Marvel Studios took the stage for their now bi-annual Hall H presentation at San Diego Comic-Con last night (July 25). And while I’m sure there was rapturous, near rabid applause and adulation in the room where it happened, outside of that room we can look at the announcements made as two paths diverging for the MCU. On one path, Marvel is stuck in the problems of the past, making the same mistakes over and over again. On the other path, they’re finally looking towards the future. And curiously, those announcements are the opposite of what you might think.
Let’s lay out some of the basic info, first. The presentation kicked off with the reveal that Ryan Gosling is playing Ghost Rider in a movie tentatively scheduled for 2028, directed by Shawn Levy. That’s pretty much all the info we’ve got on that one, other than Gosling has wanted the role for a long time, has a specific comic book storyline in mind, and he and Levy decided to go forward with the project while on the set of next year’s Star Wars: Starfighter.
The presentation was bookended with the official reveal of Black Panther 3, dated for December 15, 2028, directed by Ryan Coogler, and alongside returning stars Letitia Wright and Winston Duke, they announced that The Long Walk and Alien: Romulus star David Jonsson has been cast as the new Black Panther. He’ll play T’Challa’s son, also named T’Challa, now grown up after the end of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. And a last little bit: Coogler will be filming the movie entirely on large format celluloid film.
In the middle of all of this, Jon Bernthal showed up to play a clip of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and they brought out nearly the entire cast of Avengers: Doomsday for a massive photo opp and footage screening, including the reveal that Hayley Atwell is in the cast as Peggy Carter. And Ryan Reynolds showed up in costume for a Q&A section where he asked if there was still time to add him into the movie (there was no answer there, so no confirmation as to whether Deadpool will be in Doomsday or not).
The sum total of this presentation is that Marvel neither whiffed it nor righted the ship, they just kept on sailing as they have for the most part. Movies are coming out at a regular pace (any TV talk was saved for later, likely to be discussed at next month’s D23 Expo), there are big stars, and plenty of star power. Since 2019, Marvel has been on a downward slide, and there’s an argument to be made that this sort of thing is the equivalent of throwing money at the problem and hoping it will fix things.
I’m not going to make that argument, though. Instead, let’s take a look at Ghost Rider and Black Panther 3, the only two projects we know are coming for sure from Marvel after they release the Doomsday sequel Secret Wars… In essence, the Studios’s statement of what their future is, beyond the bombast of these two bloated epics.
On the surface, Ghost Rider should be what the “future” of Marvel looks like. It’s a fresh take on a beloved comic book character with a beloved star that could be something new and different; possibly a smaller horror movie in the mold of DC’s upcoming Clayface. So why does it feel like a million other announcements made in the past? Part of the reason is announcing the star and the title, with no clear release date other than “2028,” something that has caused Marvel major trouble in the past (see Mahershala Ali’s Blade for more on that). The other is getting Shawn Levy to direct the movie. Yes, he’s brought home a ton of money for his projects, including the blockbuster Deadpool & Wolverine. He’s also a key figure behind Stranger Things, so you could argue a perfect fit for a mix of crowd-pleasing humor, heart, and horror. Except Levy is one of those filmmakers who has no distinct style of his own. That’s what makes him a good TV director, he’s able to slot right into the pre-established look of a show and keep it going. As a movie director, his films are often choppily made, flat looking, and rely too much on the charisma of his stars (frequent collaborator Ryan Reynolds in particular).
It makes sense why you would want to get a director known for delivering things under budget and on time, but this TV approach to Marvel movies, while it worked for many, many years, is part of the M.O. that has consistently derided the studio for pumping out product, rather than creating any particular look or feel. Particularly in a time when audiences are responding to movies that look like something different – something intentional – from The Odyssey to Obsession and Backrooms — Levy does not, and will not deliver that.
There’s also the aspect that this is not a fresh, new idea: there were two previous Ghost Rider movies starring Nicolas Cage that were pretty bad, plus a take on the character on TV on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that was also Not Great. While this is a bit of a hollow argument given we’ve had at least three Spider-Mans on screen, presenting Ghost Rider as a “new” movie feels a lot like the MCU approach to Fantastic Four, where the main feeling going in was hoping the fifth time was the charm (it mostly was, but that movie didn’t necessarily inspire the slavish rejuvenation of the MCU I’d guess Feige and company hoped).
In short? “Another” Ghost Rider movie, with a big star and a director known for being reliable versus visionary is exactly the sort of thing that has led to MCU exhaustion. Will the movie come out in 2028? Probably, because, see above about “reliable.” But will this be the big thing that gets Marvel back on track? Probably not.
Let’s contrast that with the Black Panther 3 announcement(s), which on the surface are backwards looking (it’s a threequel, for goodness sake), but do actually point to the path forward. A third movie in a series, with a recast (sort of) main role… That’s a pretty safe bet if there was one.
Except! David Jonsson is a phenomenal actor (go watch the superb rom-com Rye Lane if you haven’t already, as well as his underutilized turn in HBO’s Industry), and exactly the sort of actor-on-the-rise the MCU used to nab before they started relying on tried-and-true movie stars like Gosling. And on Coogler’s end, after leading Sinners to four Academy Award wins including Best Picture, he has the clout to make a movie how he wants, when he wants. In fact, the key announcement of the whole presentation was that Coogler is directing Black Panther 3 on film. Also backwards looking, right, and decidedly so? But Coogler’s Sinners created a capital “e” Event in IMAX, selling out shows for weeks and months. The Odyssey is doing the same. He is an intentional filmmaker with a vision, and crafting Black Panther 3 on film could indicate a more visceral, realistic experience than we’ve ever gotten in a Marvel movie.
It also has a specific release date, and a cast of tried and true actors who all have done incredible work in the series so far (plus Denzel Washington, who is in the cast but was absent from the presentation). Two decades into the MCU, what these tidbits about Black Panther 3 seem to indicate is Marvel slowly coming around to the idea that hiring filmmakers with vision is more important than merely stocking the shelves. There’s an opportunity after Secret Wars to do just that: really think about why they’re making a movie, and what it says about the characters involved. Basic movie-making stuff, but for the first decade and a half of the MCU, the uber-story, the Studio was the main thing; not the people behind the scenes. It was run like a TV show on a massive budget, and even when audiences responded to a specific vision (say, James Gunn on the Guardians movies), that was folded into the rest of the universe versus providing unique directions forward. The paths did not diverge, they converged.
Is this, indeed, how Marvel is going into the future? Embracing visions, ideas, and less of the CGI nowhere fights that characterized a lot of the previous movies (and seem to pervade Doomsday, based on the scant footage shown publicly)? Maybe, maybe not. But the path forward isn’t an adequate Ghost Rider movie coming out on time and on budget; it’s releasing a film that cuts to the heart and delights the eyes, which Black Panther 3 has every opportunity to become. Either way, we’ll find out in 2028.
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