This Friday, Disney fans gather in California for D23 Expo 2022, a convention celebrating all the entertainment giant has to offer. It will be the first D23 convention since 2019, when Disney Plus launched, and will also mark the company’s 100th anniversary (which is next year, but companies love to prolong these celebrations) — so you can expect some major announcements from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and more.
D23 2022 runs Sept. 9-11 at the Anaheim Convention Center, right beside Disneyland. Tickets are sold out, but people who can’t make it will be able to livestream certain parts of the event from home.
Beyond the animated classics Disney was built on, the company owns Marvel, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Avatar, Pixar and more beloved franchises. So you can expect plenty of updates about upcoming movies and shows set in those universes. It’ll be a bit like Star Wars Celebration, which happened at the same location in May, with a wider scope.
CNET will be reporting live from the show floor, capturing the hype of panel reveals and reunions, and checking out the creative cosplay. If you can’t make it to Anaheim or just want to plan out your convention, here’s a quick look at where and when big news is likely to drop.
Friday, Sept. 9
Gamers will want to tune in for the Disney & Marvel Game Showcase (1 p.m. PT), which will include a “sneak peek at the upcoming Marvel ensemble game from Skydance New Media.” A trailer for this panel hints that we’ll see Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Aliens: Dark Descent. Hopefully it’ll bring an update about Star Wars Jedi: Survivor as well. This panel will be livestreamed.
The Disney and Pixar Studio Showcase (3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. PT) will be the day’s main event, since it’ll shine the spotlight on upcoming movies and Disney Plus shows. It’ll include CGI-animated movie Strange World (which comes out in November), as well as Pixar’s 2023 movie Elemental and Disney Plus show Win or Lose. We’ll also learn more about Iwájú, a sci-fi series set in Lagos, Nigeria, that’s coming to Disney Plus next year.
Given the panel’s length and scope, we could also get a peek at Enchanted sequel Disenchanted, Hocus Pocus 2 and Haunted Mansion, as well as live-action remakes Peter Pan & Wendy and The Little Mermaid. This panel won’t be livestreamed, so keep an eye on CNET for all the happenings.
D23 could reveal more about Namor’s role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Marvel Studios
Saturday, Sept. 10
Day two starts with another big one: Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm and 20th Century Studios Showcase (10 a.m. to noon PT).
On the Marvel front, we’ll likely get another trailer for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and a look at the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (since both are due out in 2022). If Marvel wants to build hype for 2023, it could offer a taste of movies like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and The Marvels, or Disney Plus series Secret Invasion. Fantastic Four isn’t out until 2024, but we might hear about that as well.
Lucasfilm will almost certainly have some Star Wars news, like further details about upcoming Disney Plus series Andor, as well as premiere dates for The Mandalorian season 3 and The Bad Batch season 2. It’s possible we’ll find out about Boba Fett’s next adventure too. If Lucasfilm wants to bring us back to a galaxy closer to home, we still don’t have a trailer or even a title for the fifth Indiana Jones movie.
Finally, 20th Century Studios has one major movie coming this year: Avatar: The Way Of Water, James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel. D23 attendees will probably see a new trailer or clips from the movie ahead of its Dec. 16 release.
This panel won’t be included in Saturday’s livestream.
Sunday, Sept. 11
The highlight of the show’s final day will be the theme park-centric A Boundless Future: Disney Parks, Experiences and Products presentation (10:30 a.m to noon PT). This will reveal plans for US parks like California’s Disneyland and Florida’s Disney World, along with international locations Disneyland Paris, Shanghai Disney Resort, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and Tokyo Disney Resort.
We could get an opening date for Splash Mountain revamp Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and details about changes coming to Epcot. This panel will be livestreamed.
