Marvel Has Triumphant Return to Hall H! Minds Blown

RJ Writing Ink’s Coverage of Marvel Studios’ Hall H Panel

You know, one of these days, and I don’t know when or how, I need to go to San Diego Comic Con. I hate having to miss out on these once in a lifetime moments in movie history. Case in point, Marvel’s Hall H panel (which ended less than an hour since the time I’m typing this) just blew up the Internet. Again!

Hall H is the crown jewel of San Diego Comic Con. It’s reserved for the biggest announcements in the entertainment industry. And for years now, it has been known as Marvel’s chief place to drop new info about what comes next for their various media properties. With Avengers: Doomsday slated to release December of this year, and the trailer having been released days before SDCC, expectations were high. Having kept an eye on everything that was happening as news went out, all I can say is this: MY BRAIN WAS NOT READY! There’s just so much to unpack!

So many People, So Little Room!

First things first, let’s talk about attendance levels. Hall H is capable of housing 6,500 people at once. That’s more than a lot of high schools in the US! But apparently, people spent the night before camped out just so they could get inside the Hall. Judging by the videos we got, it was still full to bursting. Not only that, but attendees got a special gift: Dr. Doom masks! People were already posting photos of themselves wearing them on social media. And I think I saw someone already listed one on eBay. I won’t judge, but couldn’t they have waited until after the panel?

Speaking of which, the panel did have a minor hiccup to it. Apparently, the one before it ran long, so the panel started a little later than planned. Nonetheless, once things got started, pretty much everyone who’s going to have a role in Doomsday and beyond showed up. And there were just so many announcements that I had trouble keeping up with everything. Admittedly, I think it was a missed opportunity for Marvel not to have the trailer for Doomsday premiere at Comic Con, but I can understand why they chose that. Besides, what fans did see made up for it, starting with a sizzle reel of what I assume was most of the Marvel live-action works over the last twenty years.

Ryan Gosling is…GHOST RIDER!

For our first big announcement, we’ve got something that’s gonna make a lot of people happy: Ryan Gosling is coming to the MCU as Ghost Rider.

Ghost Rider may not be as well-known as some of the heavy hitters of the Marvel universe, but everyone who knows of him knows how much of a badass he is. So, his getting a movie in the MCU is a big win for Marvel’s spirit of vengeance. Granted, Ghost Rider is already a part of the MCU thanks to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., but these days, I’m not sure where that show lies in the timeline; or multiverse, for that matter. His movie comes out in 2028, putting it firmly in the post-Secret Wars era of the MCU. And did I mention it was being directed by Shawn Levy?

For something in the more immediate future, though, we’ve got Visionquest coming out on Disney+ on October 14th. This series is set to continue the story of Vision, who we last saw almost five years ago after his revival during the Wandavision incident. And in the more immediate future, attendees got to see a clip of Spider-Man: Brand New Day a few days before it comes out in theaters. I’ll be reviewing it, but I swear, they had BETTER give Peter the happiness he deserves, because I am still angry over him getting screwed over! OUR BOY DIDN’T DESERVE THAT!

At least there is one young hero who looks set to get some recognition in the future, though: the Black Panther.

The New Black Panther Had Better be T’Challa II

Losing Chadwick Boseman to cancer had to have been one of the worst things to happen in 2020. He had become a cultural icon and inspired so many people as the Black Panther, and while Wakanda Forever helped give us closure, we still miss him in the role. However, it seems like Marvel is ready to bring T’Challa back from the dead…sort of.

So, remember how at the end of Wakanda Forever, we learned that T’Challa and Nakia had a son, also named T’Challa? The moment I saw him, I realized that Marvel was likely going to have him take up his dad’s role as Black Panther in the future. Lo and behold, I seem to be right. Ryan Coogler took to the stage in Hall H and confirmed that in 2028, we would be getting a third Black Panther movie, with David Johnson taking up the role of T’Challa. It’s not outright said if this just recasting T’Challa I or aging up T’Challa II post-Secret Wars, but I’m willing to bet on the latter. Disney is not so greedy as to move from Chadwick’s legacy so soon.

And now, we need to talk about the biggest surprise of the panel: another new trailer for Avengers: Doomsday. But first, let’s just go over what we got from the first one.

The first Doomsday Trailer

I’ve had a few days to stew over the first official trailer for Avengers: Doomsday, and there were two things that I managed to focus on in the midst of all the chaos. Firstly, Marvel seems to be using Doomsday to lay the groundwork for the X-Men and Fantastic Four to move to the main MCU. That was always the game plan since Disney bought Fox, but they can’t do it haphazardly. Doomsday and Secret Wars are, for all intents and purposes, Marvel reuniting a house divided over the last two decades. Since I’m a big fan of the X-Men, I think it’s about time that they come home.

Secondly, besides the return of Steve Rogers, or at least a variant of him, the one thing the trailer showed us was this: Dr. Doom is f**#*ing terrifying. When I saw Thor charge at him with Stormbreaker, only for Doom to catch it with his fingers, I was reminded why Doom is one of the biggest villains Marvel has to offer. And this is only scratching the surface of what he is capable of in the comics. However, I think the trailer shown in Hall H made him even more terrifying.

NEW FOOTAGE!

I saw some leaked footage of the trailer on Twitter; it was grainy, and you can barely see what’s going on, but you can understand the basics. We hear how Doom was once a much kinder soul, but whatever hardship he faced in life turned him into who he is. And we see him terrorizing the heroes throughout the multiverse, to the point where the normally cool and collected Reed Richards is visibly angry with him. And that scene where he’s aura-farming with Thor? Right after no-selling his attack, we see him summon the Sentinels, the Mutant-hunting robots that make the Terminator look like child’s play, to serve as his new minions. I could barely see them, but it looks like they were the nightmarish MK. II Sentinels from Days of Future Past that almost killed everyone. If you saw that movie, then you know just how terrifying they are, and what this means for the heroes!

There was just so much big news coming out of the Hall H panel this year, if you ask me. I wish that I could have been there to see it all in person, but for those who were there, they got to witness history in the making. With Doomsday less than five months away, we are in for a crazy ride!