SDCC 2017: Marvel Always Brings the Fun With Casting, Trailers and More!

The Marvel panel at SDCC has become an event onto itself. With major surprises and lots of fun had, the film giant is always making headlines for the information they give out. And this year, it’s no different. The panel this year consisted of casting news, a new trailer and much more fun. Here are just some of the highlights from the panel.

Stars Paul Rudd and Michael Peña hosted a silly video that played for fans all leading up to a major casting announcement. Michelle Pfeiffer is joining the MCU! She’ll be playing Janet Van Dyne in Ant-Man and the Wasp.

We also learned a little more about Captain Marvel. The film will be set in the 1990s! Wasn’t expecting that time but it’s cool. Also the villain was announced as the Skrulls. It will be the first time the infamous alien race will be in the Marvel films. They were able to show concept art at the panel.

Next up was the Thor: Ragnarok segment. A large lineup consisted of Taika Waititi, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Mark Ruffalo, Tessa Thompson, Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum, Karl Urban and Rachel House. Hemsworth spoke about “pushing the envelope” with Thor, marking things such as his haircut, his loss of the hammer, his clothing, etc. According to Hiddleston, it’s been 4 years since Loki’s taken over the throne and he hasn’t been the best ruler. He may, in fact, have a part to play in the rising threat of Ragnarok.

Mark Ruffalo was able to talk about the Hulk and confirmed that Bruce Banner has been the Hulk for 2 years or so. Which would explain why he is now speaking. Though apparently he speaks like “a 2 year old”. Hulk doesn’t want to turn back into Bruce Banner, having enjoyed his time on Sakaar, and has become a major gladiator champion.

Jeff Goldblum was able to confirm what we were all thinking – The Grandmaster is in fact the brother to Benicio del Toro‘s The Collector. In fact, he’s even confirmed they’re far beyond what people think. “We’re Elders of the Universe. We came about shortly after the Big Bang.” Quite a life! Thompson was able to talk briefly about Valkyrie and that she’s an elite warrior of Asgard who is hanging out on Sakaar for reasons she can’t elaborate on. Karl Urban was also able to squeeze a Star Trek joke in there.

The audience was shown footage that contained more information about Sakaar. It showed Thor getting a security disk put on him so he doesn’t leave. In addition, it showed Korg, a Planet Hulk character that fans are delighted to see. Thor is given a gladiator title of “Lord of Thunder”. Then they rolled the trailer!

Next was the Black Panther segment. On stage came Ryan Coogler, Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong’o, Michael B. Jordan, Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira, Andy Serkis, Daniel Kaluuya and Forest Whitaker. Boseman was able to express his happiness at how excited the fans were for the film. He explains that T’Challa is new at ruling and also grieving the loss of his father. That process gets interrupted, however. I wonder who would be trying to steal the throne….hmmmm.

Coogler was incredibly honored to be there, growing up in Oakland and loving Spider-Man and X-Men. He wanted to a comic book character to look like him and that’s how he found Black Panther. And he says the best thing about the comic is that T’Challa got power from his history and people around him.

Wright spoke of Shuri being a tech “wiz” and a scientist of Wakanda. She was said that it she was able to play “A strong black woman [and] It was beautiful to play that.” Gurira spoke of Okoye and how she had to learn to use all these different weapons that she had to use. Jordan spoke of how Eric Killmonger has his own ideas as to the way Wakanda is supposed to be run. Even saying that “He has his eyes on the throne”. We learned more of Zuri, the spiritual advisor played by Whitaker. He was a close friend of T’Chaka and has been working with T’Challa for years.

We learned more of a character we haven’t heard much from – W’Kabi. Played by Kaluuya, he’s T’Challa’s oldest friend. He’s a “hidden” character, watching over everything the comes in and out of Wakanda. We also heard from Nyong’o that her character is actually a spy for Wakanda. And the group of spies are known as “war dogs”, citing that Wakanda needs to know about the world but the world does not need to know about Wakanda. A familiar face is finally spoken about – Klaue played by Serkis. Apparently Klaue will be getting his arm back! Finally, M’Baku. He is described as the “big, strong, ferocious, majestic, beloved leader of Jabari tribe in Wakanda”. Footage was then shown. The cast got a standing ovation!

According to the A.V. Club the footage goes as follows:

The clip reportedly opened with Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa arriving at a casino of some sort with Lupita Nyong’o‘s Nakia, intent on stopping a meeting between Andy Serkis’ Klaue (now with a robotic arm after Ultron cut off his old one) and Martin Freeman’s Everett Ross. Before the two of them can do any bad stuff, though, T’Challa jumps in and starts fighting (some of which was seen in the trailer), with Klaw’s arm transforming into a weapon and the Black Panther suit forming around T’Challa. We’re not sure what that looked like exactly, but it was probably awesome enough to put Iron Man and his increasingly involved suit-up tricks to shame. The clip then jumped to a car chase set to Kendrick Lamar’s “Loyalty,” and later the Black Panther suit formed over T’Challa again but now with slightly different gold accents.

New posters debuted for both Thor: Ragnarok and Black Panther. As Feige tried to leave the stage – he was brought back. Why? Cause there was more footage. Fans were treated to Infinity War footage by Joe Russo! Apparently the footage is the same that was shown at D-23.

And while there wasn’t much spectacle this year, there was a lot more footage! Check out the posters below and be sure to stay tuned for the final day of SDCC tomorrow!