SDCC: Marvel's big animation panel has zombies, X-Men, and even more hypothetical questions
Marvel dropped news about a third season of What If…? and an early renewal for X-Men '97 today
As we noted a few minutes ago—in the warm haze of vicarious happiness at Charlie Cox getting to beat people up as Daredevil all over again—Marvel Studios ran its animated project panel at San Diego Comic-Con today (with the company’s big live-action panel set for tomorrow, at which point our heads will presumably explode). In addition to news about Disney+’s upcoming Spider-Man: Freshman Year cartoon (including the fact that the show has already gotten a renewal, with the second season being called—what else?—Sophomore Year), Marvel also rolled out details about a bunch of its other animated projects today.
Including, most prominently, the second season of its hypothetical question showcase What If…?, including the reveal of not just a trailer for the second season (sadly, not out on the internet yet) but a whole episode. That, along with pointed comments aimed at the MCU’s What If…?-adjacent entry Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness, with producers of the animated series asserting that their version of Captain Peggy Carter wouldn’t have gotten taken out in a glorified cameo. (Still did better than Black Bolt or Reed Richards, mind you.) Meanwhile, What If…? also officially got a third season renewal, as the counterfactuals just continue to roll in.
In a similar vein, Disney confirmed some new details for What If…?-ish animated series Marvel Zombies, in case you ever needed to see even more of your favorite superheroes both dead and hungry; no release date on that one, though.
For old nerds like us, though, the biggest reveal at today’s panel was new information and animation from X-Men ’97, the animated continuation of the old Fox X-Men cartoon with the very good theme song. Said show is still early in production—and also aimed at a 2023 release—but attendees got to see an animatic that apparently saw the old-school X-Men battling it out with Sentinels, just like in the good old days. Oh, and that show’s getting a second season, too. (Also: Disney+ confirmed today that the old episodes of the show have been reorganized on the service, putting them all in story order.)
So, yeah: A big, beefy buffet of animated news out of SDCC today; but also, only an appetizer for the bonanza that’s going to drop on all our heads tomorrow at 5 p.m., we’re guessing.