Holy crap, the end of that Comic-Con panel was the biggest twist Marvel's pulled in years

After spending the last couple of years in what might be politely be termed a form of cinematic dormancy—and buoyed by a new film that promises to be its first major hit in a minute—Marvel hit Comic-Con hard this evening. The company's big Hall H panel this evening wasn't quite as brutally ambitious as the wild push it made back in the summer of 2019 (when it laid out an incredibly ambitious slate of TV shows and films, most of which have now finally made it to air), but it was still a pretty big swing from Kevin Feige and his many, many friends.The panel opened with the requisite roll of clips, with Deadpool, unsurprisingly, taking pride of place up front—followed by the appearance of an actual choir, bedecked in red and yellow robes, singing Madonna's "Like A Prayer," which plays over Deadpool & Wolverine's big action climax. (Also, Rob Delaney, a mainstay of the last two Deadpool movies, was on hand to moderate.)After taking a quick victory lap (noting that the MCU has now passed the $30 billion mark) Feige got down to new business, focused on the company's three major film releases in 2025. First up, that meant Captain America: Brave New World, bringing out stars Anthony Mackie, Tim Blake Nelson, Danny Ramirez, and Giancarlo Esposito to talk up the film. Feige stated his goal to get back to the grounded espionage action of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, while Mackie noted that, as a less "muscular" Cap, he's got to give a more cerebral version of the character. And Esposito confirms that he was all but fan-cast into the movie, where he'll be playing Sidewinder, leader of classic Captain America bad guys The Serpent Society. (Albeit, with less of a "completely made up of snake-themed supervillains" thing, on account of the "groundedness" of it all.)After showing some footage from the film—culminating in a more full reveal of Harrison Ford's much-hinted-at alter ego in the film, the Red Hulk, including, as we have been waiting for weeks to find out, whether he will have a big red Harrison Ford Hulk face (Yes!)—Ford himself came out on stage, miming his "hulking out" process for the assembled crowd. Ford sounded genuinely game as he noted that he's "proud" to be joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe, building on the work "Bill" Hurt had done with the character, and saying "I wanted a piece of the action." (Oh, also, the footage had Ford saying "adamantium," laying down one more breadcrumb for the eventual mutantification of the MCU.Next up: Thunderbolts!Feige brought out director Jake Schreier, plus stars Sebastian Stan, Wyatt Russell, Florence Pugh, Hannah John-Kamen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Lewis Pullman, Geraldine Viswanathan, and David Harbour—the last of whom came out in costume and sporting his Russian accent. Also, Feige clarified that, despite earlier reports, Ford won't be in this one. Also also, the title was shown with an asterisk after the name, with no one being willing to say what's up with that. (The original Thunderbolts comic was notorious for hiding a major, premise-altering twist in the pages of its first issue, so your guess is as good as ours.)Although Thunderbolts* didn't get any kind of full teaser or trailer treatment, Pugh did introduce a short clip from the film (focused on her character, Yelena), which is due out May 5 of 2025, and which centers on a premise that you can probably just think of as "Marvel Suicide Squad."And now, the main event: Fantastic Four, which begins filming on Tuesday, and so doesn't have any footage to show. Still, director Matt Shakman was on hand to talk up the film while his cast prepared themselves in London. (Also, they said the movie will be out a year from this weekend, which is the closest we've gotten to a release date as of  yet.) Shakman did show off a clip, though: A retro newsreel bit that showed Pedro Pascal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach in character. Oh, and Feige totally lied: The entire cast (Pascal, Moss-Bachrach, Vanessa Kirby, and Joseph Quinn) promptly joined him and Shakman on stage as they rolled out the movie's official title: Fantastic Four: First Steps.Finally, Feige was left alone on the stage, where he announced that every actor who'd appeared on the stage tonight will appear in the next two Avengers movies. Then he showed off clips from all the Marvel films directed by Joe and Anthony Russo—Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame—before bringing the brothers themselves out on stage. After the pair acknowledged that they thought Endgame would be "the end of the road for them," they said they now think they see a path back to Marvel: Avengers: Secret Wars. The phrases "incredibly ambitious" and "World-colliding epic-ness" were employed, apparently without shame. But, the Russos stated, they needed one more movie (Avengers: Doomsday), and another character that Marvel hadn't deployed as of yet to tell the story they're thinking of: Doctor Doom. Oh, and then they finally announced who'll be playing the iconic villain, having him remove his Doom mask on stage: Robert Downey Jr., who declared "New Mask. Same task. What can I tell you, I like playing complicated characters."What, we ask, the genuine fuck? Panel over!