San Diego Comic-Con was this past week, and after skipping it that last year, Feige was back to make the nerds hopefully hyped for the future. Last time he appeared in Hall H for the MCU panel in 2022, he spoke about/announced the following: She-Hulk series new trailer, Secret Invasion, Quantumania, Guardians 3, Black Panther: Wakada Forever, Echo, Loki Season 2, Blade, Ironheart, Agatha series, Daredevil: Born Again, Captain America: New World Order, Thunderbolts, Fantastic Four, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, and Avengers: Secret Wars. Now, 2 years later, and a lot of changes that we now know about, he was back to only speak in length of the 2023 releases. Let’s talk about what we got from the hatted one.

Captain America: Brave New World: The title has changed in the two years from when it was first discussed, and we know that there has been some major issues in the creation of the film. The budget is reportedly $350-375 million due to the extensive reshoots after supposed terrible test screenings. That is an insane budget for a non-Avengers level movie, but it’s Comic-Con, so forget all that bad stuff. The showed footage that confirms what we already guessed, and that was Ross turning into Red Hulk. What nobody seemed to know before Saturday was who Giancarlo Esposito was playing in the movie. We learned that he was playing Sidewinder, leading of the Serpent Society. This is definitely interesting, as Seth Rollins has filmed scenes as a member of the Serpent Society too that might have been cut. What is a puzzle is how do they fit in with The Leader being the main antagonist? This movie will remain the biggest question mark until it is released in February, and while some a re quick to claim the MCU is back after this weekend, the real health of the franchise depends on that entry doing well.

Thunderbolts*: We still don’t know what the * is for on the title. Marvel is being really cute. What I am leaning towards is the title “turns” into The Dark Avengers when the movie ends. It just seems to fit what they are going with. It will be really interesting when we get the first trailer most likely around Thanksgiving. With Sentry being the object the makeshift team is after, it is possible a lot of people start to compare this to The Suicide Squad. If Marvel is going for that comparison for some reason, hopefully it is compared to the Gunn version and not the Ayer one.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps: New Title, and it cements what the reports had that this is going to involve space. I am stupid excited for this one, and yes, I watched the footage leak on Reddit. While I am not taking anything out of it as real filming didn’t start until yesterday, there was that small peak at Galactus, and the test version looks awesome. I know I said above Cap is the test if the machine is still good to go. It really isn’t the true test though. This one is. Marvel has struggled to get people to care about new characters after Endgame. Eternals bombed, and most people don’t care about Moon Knight, Ms Marvel, Echo, She Hulk, or America Chavez. Marvel really needs the first family to be a hit with people, or things will start to look dire. The X-Men won’t be enough to save it either.

Avengers: Secret Wars: We got the confirmation that the Russos are back for both of the new Avengers movies. I love this as they truly know how to make this big event movies work. They didn’t spend too much time on this second part Avenger entry because everyone really wanted to know about the first part that was shrouded in rumors….

Avengers: Doomsday: Gone is Kang Dynasty. Rather than recast for Majors as Kang, they decided to pivot and go somewhere else. That new destination appears to be Latveria, as Dr Doom is now the big bad of the MCU. This makes sense as God Emperor Doom was the main antagonist of the 2015 Secret Wars storyline. The insane part of this was when the person playing Doom unmasked himself and it was RDJ. Him coming back as Doom just opens so many possibilities. As far as everyone on that pier at the end of Endgame knows, Tony Stark is dead. What are they going to do (Peter Parker especially) when Doom reveals himself to them all and it’s a familiar face? That drama is the good stuff. There is a part of me that wanted someone new as Doom, but the person I wanted was Giancarlo Esposito, and he is now not possible. If this is truly the end of this run of the MCU, and the soft reset happens after Secret Wars, making the biggest bad an evil version of the biggest hero just works.

After reading all of that, you might have noticed somethings were missing from the 2022 announcements that should have been part of this year’s announcement. We didn’t get anything Disney+ related, but D23 takes place next weekend, and Feige will return to most give updates on all of those. We might even get release windows for everything other than Agatha (so any other other Disney+ property basically). More noteworthy, Blade was not part of the festivities. That has had a November 2023 release date, they can’t seem to find a way to actually start that production, so there really is no way for it to come out on time. Feige all but confirmed that mutliple times but saying they had 3 films in 2023. There is also a joke in Deadpool & Wolverine that I won’t say here, because spoilers, that might become a harbinger of doom for Blade if we get to that point in the future.

The MCU seems to be at a tipping point. The superhero genre is going to go out of fashion, if that hasn’t already begun. It is inevitable. Just ask Westerns. The only hope now is that they recapture just a little of what made that run to Endgame so unique and fun. Post-Endgame hasn’t had that. Possibly now that we have a end goal, Secret Wars, and a major big bad to build towards, Dr Doom, we can get just a piece of that feeling again. It would be nice.