Let's not waste time on pleasantries. It's San Diego Comic-Con. Hall H. Marvel Studios panel. Go.
Thor: RagnarokThe big news: Hela isn't the only villain in the movie (hello, Surtur, you big ole fiery rock monster), and The Hulk speaks! Sure, he's had dialogue before, but here he gets a couple of full sentences. The rest of the trailer showcases more of everyone who got a bit of the short straw in the enormously popular teaser released earlier this year. So, hello to Tessa Thompson's Valkyrie (and her kickass armor) and Cate Blanchette's Hela (and her love of Snyder-esque slow-mo action shots), and welcome back Tom Hiddleston's Loki. But, seriously, guys - The Hulk speaks! Plus, Thor's eyes are straight-up glowing at the end there. That's probably significant, comic book lore-wise. Or maybe they just did it because it looks cool.
My reaction: And the Guardians of the Galaxy-ification of the Thor universe continues, with the Norse god forming his own Avengers/Guardians team with Hulk (their Groot and Drax combined), Valkyrie (their Gamora) and Loki (their, um, Rocket?). I'm not quite as instantly down with this as others because, hey, I'm one of those weirdos who liked the Thor universe well enough already. However, these trailers are starting to win me over, even if Hemsworth's slightly re-worked version of the character this time around feels like it's been filtered through his heavily ad-libbed idiot relief character in Ghostbusters. But that's just what Hemsworth needed to do to stave off boredom. As he told Hall H, "I've played this character five times. I got a bit bored. Spoke with [director] Taika Waititi], spoke with Kevin [Feige] ... ...it was about pushing myself."
Ragnarok is due this November.
The big news: The movie will be set in the 90s, feature a pre-eye patch version of Nick Fury (still played by Samuel L. Jackson, though) and use the shape-shifting alien race known as The Skrulls as the villains.
My reaction: The 90s? Well, shut my mouth. I didn't see that coming. Apart from the entirety of The First Avenger and the occasional flashback in films like Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy, these Marvel Studios movies do not tip their toes in period settings. That's more of a Wonder Woman/X-Men: First Class/Days of Future Past/Apocalypse thing. In fact, it's highly likely the next main X-Men movie, Dark Phoenix, will be set in the 90s.
So, why is Marvel switching things up now, and why with Captain Marvel? Absent some time travel trickery, won't this limit Brie Larson's time in the MCU? You can't have 20something Larson enjoying an origin story in the 90s, and then popping by one of the modern day Avengers movies looking exactly the same as if she wasn't supposed to be nearly 20 years older. That is, of course, unless Captain Marvel enjoys some Wonder Woman-esque immortality I don't know about.
Whatever. They'll figure it out. It's a comic book world about a woman who will end up fighting aliens. Maybe that fight takes her to somewhere in space where time moves differently, and she has her own Captain America "person out of time" experience upon returning to Earth. Perhaps this is even setting her up to eventually replace Cap as the MCU's star spangled hero.
Sadly, though, this movie won't arrive to answer any of those questions until March 8, 2019. The rumors about Larson actually debuting first in Avengers: Infinity War remain just rumors at the moment as Marvel offered no announcements on that front at Comic-Con.
The big news: Michelle Pfeiffer has been cast as Janet Van Dyne, Laurence Fishbourne is playing Bill "Giant Man" Foster and the villain will be The Ghost.
My reaction: So much for those Catherine Zeta-Jones-as-Janet-Van-Dyne rumors. I guess Michael Douglas will just have to cope with his character's long lost wife being played by someone other than his real life wife. However, Pfeiffer is a fine choice for the role, and now follows Michael Keaton as another actor from the original Batman movies to re-enter the comic book movie world in a role-reversed fashion, going from one of the villains in Batman Returns to one of the heroes (or so we'd think since Janet is the original Wasp) in the new Ant-Man.
As for Fishbourne as Giant Man and the reveal of The Ghost as the villain, good for them...which is my way of saying I don't have much to actually say here because I don't know the Ant-Man comics well enough to comment. I at least know The Ghost isn't even an Ant-Man villain; he's an Iron Man baddie who is an industrial saboteur given to fits of paranoia.
Ant-Man and the Wasp is due July 6, 2018.
