MCU at Comic-Con: What We Learned About 'Doomsday', 'Ghost Rider' and 'Black Panther 3' [SDCC 2026]

A late start couldn’t stop audiences at San Diego Comic Con from giving Marvel Studios a triumphant return to Hall H. The Fantastic Four’s own H.E.R.B.I.E. greeted the crowd with hellos and waves before the lights began to dim. After a slight delay, a trailer featuring the X-Men, Spider-Man, and the original run of Avengers films to commemorate the presentations.

As Kevin Feige took the stage, you begin to remember why these panels became cultural juggernauts. Say what you will about the franchise and its trajectory as a whole, Feige’s capabilities as a showman are unlike any other studio head. The man knows how to work a crowd and he knows how to make his team at Marvel look good on every level while he’s doing it. From comic artists to the Disney+ shows, he gave everyone a rousing endorsement.

Before Feige premiered any new footage, he took a moment to show a trailer for the re-release of Avengers: Endgame, now officially titled Endgame: Encore which will have early footage of Avengers: Doomsday on when it returns to theaters on September 25, 2026. But the playful spirit of Feige returned when he got host of the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast Josh Horowitz to do some crowd work, where they announced Ryan Gosling was indeed playing Ghost Rider in a feature film named after the character. But that’s not all, as Feige took the time to announce the only man whose riffs are freakin’ sublime enough to direct Ghost Rider for release in 2028: Shawn Levy (The Fall Guy, Deadpool & Wolverine). To be honest, the crowd reactions of Ryan Gosling starring vs. Shawn Levy directing could not have been more different.

The mixed reception wasn’t enough to slow down the accelerated panel, as Jon Bernthal interrupted Feige on stage to showcase a scene from Spider-Man: Brand New Day. We see the Hulk battle it out with Spider-Man momentarily before The Punisher storms in with a massive machine gun, slowing down the Hulk and buying Spider-Man time to swing them both to safety in a destroyed hallway. It’s essentially the scene clipped in recent trailers where Frank says MJ wanted him to keep an eye on Spider-Man. The biggest surprise of the scene? The Hulk speaking in his Bruce Banner-style voice when he catches a bomb thrown by The Punisher.

When the lights come back up, the Anthony and Joe Russo have taken the stage with Feige to welcome The New Avengers, Thunderbolts, Fantastic Four, Wakandans and X-Men teams appearing in Doomsday. Of course this is all a lead up to Robert Downey Jr. taking the stage and premiering his Eastern European inspired voice for Victor Von Doom. Truthfully, it sounds like a bad impression of Kenneth Branagh’s character from Tenet. No matter, the cast made their way through the aisles and high-fived nearby audiences until they joined the team on stage. It was hard to hear the music playing as audiences whooped and hollered but it sounded like new compositions from Alan Silvestri for the film; potentially a theme for Dr. Doom himself.

As Feige and the Russos play up the magnitude of Doctor Doom, they take the time to ask each other a question: Is Doctor Doom more powerful than Thanos? Before they can respond, audience members shout wholeheartedly “Yes!” A second question “Do Reed and Doom have a history?” To which someone coyly responded, “Besties.”

A third questionnaire arrived in the form of Deadpool himself: Ryan Reynolds. It’s worth noting that Deadpool wasn’t in his traditional red uniform but rather what many thought was the gray, ashy colored X-Force style outfit from the comics. Turns out it was Reynolds trying to joke even more than usual by creating a Deadpool uniform entirely out of denim, calling it a ‘Canadian tuxedo’, befitting the meta nature of the character. While Reynolds asked in-character about Deadpool being in the movie, the Russos could only say the movie was locked and they’re onto reshoots.

Perhaps the real bread and butter of the panel? An exclusive trailer for Hall H attendees for Doomsday. Doom sits on a throne in what is presumably Latveria, as Sue Storm voices over the trailer footage. She says, “Victor was always the smartest guy in every room. He used to be different. He used to be kind, used to be caring. But then everything he loved was taken from him. I knew he was lost, but I did not realize that he was broken.” Intercut between the dialogue is reaction shots of the Doomsday cast looking terrified of Sue’s speech about Doom. Every Avenger with children, surrogate or otherwise, are shown holding them close. It sounds like some decisions over the course of the Multiverse Saga have personally affected Doom himself. Doom says, “All of you you have lived stolen lives. Now you must give them back.”

Reed Richards yells out to confront Doom as they stand out in a decimated landscape, “Victor, did you do this!?” Thor, who appears to have a central role in the film as the last of the original Avengers still active, threatens Doom, “I swear, you will beg for hell long before I grant it.” To which Doom responds, “Hell answers to me.” Before raising Sentinels from the previously shown landscape. It’s not much in terms of plot or story but the imagery of the film and characters clearly worked wonders on a hungry audience.

Yet, they truly saved the best for last in Hall H. Ryan Coogler took to the stage to formally announce David Jonsson will take the role of T’Challa’s son when Black Panther III hits theaters on December 15, 2026. It will also be the first Marvel film to be shot in large format IMAX motion picture film, much like his Academy Award winning film, Sinners. Fun fact: This marks Marvel’s first movie to be shot on film since Kenneth Branagh’s original Thor in 2011. Jonsson closed out the Black Panther portion of the panel with the presence of a true blue movie star, “I don’t want to say too much. I want to eat the screen do the talking. The honor is entirely mine.”

And with that, Marvel’s return to Hall H came to a close. The footage itself paled in terms of the sheer existence of Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther sequel announcement, but if the audience reactions in Hall H are anything to go by, Marvel’s return to San Diego Comic Con was more than welcomed.