Vision Quest trailer kicks off Disney's D23 fan event - Ars Technica

Overview

Vision Quest trailer kicks off Disney’s D23 fan event

Also: Ahsoka S2 teaser, Doomsday trailer, news about MCU’s X-Men and Star Wars: The Last Starfighter

Details

It was a busy first day at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, in Anaheim, California, with Marvel Studios releasing the first trailer for Vision Quest. We also got the first teaser for Ahsoka S2; the public release of the Avengers: Doomsday special footage featured last month for attendees only at San Diego Comic-Con; a special sneak peek (for attendees only) for Star Wars: Starfighter; casting news for the MCU’s X-Men movie; and a trailer for an animated special, LEGO Star Wars: The Mandalorian, coming to Disney+ next month.

(Some spoilers below. One MAJOR spoiler for Spider-Man: Brand New Day; we’ll give you a heads-up when we get there.)

Marvel’s streaming TV portfolio has kind of been all over the place: a handful of hits, a few misses, and a bunch of middling offerings. One of the standout hits was Wanda Vision, followed by an excellent sequel (of sorts), Agatha All Along. Vision Quest will complete the trilogy. Yes, Vision (Paul Bettany) died in Infinity War, but Wanda Vision resurrected an all-white version whose memories were restored in the finale. We finally get to learn what happened afterward.

Vision, rebooted and having escaped from those who sought to weaponize him, has been in hiding. Searching for new meaning, he consults the AI personas embedded in his programming, including F. R. I. D. A. Y., E. D. I. T. H., J. A. R. V. I. S., and the infamous Ultron. His discreet existence ends when a bounty placed on his head thrusts him on the run with Thomas Shepard, a mysterious boy who may be Vision’s son, reincarnate. As Vision evades capture, he must confront his nature, resist Ultron’s influence, and unravel the enigma that is his young companion if he’s to survive.

Naturally Bettany is returning as Vision, along with James Spader as Ultron. Agatha All Along gave us a new Billy Maximoff, whose soul took over the dying body of another teen as Wanda’s spell unraveled at the end of Wanda Vision. Fans may recall that Agatha helped Bill track down the soul of his twin, Tommy (aka Speed), and place him into the body of a teen boy who drowned, Thomas Shepherd. That storyline is clearly getting picked up in Vision Quest, since Ruaridh Mollica has been cast as Tommy/Thomas Shepherd. Bettany said last year that the series would explore “intergenerational trauma” with fathers and sons.

The cast also includes Todd Stashwick as a bounty hunter named Paradin who is tracking down Vision; T’Nia Miller as a vengeful robot named Jocasta; Emily Hampshire as E. D. I. T. H., aka Tony Stark’s augmented reality security and defense system; Orla Brady as F. R. I. D. A. Y., Stark’s replacement AI system for J. A. R. V. I. S.; and James D’Arcy as J. A. R. V. I. S. (D’Arcy played a human Jarvis serving Stark’s father in Agent Carter.) Henry Lewis and Jonathan Sayer play D. U. M. E. and U, respectively, two of Stark’s robot workshop assistants.

In addition, Lauren Morais plays Lisa Molinari; Diane Morgan plays an associate of Paladin; Cristian Lavin plays a mercenary; and Mary Mc Donnell will appear in an as-yet-undisclosed role. And Faran Tahir will be back as Raza, leader of the Ten Rings, who kidnapped Tony Stark in 2008’s Iron Man. We thought Raza had died in that film, but we’ll probably see him in a flashback or perhaps just in Vision’s mind.

Vision Quest debuts on October 14, 2026, on Disney+.

The Jedi Padawan of Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka was first introduced as a supporting character in 2008’s animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the subsequent animated series. The character returned in the sequel series Star Wars Rebels (2014-2018) as a member of the Rebel Alliance, operating under the codename Fulcrum, and made numerous other cameo appearances in the extended Star Wars universe. Rosario Dawson’s live-action version made her debut in The Mandalorian‘s second season. She also appeared briefly in The Book of Boba Fett.

And then she got her own series, Ahsoka, set in the same timeframe as The Mandalorian. In the first season, Ahsoka teamed up with her former apprentice, Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) to prevent Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelson) from returning from the galaxy in which he was stranded, lest he unite what remains of the Galactic Empire and take down the fledgling New Republic. The season ended with Ahsoka and Sabine stranded in the same galaxy and a returned Thrawn taking up arms against the New Republic.

Per the official S2 premise: “Season 2 continues the story of Ahsoka Tano and her extraordinary journey beyond the known galaxy. As Ahsoka and her Jedi apprentice Sabine Wren travel across a mysterious and perilous world to find their way home, their friends Hera, Ezra, Zeb, and Chopper, must face the powerful Grand Admiral Thrawn and his sinister allies, who seek to plunge the New Republic into war.”

Dawson, Bordizzo, and Mikkelson are back for S2, of course, along with Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla, Eman Esfandi as Ezra Bridger, Ivanna Sakhno as Shin Hati, David Tennant as Huyang, Dave Filoni as Chopper;, and Elden Bennett as Admiral Akbar. Rory Mc Cann (Game of Thrones) replaces Ray Stevenson as Baylan Skoll (the actor died in 2023). As the logline confirms, “Zeb” Orrelios will also appear in S2.

The second season of Ahsoka will premiere on January 20, 2027, on Disney+.

Marvel dropped the first full trailer for Doomsday a few days before San Diego Comic-Con last month, and unveiled an exclusive “special look” at additional footage for SDCC attendees. The rest of us are finally getting to see that footage.

The film takes place 14 months after the events of Thunderbolts*. Per the official logline: “Beloved heroes from three distinct universes will be set on a deadly collision course and face an existential threat unlike anything they’ve ever encountered.” Those universes are Earth-616 (the Avengers, Wakandans, and New Avengers), Earth-828 (Fantastic Four), and the “original” X-Men (more on this below).

In the footage, we learn more about Robert Downey Jr.’s Victor von Doom character via a voiceover by Sue Reed (Vanessa Kirby). Victor was an old friend, the smartest guy in the room, and Sue assures us that “he used to be different” before “everything he loved was taken from him. I knew he was lost. But I did not realize he was broken.” Dr. Doom’s voiceover accuses our star-studded ensemble cast of living “stolen lives,” and insists that “now you must give them back.” This does not bode well for anyone.

Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters on December 18, 2026.

Credit: Lucas Film/Disney

We haven’t gotten an official teaser yet for Star Wars: Starfighter, directed by Shawn Levy (Deadpool and Wolverine) and starring Ryan Gosling—or even much in the way of concrete details. But D23 attendees—including several media outlets—were treated to some exclusive first footage, with both Levy and Gosling taking the stage to introduce said footage.

Levy described the film as being “full of humor, danger, and spectacle, but above all the joyous spirit that has always been the beating heart of this legacy that we all love so much.” As for the story, it’s brand new, not related at all to the two trilogies that make up the Skywalker Saga. Gosling said it was about a character “from the wrong side of the galaxy whose fate is intertwined with the fastest starfighter ever built.” The film takes place five or six years after The Rise of Skywalker on a watery planet. That’s a period that hasn’t yet been depicted in the franchise, so Levy and his production team had to come up with new sets and designs that were still consistent with the overall feel of Star Wars.

Star Wars: Starfighter hits theaters on May 28, 2027—50 years (almost to the day) after the original movie, Star Wars: A New Hope, debuted.

(WARNING: MAJOR spoiler for Spider-Man: Brand New Day below. Stop reading now if you haven’t seen the film.)

Credit: Sony Pictures

Mutants are finally coming to the MCU with X-Men, a planned reboot of the franchise directed by Jake Schreier (Thunderbolts*) slated for a 2028 release. Marvel is already setting the stage, beginning with the identity of Sadie Sink’s mysterious cloaked figure in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Spoiler alert: she plays a young Jean Grey, as much victim as villain.

Joining Sink will be Christopher Abbott (Wolf Man) as Charles Xavier/Professor X; Kit Connor (Heartstopper) as Cyclops; Samara Weaving (Ready or Not) as Emma Frost; Maya Boyd as Storm, Inde Navarrette (Obsession) as Rogue; and Adam Driver (Rise of Skywalker) as Nathan Milbury, aka Mister Sinister. There had been rumors that Charles Melton had been cast as Dr. Hank Mc Coy/Beast but later dropped out of the project. We can expect more casting news in the coming months.

This animated special is described as a “comedic retelling of all three seasons” of the live-action series The Mandalorian, with Gavin Hammon voicing The Mandalorian.

The cast also includes David Acord as Grogu/MA-13; Amy Sedaris as Peli Motto; Bill Burr as Migs; David Pasquesi as Majordomo; Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan Kryze; Emily Swallow as the Armorer; Giancarlo Esposito as Moff Gideon; Ming-Na Wen as Fennec Shand; Nick Nolte as Kuiil; Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano; Taika Waititi as IG-11/IG-12; Temeura Morrison as Boba Fett; Timothy Olyphant as Cobb Vanth; Carl Lumbly as Greef Karga; Eric Bauza as Luke Skywalker/EV-9D9; Flula Borg as The Client; Marti Matulis as Vane; and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Carson Teva.

LEGO Star Wars: The Mandalorian is coming to Disney+ on September 2, 2026. Disney is also launching an official Mandalorian and Grogu podcast that day, which is also when the film arrives on the streaming platform.

         First test flight of largest all-electric aircraft used just $5 of electricity

         Vulnerability giving attackers full control of Macs is under active exploitation

         Suspecting court of using AI, man injected prompts in filings to try to win case

         Ukraine strikes major Russian rocket factory with cruise missiles

         R-rated director's cut of X-Files film restores Chris Carter's original horror vision

Ars Technica has been separating the signal from the noise for over 25 years. With our unique combination of technical savvy and wide-ranging interest in the technological arts and sciences, Ars is the trusted source in a sea of information. After all, you don’t need to know everything, only what’s important.

Key Takeaways

Vision Quest trailer kicks off Disney’s D23 fan event
Also: Ahsoka S2 teaser, Doomsday trailer, news about MCU’s X-Men and Star Wars: The Last Starfighter
It was a busy first day at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, in Anaheim, California, with Marvel Studios releasing the first trailer for Vision Quest
Marvel’s streaming TV portfolio has kind of been all over the place: a handful of hits, a few misses, and a bunch of middling offerings