December 11 (The Verge) – Disney just made a deluge of announcements at its 2020 Investor Day, including updates on new Marvel, Star Wars, and Disney Animation studios projects, as well as updates on Disney Plus and Disney’s other streaming services.

Here’s everything you need to know from the event:

MARVEL

DISNEY PLUS SERIES

• WandaVision, the first Marvel Studios show coming out on Disney Plus, got a new trailer ahead of its upcoming January 15th release date.
• The Falcon and the Winter Solider also finally got a full trailer, along with a March release date.
• A first look at Loki, Disney’s highly anticipated short series based on Tom Hiddleston’s god of mischief character. The show also got a May 2021 release date.

• Hawkeye is premiering on Disney Plus in “late Fall 2021.” The studio also confirmed that Hailee Steinfeld will be appearing in the series.
• What If?, an animated series from Marvel Studios that features the voice acting cast of many Marvel Cinematic Universe stars, also got a new trailer that offered a first look at the upcoming series.
• Feige also announced three new series coming to Disney Plus: Ironheart, set to star Dominique Thorne engineering protégé Riri Williams; Armor Wars, which examines one of “Tony Stark’s biggest fears” and stars Don Cheadle, who is reprising his role as Colonel James “Rhodey” Rhodes; and Secret Invasion, the previously rumored Nick Fury-led series that will see Samuel L. Jackson reprise his role as the SHIELD director alongside Ben Mendelsohn’s Skull shapeshifter Talos. No release dates for the new projects were announced.
• Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige also gave some casting updates on the already announced Moon Knight, She-Hulk, and Ms. Marvel. Notably, Tatiana Maslany will play the lead role in She-Hulk, with Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner also set to appear, while Ms. Marvel starIman Vellani’s Kamala Khan will appear in Captain Marvel 2. Feige noted that the shows will continue to interweave with the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe.
• Marvel Studios is working on a new Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special for Disney Plus, due out in 2022, that will be directed by James Gunn. The special will film alongside the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3, also directed by Gunn and set for release in 2023. There’s also I Am Groot, a series of short films starring Groot.

MOVIES

• Feige confirmed that Black Panther 2 will not recast the late Chadwick Boseman’s King T’Challa. The film, set to be directed by Ryan Coogler, is still set for July 2022.
• A third Ant-Man film, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, is officially in development. Peyton Reed will return to direct, as will Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Quantumania will also introduce Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror, one of Marvel’s biggest villains.
• Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness will tie in to both the upcoming Wandavision and Sony and Marvel’s third Spider-Man movie. The studio also confirmed that Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange will be appearing in the still unnamed Spider-Man sequel.
• Finally, Marvel Studios is developing a new Fantastic Four movie.

LUCASFILM

Disney not only announced that roughly 10 Star Wars series are coming to Disney Plus, but it also gave some early details about a few of those series and other Star Wars projects. Additionally, the final Indiana Jones is now in pre-production and will be released in July 2022.

STAR WARS DISNEY PLUS SERIES

• Disney Plus is getting two new Star Wars shows, both spinoffs of The Mandalorian: Rangers of the New Republic and Ahsoka. The three shows are planned to feature crossovers in the future, too
• Star Wars: The Bad Batch, an animated series about the Bad Batch of clones from The Clone Wars, will debut exclusively on Disney Plus
• Star Wars: Andor starring Rogue One’s Diego Luna is coming to Disney Plus in 2022
• The Acolyte, a new Star Wars series helmed by Russian Doll creator Leslye Headland, set in the “High Republic” era of the franchise, is coming to Disney Plus
• Hayden Christensen is returning as Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi
• A Droid Story, a new project for Disney Plus, will feature a new hero alongside R2-D2 and C-3PO
• Star Wars: Lando is a new ‘event series’ coming to Disney Plus
• Star Wars: Visions is an upcoming anime anthology series coming to Disney Plus

STAR WARS MOVIES

• Wonder Woman 1984’s Patty Jenkins will be directing the next Star Wars movie, Rogue Squadron, due out in December 2023.
• Disney also discussed the untitled Taiki Waititi Star Wars movie, first announced in May, that had already been in development

You can read more about the new projects in a blog on Disney’s Star Wars website.

DISNEY ANIMATION AND PIXAR

DISNEY ANIMATION

Disney Animation has a lot of projects in the works, including:

• Raya and the Last Dragon premieres on March 5th, 2021 on Disney Plus via Premier Access and in theaters
• Baymax!, a series based on Big Hero 6, is arriving in early 2022
• Zootopia Plus, a new series based on Zootopia, is hitting the streaming service in spring 2022
• Tiana, based on The Princess and The Frog, is premiering on Disney Plus in 2023
• A longform musical comedy series for Moana, hitting Disney Plus in 2023
• Encanto, a new movie set in Colombia with music written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, is in development
• Iwaju, an original longform series made in partnership with Kugali Media, is premiering on Disney Plus in 2022

PIXAR DISNEY PLUS SERIES

Pixar also announced some new projects for Disney Plus, including:

• The newest SparkShorts episode, Burrow, arrives on Disney Plus on December 25th
• Pixar Popcorn, shorts featuring iconic Pixar characters, start streaming in January
• Dug Days, a new series featuring the beloved dog Dug from Up, premieres in fall 2021
• A Cars series, following Lightning McQueen and Mater, is coming to Disney Plus in fall 2022
• Win or Lose, Pixar’s first original longform animated series, is about a middle school softball team. It’s coming to Disney Plus in the fall of 2023

PIXAR MOVIES

And Pixar shared new information about movies in the pipeline, including:

• Luca, a movie set in Italy about a boy named Luca, will hit theaters in June 2021.
• Lightyear, an origin story for Buzz Lightyear (who will be voiced by Chris Evans), is hitting theaters in summer 2022
• Turning Red, about a 13-year old girl going through puberty that transforms into a giant red panda (yes, really!) when she gets excited, is in development

OTHER SERIES IN THE WORKS

NOAH HAWLEY IS MAKING AN ALIEN TV SERIES FOR FX AND HULU

Noah Hawley, showrunner of Fargo and Legion, will be making a new series based on the Alien movies for FX and Hulu. There’s no release date announced yet.

WILL SMITH AND CHRIS HEMSWORTH WILL STAR IN SERIES FOR NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

Will Smith and Chris Hemsworth will each star in their own shows for National Geographic. Welcome to Earth follows Smith as he “embarks on an awe-inspiring journey to unlock the secrets of this planet’s most extraordinary, unexplained phenomena.” Limitless, starring Chris Hemsworth, explores the limits of the human body.

ICE AGE IS GETTING A SPIN-OFF SERIES STARRING SIMON PEGG

Disney is making a new Disney Plus spinoff movie starring the weasel character from the movie series, Buck. The movie, titled Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild, will star Simon Pegg as the voice of Buck. It’s premiering in early 2022.

DISNEY PLUS

DISNEY PLUS IS INCREASING ITS PRICE TO $8 A MONTH STARTING IN MARCH 2021

Disney Plus is getting its first price hike in March 2021. The per-month price will rise to $7.99 per month, a $1 increase.

DISNEY’S NEW BUNDLE WILL OFFER AD-FREE HULU, DISNEY PLUS, AND ESPN PLUS FOR $18.99

Disney to offer Disney Plus, ESPN Plus, and ad-free Hulu in one bundle for $18.99 per month starting sometime in January. If customers bought those services on their own, the total cost would be $5.98 more per month.

DISNEY PLUS SURPASSES 86 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS

Disney Plus now has more than 86 million subscribers as of December 2nd. The company reached the figure a little over a year after the service launched.

DISNEY UNVEILS STAR, ITS HULU REPLACEMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL DISNEY PLUS SUBSCRIBERS

Disney unveiled Star, its international replacement for Hulu. The service is launching in certain European countries, Canada, and New Zealand on February 23rd. It’s coming to Japan and South Korea “later in 2021.”

DISNEY PLUS WILL ADD 50 NEW MARVEL, STAR WARS, DISNEY AND PIXAR SERIES AND MOVIES ‘OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS’

Disney Plus will be getting a whole lot of new content over the next few years. The company is bringing “roughly” 10 Marvel series, 10 Star Wars series, 15 Disney live-action, Disney Animation, and Pixar series, and 15 all-new Disney live-action, Disney Animation and Pixar features directly to Disney Plus.

Source – The Verge