Friday, December 11, 2020

Disney's Investor Day Roundup

© Disney
 

Thursday, December 10 was the Walt Disney Company's Investor Day, and the studio made many exciting announcements regarding both theatrical and streaming releases for all of its studios: Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios and Searchlight. We posted a few of the announcements on our social media accounts so if you missed them, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

What we didn't already post is included below. Be sure to check out the trailers and sizzle reels below!

  • Disney will skip theaters for two major films, sending Robert Zemeckis's live-action remake of Pinocchio, with Tom Hanks as Geppeto, and Peter Pan and Wendy, with Jude Law as Captain Hook, directly to Disney+. There was no indication at this time that either film will be Premium Access releases, The animated Raya and the Last Dragon will carry the Premium Access pricing when it debuts in the Spring at the same time it opens in theaters.
  • While some films are bypassing theatrical distribution, Disney has rescheduled others that will remain exclusively on the big screen. Thor: Love and Thunder shifts from February 11, 2022 to May 6, 2022. That moves the Black Panther sequel from May 6, 2022 to July 8, 2022, which pushes Captain Marvel 2 from July 8 to November 11, 2022.
  • Back on the schedule, Ryan Reynolds' Free Guy is now slated to open on May 21, 2021, followed by Kenneth Branagh's follow-up to Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile is now scheduled for a September 17, 2021 release. Also, The King's Man was pushed back a month from February 12, 2021 to March 12, 2021. The thriller Antlers from Searchlight remains unscheduled.
  • A Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special for Disney+ will be written and directed by Guardians director James Gunn. The special will film at the same time as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and will premiere on the streaming service in 2022.
  • A Baby Groot series of shorts titled I Am Groot is in development for Disney+.
  • Kevin Feige has revealed the third Ant-Man film will be titled Ant-Man is Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania, and that Big Little Lies actress Kathryn Newton is joining the cast as Cassie Lang. Jonathan Majors is also joining the cast as Kang the Conquerer.
  • Iman Vellani, who will star in the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel, will also appear in Captain Marvel 2. Teyonah Paris, who is playing the grown up Monica Rambeau in Marvel's WandaVision series, will also bring the character to Captain Marvel 2. Akira Akbar played a younger version of the character in the first film.
  • With Tatiana Maslany cast as the lead for Marvel's Disney+ series She-Hulk, Kevin Feige revealed Tim Roth will reprise his The Incredible Hulk (the Edward Norton film) character The Abomination, and Mark Ruffalo will make an appearance as Bruce Banner/The Hulk.
  • Delayed from its original August 2020 release date due to coronavirus shutdowns, Disney+ has revealed Marvel's The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will debut on the service March 19, 2021.
  • Other Marvel series in the works at Disney+ include Ironheart, Moon Knight, Armor Wars and Secret Invasion. Don Cheadle will return to the role of James Rhodes, aka War Machine, in Armor Wars. Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn (Captain Marvel) will star in Secret Invasion. Dominique Thorne will star as Riri Williams in Ironheart, the first Black female lead of a Marvel series.
  • Tom Hiddleston returns to the role of Loki in his new Disney+ series which will debut in May 2021.
  • Marvel is planning a new Fantastic Four film with Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts at the helm.
  • Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins will helm the Rogue One spin-off Rogue Squadron, which is currently set to be released theatrically on December 22, 2023.
  • On the animation front, Disney+ will roll out four new series based on popular films. Big Hero 6 robot Baymax is getting his own series titled Baymax! The Princess and the Frog's princess will headline Tiana, and series continuing the stories of Zootopia and Moana will also stream. Baymax!, Tiana and Zootopia will bow in 2022 with Moana on the schedule for 2023. Pixar's Dug Days, a spin-off of Up, will premiere in Fall 2021, while a series based on Pixar's Cars is set for the Fall of 2022.
  • Ronald D. Moore and Jon M. Chu will develop a series based on Swiss Family Robinson for Disney+.
  • Marvel Studios confirmed it will not recast the role of Black Panther following Chadwick Boseman's untimely death stating Boseman's work “transcends any iteration of the character” and will “honor the legacy" while continuing to explore the world of Wakanda.
  • Christian Bale finally comes to the Marvel Universe as the villain Gorr the Godbutcher in Thor: Love and Thunder.
  • Production on Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings has been completed and the full cast has been revealed: Tony Leung as Wenwu, Awkwafina as Katy, Meng’er Zhang as Xialing, Michelle Yeoh as Jiang Chan, Ronny Chieng as Jon Jon, Fala Chen as Jiang Li and Florian Munteanu as Razor Fist. The release date is July 9, 2021.
  • Chris Evans will voice the character Buzz Lightyear in an all-new animated film that will tell the definitive story of the original Buzz Lightyear. The film is slated to hit theaters on June 17, 2022. Pixar also has Turning Red on the calendar for March 11, 2022.
  • Walt Disney Studios' 60th animated film will be the Columbia-set Encanto, which will feature music written by Lin-Manuel Miranda and is scheduled to open November 24, 2021.
  • Whoopi Goldberg will return to the role of Deloris for Disney+ original Sister Act 3, with Tyler Perry on board to produce.
  • Amy Adams will return to the Enchanted role of Princess Gizelle for the Disney+ original feature Disenchanted.
  • Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers gets a Disney+ reboot with Andy Samberg and John Mulaney lending their voices to the title characters. The new series is set to debut in the Spring of 2022.
  • Will Smith will head to the extreme ends of the Earth in the new Nat Geo series from Darren Aronofsky, Welcome to Earth. Chris Hemsworth is also slated to star in the series Limitless, while A Real Bug's Life and America the Beautiful are also part of the Nat Geo slate. Welcome to Earth and Limitless will be Disney+ Originals.
  • With the announcement of billions of dollars being poured into production on new series and movies, Disney+ will increase its subscription price to $7.99 a month in March 2021. In Europe the price will increase from €2 a month to €8 and will include the new Star service.

 


A sneak peek at Star Wars: The Bad Batch, an all-new animated Original Series from Lucasfilm Animation, coming soon to Disney+.
 
 

“Everything I did, I did for the Rebellion.” Andor, an Original Series set in the Star Wars universe, is streaming in 2022 on Disney+.
 
 

“I’ve been tracking you, Mandalorian.” Catch up on the new season of The Mandalorian, now streaming on Disney+.
 
 

Ms. Marvel, a newer character to Marvel comics has grabbed the world's imagination and we are excited to announce Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan.
 
 

"Space. Time. Reality. It's more than a linear path." WHAT IF…?, an Original Series from Marvel Studios, is coming Summer 2021 to #DisneyPlus.
 
 

“Glorious.” Loki, an Original Series from Marvel Studios, is coming May 2021 to #DisneyPlus.
 
 

“The legacy of that shield is complicated.” Marvel Studios’ The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, an Original Series, starts streaming Mar. 19 on #DisneyPlus.
 
 

"We are an unusual couple." Marvel Studios' WandaVision, an Original Series, starts streaming Jan. 15 on #DisneyPlus.