D23 Expo 2019 Recap: Day 2!8/25/2019 I don't know about anybodsy else, but I'm still recovering from the massive reveals Friday! So many amazing new Disney+ shows for all my favorite geeky interests! But wait, there's more! Saturday saw more annoucements and updates, this time about their cinematic film efforts. Let's go over what we learned!
Star Wars and it's various teams spent a good amount of time on stage for yesterday's D23 panel, covering all their new shows: The Mandalorian, The Clone Wars Season 7, the Cassian Andor espionage series, and the Obi-Wan Kenobi series! Even with all those announcements, Star Wars still had more to come. On Saturday, the cast took to the stage to show off the new poster for the upcoming final installment of the Skywalker saga, The Rise of Skywalker. We have long known now that this movie will be the end of the traditional Star Wars films as we know them so far--stories of Anakin Skywalker and his progeny. Many people theorize, and I have to agree with them, that this decision was reached after the relative box office failures of the movies Solo and Rogue One, not to mention the incredible fan backlash at various decisions made for the previous two films in the sequel trilogy. While some of their critics may have had some good points, a lot of the angry fans were just that: angry fans that were mad the story didn't go the way THEY wanted it to. It's unfortunate we live in a time where fans of something as incredible and vast as Star Wars are entitled enough to think they know how to make the stories better than the filmmakers, but that's a post for another day. So while I am sad that we won't be seeing any Star Wars movies anytime soon, I am very glad Kathleen Kennedy and the rest of the Lucas Films team fond a solution other than taking their fictional universe back into the shadows for another twenty years. The Rise of Skywalker comes out December 20th! During Marvel's turn on the panel, the cast of the upcoming phase four film The Eternals took the stage together. Making it a truly special reveal, behind the actors was displayed an enormous image of the final concept art for their respective characters. For many MCU fans, this is the first time they are seeing these characters period. The Eternals as characters have not been as involved in comics recently as they once were (in fact, as of the past year or so, they are pretty much all dead), and have never been mentioned in the movies, so the initial announcements for the movie were met with some trepidation. Consider that hesitation completely gone now, as fans' hearts have been totally won over by this cast! The cast includes Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Barry Keoghan, Ma Dong-Seok, and Lea McHugh. Joining the film as well, as announced at this panel, are Gemma Chan and Kit Harrington. As far as representation goes, I am absolutely head over heels for this cast! Hyek, Ridloff, and McHugh are all women playing characters who were originally men, evening out the male-female disparity from 8-and-2 to a much more pleasing 5-women, 5-men spread. Additionally, this cast is probably the most diverse in terms of race as well. Not only is The Eternals directed by Chloe Zhao, a Chinese-American woman, the cast itself is made up of three Asian actors, two of African descent, and their leader, Ajak, is Latina. This racial representation, plus the fact the team is equal parts women and men, is outstanding. I recently came across a chart that showed the spread of women versus men in comic book teams (check out the whole page for more comparisons on the treatment of men and women in comics), with an alarming 8% having more women than men. That means 92% of all teams in comic books have more men than women. That's pretty sad, seeing as women definitely take up more space than 8% of all comics. With this new cast, I see hope for a brighter, more accurately representative future in both film and comics books. That, and I'm just plain excited to see this movie! I'm all about crazy spacey sci-fi babble, which is a lot of what Eternals lore is. Bring it on! Aside from The Eternals, Marvel announced Saturday the sequal for box-office hit and fan favorite, Black Panther! Director Ryan Coogler joined Kevin Feige on stage to let fans know Black Panther II will be in theaters May 6th, 2020! The film will feature Chadwick Boseman reprising his role as T'Challa, king of Wakanda, but not much else is known about the plot or returning and new characters. After Marvel and Lucas Films had their bit, Disney came out to wrap up the panel with some tidbits about other upcoming releases and projects. Cruella will star Emma Stone as the infamous Cruella de Ville. This 101 Dalmatians villain is getting her own backstory. Her story takes place in the 1970's London punk-scene, s get ready for a Maleficent style retelling of her classic story! Last, Dawyne Jhnson and Emily Blunt came out on stage to talk about their new movie, The Jungle Cruise. This movie is based off the Disneyland ride of the same name, and will show the two leads going on a trip funded by Paul Giamatti's character. I really want to get excited about this movie, I do. I have a deep respect for Emily Blunt, who is an incredible actress, and mother, but I'm worried by this quote from the Rock onstage. He states how he wishes to make Walt (Disney) proud, and this movie will feature “heroic men kicking ass and saving the girl.” Um, sorry, but what? I was hoping we as a society were beyond the idea of men being big and bold and women being damsels in distress. I understand it's a theme of a certain style of story, but it is the year 2019, and those types of stories can easily be written with strong women, so why are we supposedly regressing? I digress. All in all, D23 has been an incredible journey this year. We've had amazing examples of representation, fan service, and some really super teases for some really super projects. Sunday is day 3, so get comfortable, more to come!
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