The animated films presentation at the D23 Expo 2015 was on Friday afternoon, and it was incredibly awesome. So much was revealed, but there were so many more fans awaiting the live-action panel on Saturday morning. Disney did not disappoint as they revealed footage and info about Doctor Strange , Captain America: Civil War , Pete’s Dragon , The Jungle Book , Through The Looking Glass , Star Wars , and more.
It was just an incredible presentation with many special guests such as Kevin Feige, Anthony Mackie, Chris Evans, Bryce Dallas Howaard, Mia Wasikowska, Lupita Nyong’o, and more. There was so much to take in, and it just kept getting better.
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige introduced Doctor Strange and showed some art department work, but no footage. It looks really impressive, but then it was time for Captain America: Civil War , and a full description of that footage can be checked out here .
After the Marvel excitement , it was time for a look at The Finest Hours , which is a true story about a real-life rescue tanker on the Atlantic Ocean. It stars Chris Pine, Holliday Granger, Eric Bana, and Casey Affleck.
The next film was The Jungle Book , which had a little footage shown including Bill Murray singing “Bare Necessities” as Baloo, and it was amazing. The film looks as if it is going to be beautiful and quite incredible.
Tim Burton’s Through the Looking Glass followed it up on how Alice must return to Wonderland because something is wrong with the Mad Hatter. Then, they moved onto the new Pete’s Dragon , which will star Robert Redford and many others. The panel then went into The Queen of Katwe , which is a film about a teenage chess prodigy.
Next up was the live-action Beauty and the Beast , which has some recorded messages from the cast, but not much more really.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales was next on the slate, and Orlando Bloom will officially return as Will Turner and Geoffrey Rush is back as Captain Barbossa. A new villain will arrive, and he is named Captain Salazar.
That is when Johnny Depp appeared on stage in full Captain Jack Sparrow costume, and the crowd went insane.
“Is anyone allergic to grapes,” Johnny Depp asks before hurling them into the crowd. People are scrambling for them. #D23Expo
— Dan Casey (@osteoferocious) August 15, 2015
Once all of those movies had come and gone at the D23 Expo, it was officially time for Star Wars . Alan Horn said, “There’s only one place left to go from here,” and then the Lucasfilm logo appeared on the screen and the crowd went crazy.
Star Wars Episode IX will be directed by Colin Trevorrow, who just directed the big hit Jurassic World . There was some discussion of the Han Solo origin story and how it will come about, and Star Wars: Rogue One is currently filming in London.
#StarWars : Rogue One cast: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Alan Tudyk, Mads Mikkelsen, Forrest Whitaker. #D23Expo — Dan Casey (@osteoferocious) August 15, 2015
JJ Abrams spoke about the film, and Harrison Ford himself showed up unannounced to a gigantic standing ovation. After he said he is happy to be there, he received another standing ovation.
One interesting note is that the anthology films in the Star Wars franchise will now be known as Star Wars Stories .
After that, a schedule of the movies was displayed, and then Disney head Bob Iger took to the stage.
The Pirates of the Caribbean films are so incredibly far below current Disney quality… #D23Expo pic.twitter.com/N1QoyeRVtX
— Ziggy (@mrjafri) August 15, 2015
That was when Bob Iger officially announced that both Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios would be getting their own version of Star Wars Land. More info is to come at the Parks & Resorts talk later at the D23 Expo, but this news at the live-action movies panel was just the topping on the huge cake.
[Image via Lucasfilm]