Saturday night at San Diego Comic-Con is always a rush. While I’m huddled up in my home office listening to Sleep Token and Iress on repeat, attendees of one of the year’s most exciting entertainment events are witnessing Marvel history as the studio takes charge of Hall H to astound and amaze fans with a unique look at the future of superhero cinema. While riding the wave of Deadpool & Wolverine‘s success at the box office, Kevin Feige and his merry band of creatives are ready to blow minds and tease what’s to come from the House of Ideas!
The Marvel panel opened with a full choir singing Madonna’s 1989 hit “Like a Prayer.” A parade of Deadpools danced on stage, with one dressed like Bob Ross. It was a homoerotic display, with lots of gyrating and enthusiastic thrusting. Some crowd members did not know what to make of the scene. Deadpool and Wolverine began dancing around as Kevin Feige took the stage with Rob Delaney (Peter) to be the panel’s moderator.
The panel quickly moved into talk about Captain America: Brave New World as Anthony Mackie and Giancarlo Esposito took the stage. Esposito’s character has been a mystery until now, as the duo revealed he’s playing Sidewinder, the King of the Serpent Society.
Addressing the crowd, Mackie said Tom Holland teased him years ago, saying Falcon didn’t have his own movie. Years later, Mackie says the character has his own movie, and Holland is still not 5’11. Additionally, Mackie’s Captain America is more cerebral than Steve Rogers, as he doesn’t have the advantages of super serum. Feige says Captain America: Brave New World is similar to The Winter Soldier.
Meanwhile, Giancarlo Esposito says it’s a dream come true to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Unfortunately, Julius Onah has COVID-19, so he could not attend the show. In a clip shared with the audience (the same one from CinemaCon), President Ross (Harrison Ford) presents the discovery of Adamantium. The scene cuts to President Ross trying to get Captain America to help him rebuild The Avengers. Ross says the country needs the Avengers. The clip ends with Ross turning into Red Hulk, and it looks wild! People in the crowd went ballistic! When Ford joined his co-stars on stage, he mimicked his character’s mighty roar (shown below).
For Marvel’s Thunderbolts presentation, David Harbour appeared as Red Guardian but was mock upset when he entered and no one else dressed up. The whole Thunderbolts cast is there with the film’s director, Jake Schreier. If Ford plays Thunderbolt Ross, what is their relation to him? The asterisk on the title relates to that fact, but “you have to see the movie.”
Sebastian Stan says the best part about playing Bucky after nine years is he feels like a cat and hopes he has nine more lives. Harbour says he loves the whole cast, but Florence Pugh is his favorite (who could blame him). He says it’s “electric” to work with their relationship’s complexity this time. Their dynamic goes between warmth, humor, and pathos.
Next, Marvel showed a Thunderbolts trailer, as presented by Florence Pugh. The Midsommar and Black Widow actress says Thunderbolts is “so wonderful, bizarre, and brave. The bloody stunts! Oh my God!”
The Thunderbolts trailer opens with Yelena coming to find Red Guardian, who is a mess and thinks she works for DoorDash. She recruits him – and like everyone else on the team, they drift without purpose. You can tell Yelena is still a killer. The trailer moves to her at odds with the U.S. Agent and the others, but they unite to find out who is trying to kill them. Scored by The Pixies “Where is My Mind,” the Comic-Con crowd is going nuts. “The are bad guys and worse guys.” It appears as if Julia Louis Dreyfus’s Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is the villain.
Are you excited about Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts? Let us know in the comments section below!