From Doctor Doom's backstory to new Ghost Rider: Everything Marvel announced at Comic-Con 2026

Dubai: Marvel Studios skipped San Diego Comic-Con entirely in 2025, which meant expectations were already running high heading into this year's return. This is, after all, the same panel that's previously delivered some of the MCU's biggest surprises in recent memory, including Robert Downey Jr.'s shock casting as Doctor Doom and entire phase lineups revealed in one sitting.

Before the panel even began, all roughly 6,500 attendees in Hall H were handed Doctor Doom masks and capes, a clear early signal of how much of the night was about to centre on Avengers: Doomsday. Kevin Feige opened the presentation proper with a sizzle reel rather than jumping straight into news, spanning the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and the Thunderbolts, narrated in part by Nick Fury discussing bringing together "a group of remarkable people," before closing on Wolverine simply saying, "Let's go."

Feige then took the stage himself, telling the crowd plainly why they were all there. "Today, we're mainly going to talk about movies," he said, "because that is what brings us together in the world."

What followed was close to two hours of news, spanning a film releasing in five months and others that won't arrive until 2028.

Avengers: Doomsday adds another familiar face

The panel's centrepiece was Avengers: Doomsday, due in theatres on 18 December this year. The Russo Brothers themselves introduced the cast on stage, where Hayley Atwell was confirmed to return as Peggy Carter, joining Chris Evans's Steve Rogers, Robert Downey Jr.'s Doctor Doom and Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards. It's the first major cast confirmation since Marvel's record-breaking livestream reveal of 27 actors when the film first began production last year.

New footage shown during the panel focused specifically on the pre-existing relationship between Doom and the Fantastic Four. Vanessa Kirby's Sue Storm narrated the opening moments, describing Doom in strikingly personal terms: "Victor was always the smartest guy in every room. He used to be different. He used to be kind. He used to be caring. Then everything he loved was taken from him. I knew he was lost, but I did not realize that he was broken." Later in the footage, Pascal's Reed Richards confronts Doom directly, demanding to know: "Did you do this? Answer me, Victor, did you do this?"

Downey Jr. used his own stage time to tease the film's central conflict further, telling the crowd that "decisions will have to be made" about who might end up "joining the family of Doom." He confirmed Doom and Richards share real history within this version of the MCU, setting up a storyline where some of the franchise's most familiar heroes may end up pulled toward Doom's side rather than against him. A new poster was released alongside the reveal, showing Downey Jr.'s Doom attire from the front for the first time.

A new Disney+ series closes out the Wanda trilogy

Beyond the film slate, Feige also confirmed VisionQuest, a new Disney+ series that will bring the story arc started in WandaVision and continued through Agatha All Along to a close. The series is set to debut on 14 October.

A first look at Spider-Man: Brand New Day

With Spider-Man: Brand New Day opening in just days, on 31 July, Jon Bernthal crashed the panel almost immediately after the Ghost Rider announcement to remind Feige, and the crowd, that his film was about to hit theatres. He brought exclusive footage with him, centred on his Punisher going head to head with Tom Holland's Spider-Man, with Mark Ruffalo's Hulk also caught in the middle of the confrontation. It's a notably different tone from the street-level Spider-Man stories fans are used to, hinting at a bigger, more chaotic film than the marketing has suggested so far.

Deadpool crashes the panel, in character, to beg for a role

Midway through the Avengers: Doomsday segment, Feige called on someone in the crowd holding what he described as "the swords." Up stood Ryan Reynolds, fully in character as Deadpool, introducing himself only as "Ricky," insisting it was "a mononym, like Cher or Madonna," and that he was simply "cosplaying hard."

Working the room like a genuine Q&A, Ricky's first question went to Paul Rudd: "Where is Thor, and why was he crying?" a callback to a scene in 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine. Rudd shot back, "Maybe he's a Wrexham fan?" a dig at the football club Reynolds co-owns in real life.

Ricky's second question was less subtle. He asked when filming on Doomsday would start, calling the whole panel "an awfully expensive way to announce a movie." Downey Jr. cut him off from the stage: "It's in the can, bro. Look around you." A visibly deflated Ricky pushed once more, "So there's no additional photography, no overages, hot costs, maybe last minute additions?" Co-director Anthony Russo left the door open rather than shutting it: "We keep making the movie until they pry it out of our hands." Ricky, apparently satisfied, wrapped it up: "No further questions. Happy Hogan, fetch the Audi. We're leaving," and walked out of Hall H.

Reynolds hasn't been officially confirmed for Avengers: Doomsday, but the appearance did nothing to quiet the rumours. He'd separately confirmed at July's Fanatics Fest that a new standalone Deadpool film is also somewhere on the way, though with no further detail yet.

Endgame returns to theatres

Before any new footage played, Feige teased a re-release of Avengers: Endgame, returning to cinemas on 25 September with new footage connecting it directly to Doomsday. It's a deliberate move on Marvel's part, using one of the franchise's most beloved and highest-grossing films to build momentum straight into December's release, rather than treating Doomsday as a standalone event.

Ghost Rider and Black Panther 3 rounded out the big reveals

The two standalone announcements we've already covered in detail closed out the panel, and both drew some of the loudest reactions of the night, both officially confirmed as part of Marvel's Phase 7 slate. Ryan Gosling was confirmed as the MCU's Ghost Rider, playing Johnny Blaze in a 2028 film directed by Shawn Levy, who previously steered 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine for the studio and is already working alongside Gosling on the unrelated Star Wars: Starfighter.

Black Panther 3 followed as the panel's final reveal. David Jonsson was introduced as an older version of Toussaint, T'Challa's grown son, walking out to a standing ovation as sections of the crowd broke into chants, directed once again by Ryan Coogler, also set for a 2028 release.

What fans didn't get

Notably absent from the entire panel: any update on Avengers: Secret Wars or Marvel's long-rumoured X-Men reboot. The latter has technically been in development since July 2019, with Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier attached, yet still without a cast, plot details, or release date shared publicly. Reports suggest that news on both fronts is being held back deliberately for Disney's D23 Expo in August, meaning this likely isn't the last major Marvel announcement of the summer.