also have a new look, with suits inspired by Grant Morrison’s comic book run, drawn by Frank Quitely.
‘What If…?‘ Season 3 is set to feature some versions of Ironheart, Sam Wilson’s Captain America, Shang-Chi, Wong, Red Guardian, Black Widow, Monica Rambeau, and Moon Knight. Also mechs!
‘Eyes of Wakanda’ will be a four-part animated series, with each episode in a different time period. The premise is that, throughout Wakandan history, brave warriors have been tasked to travel the world, retrieving dangerous vibranium artefacts, and each episode will tell one of their stories. It will also feature “an Iron Fist”, although whether that is Finn Jones’s Danny Rand remains to be seen…
‘Marvel Zombies’ is another four-part animated series and is a follow-up to the zombie episode of ‘What If…?’. It looks like they’re upping the violence and gore in this though, as it will have a TV-MA (Mature) rating.
Lastly in TV, we come to a brand new show, ‘Dream Productions‘. The series is set between the films ‘Inside Out’ and ‘Inside Out 2′, and takes us to a whole new area of Riley’s brain. The show is set in a studio where Riley’s dreams are made every night — on time and on budget. Some memories need extra processing, so they are sent to Dream Productions, and when Riley falls asleep, we see the film crew making the dreams like a film set.
Other Announcements
There were a few other announcements outside of TV and film. Heading to the stage, they announced The Greatest Showman is being adapted into a stage musical (which seems like a totally “no brainer” given that film is about a theatre-type show!) They also revealed Hercules the musical is hitting London’s West End, and that the hit musical Frozen, has been filmed live on stage, featuring Samantha Barks as Elsa, to be released on Disney+ in 2025.
Over on the theme parks, Shanghai Disneyland is getting a Spiderman rollercoaster ride, and Hong Kong Disneyland is also getting a Spiderman attraction. However, the big news was that Disney California Adventure’s Avengers Campus is doubling in size, and adding two new attractions:
- Avengers Infinity Defense – The technology that allows the Avengers to jump between worlds has gone missing, and King Thanos is using it to wreak havoc everywhere. Recruits will travel to iconic locations like Asgard, Wakanda, and New York City alongside the likes of big, and small, heroes. You also just might find yourself face-to-face with King Thanos, too.
- Stark Flight Lab – Tony Stark wants to see if you can fly! Guests sit in two-person pods and deploy to a test station, then a robot arm grabs your pod and starts whirling you around in a simulated flight. Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as Tony Stark for the attraction as well!
Before you go booking your tickets for California, work on the expansion doesn’t begin until 2025, so it’ll be a while before both of these rides are up and running!
So that is pretty much all the major announcements from D23 2024! Maybe not as much as we would have thought, and a little lacking in new TV shows, but still a good mix of content for the next 12 months!
