Marvel skipped Comic-Con last year. It showed up Saturday like it had something to prove.

The Headline Nobody Predicted

The first big surprise of the night was a new Ghost Rider film starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Shawn Levy, set to hit theaters in 2028. Gosling was in the room for it, and according to the panel he told the crowd, “Many of you know this is a character I’ve wanted to play for a very long time, so Kevin, Josh Horowitz, Hall H, thank you.” Levy directing tracks — Feige teased he’s already seen a cut of Levy’s next movie, Star Wars: Starfighter, where Levy and Gosling worked together, and called it “awesome.”

Then Marvel turned around and announced a third Black Panther. Ryan Coogler introduced David Jonsson as the new Black Panther and confirmed the film’s release date of December 15, 2028. Per the live coverage, Jonsson is stepping in as T’Challa’s son, now grown, and the film is being shot as a large format movie.

Doomsday Got The Whole Stage

The Doomsday portion of the night was less a panel and more a roll call. The evening featured an astounding Avengers: Doomsday mega-panel moderated by Feige, welcoming directors Anthony and Joe Russo along with cast members including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Pedro Pascal, Paul Rudd, Anthony Mackie, Simu Liu, James Marsden, David Harbour, Letitia Wright, Lewis Pullman, Kelsey Grammer, Danny Ramirez, and Winston Duke. On top of that, Hayley Atwell was confirmed officially back as Peggy Carter for the film — a callback that lines up with Cap’s ending in Endgame.

Downey Jr. leaned into the villain heel turn on stage. He told the crowd, “It’s not easy being green,” followed by, “I need a lot of help. I need this whole family around me to finally assist me in being an arch-enemy, which is daunting.” He also looked back at his casting reveal two years ago, saying the fans “lifted me up” and adding a line that landed like a warning: “But decisions will have to be made.”

Everything Else On The Table

Before any of that, Feige opened the show with a brief mention of the upcoming series VisionQuest and Marvel Comics’ new editor-in-chief, then gave an exclusive look at the Avengers: Endgame rerelease, dubbed Avengers: Endgame Encore. That rerelease hits theaters beginning September 25, and per the panel it’ll carry new footage tying directly into Doomsday.

Spider-Man got its moment too — Jon Bernthal showed up in his Punisher capacity to talk about his role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with the panel showing off a Spider-Man versus Hulk fight sequence that the Punisher apparently wades into. That film lands July 31.

What didn’t show up mattered just as much. The panel omitted several major upcoming movies, like Avengers: Secret Wars and the X-Men reboot, with more news expected at Disney’s D23 Expo in August. Feige set the tone early and stuck to it — as he put it, “Today, we’re mainly going to talk about movies,” adding, “because that is what brings us together in the world.”

So Marvel spent an hour reloading the entire back half of this phase — a Ghost Rider nobody asked for on paper but everybody wanted in practice, a Black Panther recast that’s actually a generational handoff, and Doom getting one more monologue before he becomes the problem. Which announcement are you actually buying tickets for — Gosling’s Ghost Rider, or Jonsson’s Black Panther?