Disney’s 2020 Investors Day

By: John Cano

Just in case you missed it, Disney’s Investors day was held on December 11th, and I can tell you 2021 and the years to come are looking great for Disney here’s what we can expect. Starting on the Marvel side, first up we have WandaVision, the first Marvel Studios show coming out on Disney Plus, got a new trailer ahead of its upcoming January 15th release date not wanting to spoil the trailer for those who have not seen it I urge you to go to Youtube and check it out for your self to see what we have in store for us. I have to say it has been a while since we’ve seen or heard anything about our friends Falcon and Bucky (The Winter Soldier) well fret not my friends because we got our first trailer for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and I have to say the sheer amount of badassery of the trailer was just amazing and I can’t wait to see this series and see how this is going to set up the next round of movies for the MCU so prepare yourselves the show is scheduled to land in March of 2021. Next, we have everyone’s favorite god of mischief that’s right I’m talking about Loki. This is one of Disney’s most highly anticipated short series based on the god of mischief himself and yes before you ask Tom Hiddleston is reprising his role as Loki, the show also got a May 2021 release date. As for Hawkeye, all we got was is when it’s premiering on Disney Plus which is in “late Fall 2021″ Disney is keeping Hawkeye under lock and key as updates come in I’ll be sure to keep you guys updated. Let me ask you something, What do you think would have happened if Tony Stark would have had time to prep a new suit to handle the sheer power of the Infinity? or what if in Avengers: Infinity War when Thor chucked Storm Breaker at Thanos what if he had just flown at him and cut his head off? or what if Dr. Strange would have just cut off Thanos’s arm using the mystical arts as he did to Black Dwarf in the begging of the movie. I’m sure we’ve had these constant debated amongst friends and other Marvel fans. Well coming soon we have What If?, an animated series from Marvel Studios that features the voice acting cast of many Marvel Cinematic Universe stars, and explores what would happen if major moments from the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) occurred differently, maybe putting to rest some major debates or perhaps open up a new can of worms. They also did announce a few more series coming soon but sadly with little to no information so I’ll leave you to draw your own thoughts and conclusions from these, First, we have Ironheart, set to star Dominique Thorne engineering protégé Riri Williams, Armor Wars, which examines one of “Tony Stark’s biggest fears” and stars Don Cheadle, who is reprising his role as Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes, Secret Invasion, the previously rumored Nick Fury-led series that will see Samuel L. Jackson reprise his role as the SHIELD director alongside Ben Mendelsohn’s Skull shapeshifter Talos. Moon Knight, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel. No release dates for the new projects were announced but once again as more information becomes available we’ll let you know. Last but not least for our series talk we have brace yourselves people Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special for Disney+, due out in 2022, that will be directed by James Gunn. The special will film alongside the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3, also directed by Gunn and set for release in 2023. There’s also I Am Groot, a series of short films starring Groot. to be honest about the Christmas Special part of me wants to see how Drax will sing some classic Christmas songs or how the rest of the gang will react to Starlord telling them Christmas stories from Terra (Earth). Now on the MCU side of things, the line up over the next few years is looking juicy, starting with Black Panther 2 will not recast the late Chadwick Boseman’s King T’Challa. The film, set to be directed by Ryan Coogler, is still set for July 2022. Coming up we also have Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which is officially in development. Peyton Reed will return to direct, as will Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Quantumania will also introduce Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror, one of Marvel’s biggest villains. Marvel Studios is developing a new Fantastic Four movie as of now this is all the information we have. However, I’m excited to announce that Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness will tie into both the upcoming Wandavision and Sony and Marvel’s third Spider-Man movie. The studio also confirmed that Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange will be appearing in the still-unnamed Spider-Man sequel.

Now the time has come my Jedi and Sith friends you will be happy to know that Disney not only announced that roughly 10 Star Wars series are coming to Disney+, but it also gave some early details about a few of those series and other Star Wars projects. Additionally, the final Indiana Jones is now in pre-production and will be released in July 2022. Starting with the Star Wars series. First up to bat we have two new Star Wars shows, both spinoffs of The Mandalorian: Rangers of the New Republic and Ahsoka. Once I read this I nearly hit the roof with excitement and seeing as how I just finished watching The Mandalorian it’s hard coming down off that high, but seeing both Rangers of the New Republic and Ahsoka I now find myself scouring the depths of the Internet for as much information as I can get my hands on to ease that itch as more developers I shall keep you posted “This is the way”. Now here is something interesting coming exclusively to Disney+ Star Wars: The Bad Batch, an animated series about the Bad Batch of clones from The Clone Wars sadly that’s the extent of the info I have for you guys. There is also Star Wars: Andor starring Rogue One’s Diego Luna that is coming to Disney+ in 2022.  The Acolyte is a new Star Wars series helmed by Russian Doll creator Leslye Headland, set in the “High Republic” era of the Star Wars series. Also, Hayden Christensen is returning as Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi which is going to be EPIC! Next, we have A Droid Story, a new project for Disney+ that will feature a new hero alongside the most iconic duo in Star Wars history R2-D2 and C-3PO more as this story develops. Star Wars: Lando is a new ‘event series’ coming to Disney+ alongside Star Wars: Visions is an upcoming anime anthology series coming to Disney+ as well, I know what your thinking, Star wars anime… why hasn’t this been done yet and it couldn’t come sooner because I haven’t seen any good anime’s lately and looking for something new to check out. Sadly on the movie front, not much information was given but it’s still exciting nonetheless to see what we have to look forward to. We have Rogue Squadron, due out in December 2023, and The untitled Taika Waititi Star Wars movie, first announced in May, that had already been in development so we have to wait until more information surfaces.

Last but certainly not least Disney’s Investors day would not be complete without new series and movies from both Disney and Pixar so check out what’s coming up. Up first we have the Disney Animation studio series starting with, Raya and the Last Dragon premiering on March 5th, 2021 on Disney+ via Premier Access and in theaters. for those of you who haven’t heard of this very interesting movie, it starts Long ago, in the fantasy world of Kumandra, humans, and dragons lived together in harmony. However, when sinister monsters known as the Druun threatened the land, the dragons sacrificed themselves to save humanity. Now, 500 years later, those same monsters have returned, and it’s up to a lone warrior to track down the last dragon and stop the Druun for good. The trailer looks so incredible and I cant wait to see this beautiful-looking story. Up next everyone’s favorite cuddly marshmallow robot is making a surprising return to the small screen and hopefully to the silver screen soon we have Baymax!, a series based on Big Hero 6, arriving in early 2022. Next, we head down to the zoo well Zootopia Plus to be exact, which is a new series based on Zootopia, hitting the streaming service in spring 2022. Next up we have Tiana, based on The Princess and The Frog and is premiering on Disney+ sometime in 2023 the next two we have are Encanto, a new movie set in Colombia with music written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, is in development, and Iwaju, an original long-form series made in partnership with Kugali Media, is premiering on Disney+ in 2022. Now venturing over to the Pixar Studio has also announced some new projects for Disney+, including The newest SparkShorts episode, Burrow, which arrives on Disney+ on December 25th. we also have Pixar Popcorn, shorts featuring iconic many Pixar characters, that starts streaming in January of 2021. next up is Dug Days, a new series featuring the beloved dog Dug from Up, which is set to premiere in fall 2021. Also, we haven’t seen much from Lightning McQueen and friends that is until now A Cars series, following Lightning McQueen and Mater, is coming to Disney+ in fall 2022. we also have Win or Lose, Pixar’s first original long-form animated series is about a middle school softball team. It’s coming to Disney+ in the fall of 2023. Pixar was gracious enough to share some new information about movies in the pipeline, including Luca, which is a movie set in Italy about a boy named Luca, will hit theaters in June 2021. Let me first start by saying this I can’t exactly wrap my head around the plot of this movie and some part of me finds this a bit disturbing, even though it is a natural thing that occurs in life I can’t believe they decided to make a comedy movie out of it, now with that being said. Turning Red is about a 13-year old girl going through puberty that transforms into a giant red panda (yes, really!) when she gets excited, is in development now how parents will react to this movie is yet to be seen. Now, this was my favorite announcement on the Pixar movie side I present to you Lightyear, an origin story for Buzz Lightyear (who will be voiced by Chris Evans), is hitting theaters in summer 2022 and you better believe that I will be standing in that line waiting to see this Epic prequel.

Disney has announced some real heavy hitters at this year’s convention and I have to say I’m excited to see that this pandemic hasn’t stopped Disney from going forth and making great family fun shows and movies and I highly respect Disney for that. Now I’ve been asked, John who do you think is there a clear winner here, who do you think had the best reveals? well my friends it’s hard to tell all sides of Disney are trying to churn out new shows and movies for us to enjoy with our friends and loved ones. Now it might be easier for others to decided and that’s just not the case for me it’s really hard for me to pick a side, all sides show promise and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us, and with that being said I’m off and don’t forget to check out the links to the trailers in the article if you haven’t seen any of them and prepare to have your minds blown. As stated before many times in the paragraphs above as soon as more information becomes available on these working titles I will post them to our social media pages and perhaps do another article on any production updates, but until then guys this is John signing off.