SDCC: Shang-Chi! Blade? FF? Mutants? Marvel Phase 4 plans…

Away from Asgard, Marvel had a ton of other news to announce…

6th November 2020 is the date for the much-anticipated Eternals movie from Marvel, based on the galaxy-wide conflicts and cosmic concepts created by Jack Kirby for Marvel‘s publishing empire. The story deals with the powerful Celestials and their enemies The Deviants, across a war set millions of years ago. The Celestials’ experiments had (and have) major consequences for humanity. The impressive cast line-up, many of whom appeared on stage at SDCC, includes: Richard Madden as Ikaris, Selma Hayak as Ajak, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Angelina Jolie as Thena, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, and Lia McHugh as Sprite. The film will be directed by Chloe Zhao.

Making some pointed additions to diversity, the SDCCpresentation also confirmed that February 2021 will see the release of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, with Simu Liu playing Marvel‘s titular martial-arts hero. As the title suggests, this will tie-in with the weapons of the Mandarin (Tony Leung) as objects referenced in the Iron Man films. Awkwafina will appear in a so far un-named role.

Doctor Strange, having helped to engineer the defeat of Thanos in the Avengers movies, will return for a second solo-outing, though the film will also feature Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda / Scarlet Witch. The film, fully entitled Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, was described by returning director Scott Derrickson as Marvel‘s first horror movie (though it is suspected to have a PG13 certificate). Events in the Disney+ WandaVision limited series (scheduled for early 2021 and featuring Olsen and Paul Bettany) apparently tie-in, in part, to the story. WandaVision is set after Endgame and will also have a grown-up Monica Rambeau, the character seen as a child in Captain Marvel.

Fans at the SDCC presentation also saw an update on the Falcon and the Winter Soldier limited series (set for a debut on Disney+ in late 2020), news that Disney +’s Hawkeye series (set for Spring 2021with Jeremy Renner) will cover the character’s time as Ronin and his mentorship of a young female arche, ra glimpse of Scarlet Johansson in action for the Black Widow movie (opening May 2020) and – in addition to confirming Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and Captain Marvel 2 – there were nods and confirmations of intent for several other projects such as Mahershala Ali being ear-marked for a new version of Blade (previously played by Wesley Snipes), the formal decision to be working towards getting Fantastic Four properly rebooted and a project involving Mutants which might suggest a rebooting of the X-Men in some way shape or form.

It was also revealed that Jeffrey Wright will voice The Watcher for Marvel‘s animated ‘What If…‘ series on Disney+, which features alt-history versions of their famous stories working out with different outcomes.