From Fantastic Four to Deadpool: The Unanswered Marvel and MCU Questions of D23

And yet…there was a lot that was missing from the Marvel D23 dog-and-pony show, and a lot of questions still to be answered about the full scope of Phases 5 and 6. Let’s take a look:

Fantastic Four

This was perhaps the biggest, most heavily rumored non-starter of the day. Speculation was flying thick and fast that the cast of Fantastic Four would be unveiled, with rumors offering everyone from Jodie Comer as Sue Storm to Seth Rogen as the voice of The Thing to, yes, Henry Cavill as Doctor Doom.

Instead, all we got was basically a “no news” from Marvel head Kevin Feige and confirmation that WandaVision director Matt Shakman was taking the reins from the departed Jon Watts. With Shakman presumably just closing his deal, let’s be realistic: there’s no way a cast would be in place yet. But we can expect the casting speculation to heat up in the months ahead.

Deadpool 3

On the morning of D23 a whole bunch of tweeters were sure that the title of Deadpool 3 was going to be announced by Ryan Reynolds himself. Well, that didn’t happen, and in fact, there was no mention of the Merc with a Mouth at all.

Marvel has said very little about the film, not even officially confirming that Shawn Levy was on board to direct. Screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick did confirm to us that they were working on the script, but other than that, there’s been more or less silence. With all those open slots on the Phase 6 calendar, it seems likely that Deadpool 3 will slide into one of those, but the continued lack of information on the movie is…curious.

Blade

We did finally get a release date (Nov. 3, 2023) for Marvel’s Blade reboot at Comic-Con, there is a director (Bassim Tariq) and partial cast (Mahershala Ali, Delroy Lindo, and Aaron Pierre) in place, and the movie is slated to begin shooting in October. So perhaps until there is enough footage for a teaser or sizzle reel, it was unrealistic to assume anything new would be unveiled at D23. Some concept art might have been nice though.