Marvel's ‘X-Men’ Cast, ‘Star Wars: Starfighter’ footage, New ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ and ‘VisionQuest’ Trailers, and a Sick Gosling Jacket Revealed at D23

At long last, the MCU’s X-Men have arrived. That’s the big takeaway from this weekend’s big announcements from Disney's biennial superfan event, known as D23. (It’s called that because Disney was started in 1923, an abbreviation I definitely always knew and certainly did not Google in the middle of drafting this piece). While most of the weekend focuses on exclusive merch releases, various panels, and other inside looks, the big draw of the event—at least for our purposes—was a flurry of footage drops and reveals around the future of Marvel and Star Wars.Sure, a new Incredibles movie, more information on Coco 2, and the announcement of a Kingdom Hearts anime are cool, too—but really, it’s all about the mutants and their impending MCU debut. If you somehow missed the panel or are looking for a bit more context on what their arrival will mean to the MCU, we broke down that announcement, and a few others, including the first details around Ahsoka season two and more info about Ryan Gosling’s Star Wars: Starfighter, below.To Me, My X-Men CastMatt Winkelmeyer/Getty ImagesAs expected, now that Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out in the world and folks know that Sadie Sink is playing Jean Grey, Kevin Feige and X-Men director Jake Schreier took the stage to formally announce their cast. The MCU’s version of the Children of the Atom, alongside the aforementioned Sink, are Heartstopper’s Kit Connor as Scott Summers aka Cyclops, Obsession breakout Inde Navarrette as Rogue, Broadway star Maya Boyd as Storm, Ready or Not’s Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Christopher Abbott as Professor Charles Xavier, and Adam Driver as Nathaniel Milbury. To quote Logan Roy, they have some juice here.The X-Men cast has been the subject of much speculation and deliberation over the intervening weeks, but now that comes to a close with this announcement. Driver, in particular, is a notable addition to the lineup. Feige mentioned earlier this year that the actor has long circled Marvel projects (he was rumored to be in consideration for Reed Richards, for example) without ever committing. That is, until now. X-Men will also represent a reunion of sorts for Abbott and Driver, both of whom broke through as problematic boyfriends on Girls. (Surely we can get Alex Karpovsky in the mix for this one, somehow?)Comic fans will likely have clocked that “Nathaniel Milbury” is one of a few aliases commonly used by the villainous Mister Sinister. Sinister (born Nathaniel Essex in the 19th century—it’s complicated) uses the Milbury persona when he’s posing as the head of a Nebraskan orphanage—where a young Scott Summers grows up and is experimented on by Milbury.X-Men, directed by Schreier with a script by Schreier, Lee Sung Jin, and Joanna Calo, is set to release on May 5, 2028, as the first MCU movie post-Secret Wars. If I had a dollar, I’d bet we see some of these characters show up in that Avengers film as a nice teaser for what’s to come. It’s also unclear whether this is the complete principal cast at this point or if we’ll have other additions. But at first glance, it’s cool that the MCU iteration of the mutants plans on giving audiences a slightly different set of villains and heroes to explore right out of the gate, anchored by some really exciting actors. But don’t worry; I’m sure Wolverine (whether a new one or Hugh Jackman’s, via some leftover multiversal shenanigans) will arrive sooner than he can pop his claws. Snikt, snikt!Avengers: Doomsday Drops Its Best Trailer YetPrior to the X-Men announcement, Feige dropped a new trailer for Doomsday, which is the same way we previously described from Comic-Con just a few weeks ago. The footage does an even better job of highlighting just how scared everyone is of Doom, while the titular foe poses at the end and does some aura farming for good measure amidst a cabal of mutant-hunting Sentinel robots that he seemingly reanimates.Also: we got a pre-filmed bit where Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds angle for a spot in the Doomsday crew. Anyone else convinced this bit is a soft confirmation their characters—who both have a lot of multiverse-hopping experience— both show up in the film? (And what better way to raise the stakes of a universe-destroying incursion event than by killing off Deadpool & Wolverine in the first reel?) Doomsday releases on December 18, 2026.Vision’s QuestHailed as the final part of a pseudo-trilogy of television shows which began with WandaVision, VisionQuest sees the former Avenger, killed (twice, in Infinity War, by the Scarlet Witch and then by Thanos, before being resurrected in WandaVision) break out into his own series.Per this trailer, it looks like Vision has created a digital world wherein many of Marvel’s other AIs live in human-presenting form, including J.A.R.V.I.S. (James D’Arcy), E.D.I.T.H. (Emily Hampshire), and F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Orla Brady). They’re shaken when Ultron, played by a returning James Spader, joins the group—presumably with some evil scheme up his robotic sleeve. Oh, and Vision deals with this new status quo: a man claiming to be his son, Tommy (Ruaridh Mollica), shows up.Gotta say, I’m not too sure about how I feel about this one, even if I am a big fan of what Spader did as Ultron—but whether or not it works, we’ll find out together when the series hits Disney+ on October 14.Ahsoka Season 2 Brings the BattleThe trailer for Ahsoka season two—set to debut on January 20, 2027, roughly three and a half years after the release of the series’ first installment—promises more of Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker, more live-action interpretations of Dave Filoni’s beloved animated characters, and plenty of big space battles. With Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) back in the mix, the fledgling Republic must fight off the final bits of a now-supercharged Imperial Remnant.What interests me about Ahsoka season two is whether it’ll serve as a definitive conclusion to this era of Star Wars storytelling that started with The Mandalorian. Once upon a time in a galaxy very, very close, Filoni intended to bring together all the Disney+ Star Wars series into a crossover movie event à la the MCU. But given the reception of The Mandalorian and Grogu, is that even still on the table anymore?Ryan Gosling’s Star Wars: Starfighter Gets a Teaser and a Sick JacketThe only thing on the table for the Star Wars franchise, from a theatrical standpoint, is the impending release of Star Wars: Starfighter. The trailer features Gosling’s character—“Kade Auberon,” we learned at the presentation—speaking with a younger character (Flynn Gray) about a secret spaceship, a decommissioned Imperial Reaper-class fighter that Auberon says is the “fastest starfighter ever built.” Gray’s character states he’s never heard of such a classification, Auberon firmly states, “There’s a reason for that,” as he covers the ship back up. The rest of the trailer is a montage of Auberon rebuilding the Reaper and traveling with Gray’s character across a variety of planetary landscapes.But let’s talk about the most important part of the presentation—the unveiling of a new addition to the Ryan Gosling Cinematic Jacket Universe. This one’s a leather jacket emblazoned with what looks at first glance like a skull and crossbones—except the bones turn out to be a pair of crossed rifles, and the skull is an inverted version of the Rebel Alliance’s “star bird” crest. Gosling received and gamely threw on a merch-store-ready version onstage at D23; you get a good glimpse of it in this Reel from Gosling’s stylist Mark Avery.Starfighter, directed by Shawn Levy, will release on May 28, 2027. In addition to Gosling and Gray, the film’s cast includes Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, Simon Bird, Jamael Westman, Daniel Ings, and Amy Adams.