By George & Josh Bate
If there was a theme to Disney’s CinemaCon presentation this year, it was that the studio’s upcoming slate is more diverse, mature, and inclusive than ever. Over 75 minutes of footage from the likes of Deadpool & Wolverine, Moana 2, Inside Out 2, Captain America: Brave New World, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes wowed an excited CinemaCon crowd in what was the event’s most stunning studio presentation.
Check out a full breakdown of Disney’s CinemaCon 2024 presentation below…
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
The next Disney release will be Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Fittingly, Disney kicked off their CInemaCon presentation with a special look at the fourth film in the rebooted Apes franchise.
Thirteen minutes from the film were shown, which we’ll describe now. The footage shows Noa, a young chimpanzee, with his friends Anaya and Soona. The three of them swing through a forested area, which demonstrates how much the world has changed since the fall of humanity and Caesar’s time over 300 years ago.
The three chimpanzees come upon a bird’s nest with three eggs. Noah guides them, saying that they can take two of the eggs, but must leave one for the mother.
After doing so, the three chimps continue traveling through the forest until they come across another nest. An ambitious Noah tries to grab one of the eggs when he falls and plummets a massive distance. Noah eventually survives, however, and the clip comes to an end.
The footage then transitions to a nighttime raid of Noah’s village. Noah manages to survive this assault from the evil bonobo monarch Proximus Caesar and his followers and comes to the rescue of a young chimp.
The footage we saw, while scant on the plot details, was absolutely stunning. The visual effects to bring these characters to life may be some of the most impressive effects we’ve ever seen.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes hits theaters May 10.
Deadpool & Wolverine
Click below for a full breakdown of all of the news and reveals about Deadpool & Wolverine from the CinemaCon presentation, including a detailed description of the 9 minutes of footage shown.
Captain America: Brave New World
Two scenes from and a trailer for Captain America: Brave New World were presented at CinemaCon. Read all about the coverage of the new Captain America film below:
The Fantastic 4
CinemaCon marked the first time Kevin Feige has spoken since the Fantastic 4 were officially cast. Feige proudly reiterated who are playing the four iconic Marvel heroes – Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, Johnny Quinn as Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm.
Feige confirmed that The Fantastic 4 starts filming later this year and will hit theaters July 25, 2025.
Thunderbolts*
Thunderbolts* (yes, there’s meant to be an asterisk there) was also discussed during Disney’s presentation. Feige remained coy as to what the * in the title suggests, saying that we’ll find out when the film hits theaters on May 5, 2025.
Thunderbolts* is currently in production, and star Florence Pugh had a message for the CinemaCon crowd from set. Fittingly eating a bowl of mac & cheese with hot sauce (just as her character Yelena does), Pugh spoke positively about the experience making the film so far and expressed eagerness for audiences to see the film.
Thunderbolts* hits theaters May 2, 2025.
Inside Out 2
Amy Poehler was at CinemaCon to present 35 (!!!) minutes of footage from the upcoming Inside Out sequel. In fact, these were the first 35 minutes of the movie, which probably amounts to anywhere from 25-35% of the total film. Keep reading for a description of the footage.
Inside Out 2 begins with Riley Anderson competing in a game of hockey. Now voiced by Kensington Tallman, Riley is again the lead character here. Inside her mind are her emotions – Joy (voiced by Amy Poehler), Sadness (voiced by Phyllis Smith), Anger (voiced by Lewis Black), Fear (voiced by Tony Hale), and Disgust (voiced by Liza Lapira).
Riley’s emotions help her navigate a difficult hockey game in a fun and exciting opening sequence. Riley makes a terrific thread-the-needle play, which allows the team to win the game. After this success, Riley and her friends are approached by Coach Roberts, who invites the girls to a Hockey Camp.
Things are looking great for Riley and her emotions until an alarm system starts going off in Riley’s brain. Joy, Sadness, and the rest of the emotions are taken by surprise when they see that the alarm system is warming of them a change happening to Riley – puberty.
With the onset of puberty, a demolition group enters Riley’s mind and begins to lay the groundwork for a host of new emotions. In comes Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke), Envy (voiced by Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (aka boredom, voiced by Adèle Exarchopoulos), and Embarrassment (voiced by Paul Walter Hauser).
The four new emotions have a power struggle with Riley’s original emotions as RIley navigates exploring a new friendship and possibly losing old friendships while starting Hockey Camp. Anxiety soon begins to show that she is the most powerful of the new emotions when she manages to overthrow Joy and the rest and send them to a land of Riley’s secrets.
Trapped in this vault, the emotions meet several of Riley’s secrets. One of these secrets is a video game character from a fighting game. Riley once (and maybe still has?) a crush on this character, who was hilarious and was easily the audience’s favorite part of the footage shown. Another secret present is a Blues Clues-type figure, a character from a children’s show Riley used to watch. The secret is that Riley still likes this show and this character, who looks at the camera and asks questions of the audience (much to the confusion of the emotions) just like Blue does in Blues Clues. And, finally, a hulking figure wearing a large coat is Riley’s deepest, mysterious secret, which is not revealed in the footage shown.
The emotions team up with Riley’s secrets to stage an escape from the vault. The video game character uses his special move (essentially a slow-paced barrel roll) to somehow knock out the guards, allowing the emotions and the secrets to escape. That marked an end to the first 35 minutes of Inside Out 2.
Inside Out 2 hits theaters June 14, 2024.
Alien: Romulus
Two scenes from Alien: Romulus were shown to the CinemaCon crowd. The footage was dark, tense, gruesome, and tapped into the tension and intensity of Ridley Scott’s classic horror flick. Keep reading for a description of the footage.
The first scene begins with Archie Renaux’s character and a synthetic trapped in a section of the ship while Cailee Spaeny’s character Rain Carradine watches from the other side of a door. With Renaux’s character and the synthetic are a ton of Facehuggers, who happen to be bursting from these orange pods on the walls.
Just in time, the synthetic and Renaux’s character escape this section of the ship and join Rain on the other side. There’s a problem though as one of the Facehuggers get through and a horde of other Facehuggers are right behind it.
The team sprint away from the Facehuggers and the scene concludes with a great shot of one of them flying onto the face of Aileen Wu’s character.
The next scene shown from Alien: Romulus features Wu’s character again and Isabela Merced’s character Kay. The two are aboard a smaller ship while others are on the bigger craft. Wu’s character begins to feel unwell, grabbing her chest and stomach. Kay uses a handheld X-ray technology to scan Wu’s stomach, revealing that a Chestburster is inside her. It’s not long before this Chestburster lives up to its name and blasts through Wu’s ribs and chest in a truly gruesome scene.
A terrified Kay doesn’t know what to do as Wu’s character dies and the Chestburster emerges. Things go from bad to worse when their ship crashes into a fuel cell after Wu’s character accidentally kicks the control stick.
That marked an end of the two scenes from Alien: Romulus presented at CinemaCon.
Ridley Scott has seen Alien: Romulus and says that “it’s fucking great,” which is quite the endorsement from the franchise’s creator himself.
Alien: Romulus hits theaters August 16.
Young Woman and the Sea
Legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer appeared virtually at CinemaCon to introduce his latest film – Young Woman and the Sea. Originally slated for a Disney+ release, the film will now receive a limited theatrical release. Bruckheimer noted that this film has “tested higher” than any film of his entire career. That’s saying something as Bruckheimer has an illustrious filmography filled with top titles like Pirates of the Caribbean and Top Gun; Maverick.
Based on an incredible true story, Young Woman and the Sea comes from Norwegian director Joachim Rønning and stars Daisy Ridley as Trudy Ederle, an American swimmer who became the first woman to swim the 21 miles across the English Channel from France to England. Daisy Ridley was incredible in the Star Wars sequel trilogy and has began to show her range in roles since, including The Marsh King’s Daughter and Sometimes I Think About Dying.
Check out a trailer for the film below:
Young Woman and the Sea is in select theaters on May 31, 2024.
A Real Pain
Previously touched on during Disney’s presentation was A Real Pain, a film that recently premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Written, directed, produced, and starring Jesse Eisenberg, the upcoming comedy follows cousins David (Eisenberg) and Benji (Kieran Culkin), who reunite for a tour of Poland to honored their beloved grandmother.
A Real Pain hits theaters October 18, 2024.
Kinds of Kindness
Fresh off their success with Poor Things, acclaimed director Yorgos Lanthimos and recent Academy Award winner Emma Stone are teaming up again for Kinds of Kindness. A brief trailer set to a remix of ‘Tainted Love’ was shown to the CinemaCon crowd. The teaser can be seen below.
Kinds of Kindness hits theaters June 21, 2024.
The Amateur
Exactly one year from Disney’s 2024 CinemaCon presentation will see the release of The Amateur. A new espionage thriller, The Amateur comes from director James Hawes and is based on the novel of the same name by Robert Littell.
The Amateur stars Rami Malek as Charles Heller, a CIA cryptographer who loses his wife in a London terrorist attack. When he realizes that his superiors are not acting to find out who killed his wife, he takes matters into his own hands.
The Amateur hits theaters April 11, 2025.
Mufasa: The Lion King
Academy Award winner Barry Jenkins came to CinemaCon to talk about his next film – Mufasa: The Lion King.
Jenkins was a bit of a strange choice to direct this prequel to The Lion King given his background in independent, smaller films like Moonlight. Jenkins addressed this right out of the gate at CInemaCon, saying that Mufasa is a “very personal film” and is one of the best decisions he’s ever made.
An exclusive teaser for Mufasa: The Lion King was shown to the CinemaCon crowd. The footage looked impressive, with detailed environments and beautifully realistic animal characters. It was difficult to get a sense of the film other than it clearly being a visual marvel, but Jenkins’ reputation as a filmmaker has us excited for this release.
Mufasa: The Lion King hits theaters December 20, 2024.
Moana 2
Finally, Disney presented Moana 2 at CinemaCon. Beginning the presentation with a live performance, Disney introduced Dwayne Johnson onto the stage, who accepted NATO’s Spirit of the Industry Award.
A full song sequence and extended trailer from Moana 2 were shown to the CinemaCon crowd.
Moana 2 hits theaters November 27, 2024