Since the 1970s, San Diego Comic-Con has been one of the biggest stages for debuting new comic books, fantasy, and science fiction. Comic-Con played a pivotal role in promoting Star Wars in 1976, and in the 21st century, the legendary Hall H presentations have singled new directions for all sorts of franchises.
But now, at San Diego Comic-Con 2024, Marvel Studios is doing something new. Instead of just one massive Hall H presentation, Marvel will have two. Because Comic-Con is happening the same weekend Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters, the studio will have one of its biggest weekends ever, starting with the Deadpool & Wolverine panel on July 25.
“I think people know we're going to be there on Saturday for our traditional Hall H panel with a lot of fun stuff to look at about our upcoming movies,” Marvel boss Kevin Feige told Deadline. “But what I don't think people know is that we're also going to be in Hall H on Thursday for the first time ever.”
Based on Feige’s comments, Thursday’s Deadpool & Wolverine panel is a kind of bonus Marvel event, while the Saturday panel will reveal Marvel’s upcoming slate of shows and films. But why separate these two events? Marvel has never had two Hall H panels before, so what’s different this year?
Deadpool & Wolverine is the MCU’s only feature film this year, and ironically, it stars two characters who previously weren’t part of the MCU at all. Although there have been hints of crossovers with the X-Men and Deadpool franchises in other corners of the MCU (including Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and the infamous Evan Peters WandaVision fake-out), Deadpool & Wolverine is the most obvious reset button for the MCU since... well, ever.
Beyond the hints that Deadpool & Wolverine will be a multiversal adventure, we still know surprisingly little about how it all connects to the MCU’s primary continuity. The TVA from Loki is involved, and the trailer shows us the title duo jumping through one of Dr. Strange’s portals. But other than that, how this leads into Marvel’s next big slate of movies is unclear. We know the upcoming Fantastic Four takes place in some kind of alternate past, while 2025’s Captain America: Brave New World is introducing the Red Hulk, but how X-Men characters like Wolverine and Deadpool will be integrated into the MCU still remains a mystery.
On top of that mystery, the biggest MCU property of all — the Avengers — has an uncertain future. While Avengers 5 was previously called The Kang Dynasty, that changed in late 2023. As of now, we don’t know what Avengers 5 is called or what it’s about. The good money is that Avengers 5 will become the previously announced Secret Wars, but because Marvel is setting aside an entirely separate panel for the MCU’s future, it feels very likely that the plan for the next few Avengers movies won’t resemble any kind of previously announced roadmap.
Marvel could have saved the Captain America: Brave New World trailer for Comic-Con, but it didn’t. They could have combined Deadpool & Wolverine hype with a panel on the MCU’s future, but it didn’t do that either. That implies the Marvel camp is announcing something big. The greatest MCU twist in years might not happen in Deadpool & Wolverine, but on the floor of Comic-Con.
