Bummed you’re missing D23 in Anaheim? Keep up with all of Disney’s announcements here!
Fresh off of blowing up Hall H at Comic-Con with their announcement that Robert Downey Jr is back in the MCU (playing Doctor Doom) comes D23, the ultimate Disney fan event happening in Anaheim. Our man Alex Maidy is on the ground now, in the audience, and will be sending in his life dispatches, so if you’re missing the event, we’ve got you covered.
Here are the announcements (as they come in):
The First (Tiny) Peaks at Snow White & Tron: Ares revealed:
Just like they did with Comic-Con, the presentation started with a quick sizzle reel teasing some of the footage being doled out during the presentation. Most noteworthy was the fact that it contained tiny snippets of Gal Gadot in character as the Evil Queen in Snow White and a glimpse at Tron Ares (check out more about that movie HERE).
Moana 2:
The presentation started with Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson teasing Moana 2, which began life as a Disney Plus series before pivoting to a feature. In the presentation, they teased that this time, the villain would be the “storm of all storms.” Here’s the new trailer, which dropped during the presentation:
Monster Jam:
It looks like Moana 2‘s not the only thing keeping Johnson in-house at Disney. He’ll also be making a movie out of the Monster Jam event where trucks battle each other in an arena:
Avatar 3 gets an official title.
None other than James Cameron then took the stage to tease the next instalment in the Avatar franchise, which he promises is going into “challenging territory” and is “not what you expect, but it’s definitely what you want.” He also promised we’ll see more of Pandora than ever before. He then brought his stars, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, on stage, who announced the official new title, Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Pixar and Disney Animation:
Fresh off its juggernaut success at the box office, Inside Out 2 is getting a Disney Plus spin-off from Pixar called Dream Productions, coming in 2025. It’s set between the first two films and explains where Riley’s dreams come from. Even cooler is that they officially announced Toy Story 5 for 2026, with none other than Andrew Stanton (Wall-E, Finding Nemo) writing and directing! This time, the movie will feature an all-out battle between toys and electronics, which sounds pretty promising indeed. Pixar also announced a new movie, Hoppers, which follows a man (to be voiced by Jon Hamm) who puts his brain into the body of a pig.
Finally, the presentation concluded with a look at Pixar’s next big animated movie, Elio, with them using the event to announce that Zoe Saldana has joined the cast. They then showed the new trailer, and while it hasn’t dropped online yet, here’s a new pic:
They also announced that Brad Bird is developing The Incredibles 3, although no further news was revealed. So take that with a grain of salt, as we likely won’t see it for a long time. Zootopia 2 also was teased, with it revealed that the great Ke Huy Quan will be adding his voice to the cast, which includes returning actors Jason Bateman and Ginnifer Goodwin. This instalment features a new species we didn’t see in the last film – reptiles! Frozen III was also teased, with it set to open in 2027, and it will be followed by a Frozen IV as well, with Disney (understandably) investing heavily in this perennial favourite.
Skeleton Crew:
None other than the great Jude Law was on-hand to introduce Skeleton Crew, the highly anticipated new Star Wars Disney Plus series that features him (as a Jedi) alongside four child actors in what seems like Star Wars meets The Goonies. In fact, on stage they promised it would be Amblin-esque (Amblin, of course, was the production company owned by Steven Spielberg that produced movies like The Goonies and Gremlins in the 80s).
Check out the trailer: