ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Disney teased its upcoming movies and television series including “Moana 2” in a rousing showcase featuring sneak peaks, live performances and surprise appearances from actors including Dwayne Johnson, Zoe Saldaña and Jude Law.
Fans at Disney’s D23 convention welcomed CEO Bob Iger with a standing ovation Friday at the top of the showcase. “The world needs to be entertained maybe even more so now than ever before and we take that responsibility seriously,” he said before presentations teased new movies in the “Avatar,” “Toy Story” and “Incredibles” franchises.
In the evening’s first surprise, Auli’i Cravalho and Dwayne Johnson of “Moana” jolted the crowd of over 15,000 at the Honda Center with a performance of a song featuring drummers and dancers in costumes styled after the beloved animated movie.
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The actors are reprising their roles as Moana and Maui, respectively, in “Moana 2,” which is set to hit theaters Nov. 27. Before showing an extended sneak peek of the film, Johnson said that working on the films has been special to him, noting that his daughters, who are 6 and 8 years old, were in the crowd.
Disney subsequently released the film’s first full-length trailer online. The footage introduces characters new (Moana now has a little sister) and familiar, like her pet pig Pua and the Kakamora, a band of dart-blowing coconut-clad pirates.
Johnson also announced that he’d be continuing his long-running work on Disney projects to create a “Monster Jam” live-action movie. The studio did not announce any updates to Johnson’s other Disney project, the live-action “Moana,” that is in development.
Star Wars updates
Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni teased the May 2026 Star Wars film “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” which they said only started filming recently. Favreau said he felt compelled to “put something together” for the showcase and showed a brief clip featuring the title characters, as he put it, “on a whole new journey.”
Law spoke about “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew,” announcing it will be coming to Disney+ on Dec. 3.
“I fell in love with 'Star Wars’ when I was a 10-year-old boy,” Law said before sharing footage from the show, which has been billed as a coming-of-age tale.
Updates on ‘Avatar,’ ‘Frozen’ and Pixar sequels
Pixar Animation Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter announced the studio is developing a third “The Incredibles” movie, with Brad Bird returning as director.
“Toy Story 5” director Andrew Stanton said it'll be toys versus tech in the summer 2026 film featuring Woody, Buzz and the rest of the crew.
Jennifer Lee, the chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, shared concept art from “Frozen III” that features Anna, Elsa and Olaf looking onto the horizon with an ominous creature lurking close behind them. The film will arrive in 2027.
Director James Cameron and actors Zoe Saldaña and Sam Worthington reunited on stage to announce the official title of the third “Avatar” movie: “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
“The new film is not what you expect, but it’s definitely what you want,” said Cameron, who will be bestowed “Disney Legends” status in a ceremony to close out D23 on Sunday.
Fans got a look at “Zootopia 2,” coming to theaters November 2025. The film’s star Ginnifer Goodwin also announced Ke Huy Quan will be joining the cast as a snake.
Fresh off Comic-Con, Marvel teases more
Following the blitz of announcements from Marvel at Comic-Con International, the studio's president Kevin Feige came out after a welcome video from Ryan Reynolds, who thanked the crowd for supporting his box office record-breaking “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
Ryan Coogler, the director of the “Black Panther” movies, joined Feige to discuss “Ironheart," starring Dominique Thorne and Anthony Ramos. The cast introduced a first look at the series that follows Thorne’s character, Riri Williams, who was first introduced in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.”
Feige also spoke about “Marvel’s first family,” the Fantastic Four. Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach said hello to the audience in a short video clip in their costumes from the set in the U.K., where filming began late last month.
Fans also got a glimpse of the first look at “Daredevil: Born Again,” set to start streaming on Disney+ in March. Feige said the new series will channel the essence of the Netflix original, with Charlie Cox reprising his role as Matt Murdock, but will also set the characters on a new path. A second season is in the works.
Big musical moments
Music will be a key part of “Mufasa: The Lion King,” the upcoming prequel to the 2019 photo-realistic film, a remake of the 1994 animated classic. Director Barry Jenkins and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who created original music for the new movie, introduced a clip featuring a new song, “I Always Wanted a Brother,” which depicts the early relationship between Mufasa and Scar.
Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot took to the stage to promote their live-action “Snow White” movie, which is scheduled for March 2025. Zegler plays the original Disney princess and “Wonder Woman” Gadot plays the evil queen. The film will feature new songs from duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, known for “La La Land” and “Dear Evan Hansen.”
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Jared Leto and Jeff Bridges took to the stage to promote “Tron: Ares,” which will be scored by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' Nine Inch Nails.
Kathryn Hahn performed a new song from her upcoming Marvel series “Agatha All Along,” another earworm for fans of the 2021 “WandaVision” musical number. She praised the songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, who wrote the hit song from “WandaVision” that the series is named after and previously penned hits from “Frozen” and “Coco."
‘Freaky Friday’ returns
Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan announced the official title for the highly anticipated “Freaky Friday” sequel, “Freakier Friday.”
Curtis, who will be honored as a Disney Legend on Sunday, said she felt like no time had passed since they filmed the 2003 movie as they shared the first images from the new film.
Pixar talks its new stories, series
Docter also announced an original Pixar film, “Hoppers,” starring Bobby Moynihan and Jon Hamm, and shared exclusive looks at upcoming film “Elio.” The young star of “Elio,” Yonas Kibreab, brought Saldaña back onstage and announced her as a lead character, joining America Ferrera and Jameela Jamil in the cast. The movie will hit theaters in June 2025.
Pixar will also have two new series hitting Disney+ in a first for the studio. Following the record-breaking success of “Inside Out 2,” the studio is creating “Dream Productions,” a show set in between “Inside Out” and “Inside Out 2,” that will start streaming on Disney+ in 2025. “Win or Lose,” the first Pixar longform series, will hit Disney+ Dec. 6.
Feature image from Walt Disney Animation Studios via Associated Press
