SAN DIEGO – Thousands of fans crowded into Comic-Con’s cavernous Hall H on Saturday night as Fantastic Four’s faithful robot H.E.R.B.I.E. rolled onto the stage to promise the show was on its way. “Don’t Stop Believin’” blared from the speakers as the audience — some of whom waited some 36 hours on the sidewalk to get into the Marvel panel — began scream-singing in unison.
Marvel Studios never needed a Comic-Con reception like that more than it does now.
That’s because the Avengers are facing a foe more daunting than Thanos: audience fatigue. All three of Marvel’s 2025 movies underperformed at the box office, with would-be franchise-starters “Thunderbolts” and “Fantastic Four” failing to muster the enthusiasm that other Marvel movies did in the 2010s. The superhero genre now belongs to millennials, with “Obsession” and “Backrooms” dominating Gen Z interest. As a result, these films are no longer the sure financial bets they once were, and Marvel Studios recognizes it can no longer take its fans — or the general audience — for granted.
“The reality is that the MCU is no longer the unstoppable force it once was,” an industry insider told TheWrap. “It has become a legacy franchise that occasionally generates flashes of excitement but no longer commands the cultural dominance it enjoyed for over a decade.” The industry insider added that “Doomsday” will likely cross $1 billion at the box office but is unlikely to challenge “Infinity War” or “Endgame,” which each grossed over $2 billion and marked seminal moments for the film industry.
This sentiment is not unique to this one insider, which is why Marvel’s Saturday Hall H panel had more pressure on it than in years past, when Comic-Con was more like a victory lap. This time, Marvel came to sell. From the Hall H stage, with his usual mix of charm and playfulness, studio head Kevin Feige announced two new films for 2028 — a Ryan Gosling-led “Ghost Rider” directed by Shawn Levy, and a third Ryan Coogler-directed “Black Panther” with David Jonsson joining the cast as T’Challa’s son. The rest of the night focused on “Doomsday,” assembling some of the massive cast of Marvel actors onstage (including names like Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal) and showing a few minutes of Doom-centric footage.
The crowd offered up a virtual hour-long wall of cheers — the norm, as far as Marvel Hall H panels go. While it wasn’t a flawless presentation, it undeniably enraptured the fans in the room.
“It felt like a lot was riding on this. Marvel brought the best they had at the moment and it largely landed,” said comic book artist and illustrator Mark Alvarado. “‘Avengers’ showed a better look. Announcing ‘Ghost Rider’ and having Coogler announce ‘Panther’ were all good moves on their part. The room was hyped up and everyone that left was still talking on the walks back to wherever they were going. The thing becomes, does that leave the room?”
That is the question of the moment.
Marvel’s most ardent fans continue to show up for each new chapter of its ever-extending cinematic universe, but the franchise is finding new blood harder to come by. More than ever, Marvel Studios needs “Doomsday” to land for moviegoers beyond the die-hards who camped out for the Saturday night panel. The film is already off to a good start, selling $16 million in way-in-advance tickets for opening night shows.
But a film as big as this needs a sustained box office on the second, third and fourth weekends, something the MCU has struggled with over the last few years. That can’t come from Hall H alone.
The Ghost and the Panther
Marvel has a pretty well-worn playbook when it comes to rewarding and hyping up fans in Hall H. A slew of announcements of new projects and release dates, A-listers onstage galore, surprise cast reveals, exclusive footage drops and even some in-character appearances (Tom Hiddleston takes the cake for that one).
2026 was a different story. No full release calendar reveal. No shocking end-of-panel announcement that changes everything. It was more measured, more pointed. And, in some ways, more restrained than Marvel has ever been.
The Hall H panel opened with a look back at the history of Marvel at the movies, interspersing a series of MCU clips with footage from the Fox “X-Men” films and shots of Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man to tease the crossover madness in “Doomsday.” Feige then flashed the logo for “VisionQuest,” an upcoming series starring Paul Bettany’s android hero dubbed the conclusion of the “WandaVision” trilogy. Feige spoke about the show for no more than 30 seconds before moving on to films.
It was a smart way to kick things off. One of the most frequent criticisms of the MCU in the post-”Endgame” era has been the onslaught of television series that tie into the franchise on Disney+, thus devaluing the brand. Something even Feige has admitted was a misstep.
“The oversaturation of Marvel TV shows, too much IP everywhere for Marvel, too many collabs happening in the movies and the TV shows — you have to watch a TV show just to watch a movie — it’s just too much,” said Bianca, a 21-year-old Comic-Con attendee who was excited to hear “Doomsday” news but hasn’t kept up with the Marvel movies lately. Bianca said she likes seeing cinematic events like “Dune” in Dolby and is waiting to see “The Odyssey” when she can get tickets to a “real IMAX.”
The first big announcement of the panel: Ryan Gosling joining the MCU as Ghost Rider. This long-anticipated casting gathered massive applause in Hall H and positive chatter on social media.
Hot on the heels of this announcement, Feige shared that the director of the upcoming “Ghost Rider” film will be the man steering Gosling’s “Star Wars: Starfighter”: Shawn Levy.
From a business perspective, Levy’s role makes sense. The journeyman filmmaker is known for being on time and on budget, and he’s delivered a handful of box office hits (including “Deadpool & Wolverine,” the MCU’s first R-rated movie and one of the most financially successful films of the post-”Endgame” era).
But this choice of director was met with less positive reception than the Gosling casting, both in San Diego and online. While the director is often commercially successful, his films aren’t always critical hits. Fans also questioned if his style of often comedic, earnest storytelling makes sense for a horror character like Ghost Rider.
“(Comedy) tends to be his tone, so I don’t know if ‘Ghost Rider’ is going to change that tone,” said Jordy, a Comic-Con attendee and Marvel fan. “Ryan Gosling can be pretty comedic at times too.”
Marvel wisely bookended the panel with another announcement, one that drew in more positive reactions from the larger film community — that “Black Panther 3” was on its way, releasing in 2028. Ryan Coogler took the stage, fresh off the smash success of “Sinners,” both a box office sensation and the most-nominated film in Oscars history. Coogler’s previous two “Black Panther” films are the only MCU movies to score above-the-line nominations, while “Sinners” brought him his first Oscar win (for Best Original Screenplay).
Coogler pulled film stock out of his pocket to announce that “Black Panther 3” would be shot on large-format celluloid film, cashing in on the format obsession that helped make films like “The Odyssey” and “Sinners” even bigger successes. He also announced that David Jonsson (“The Long Walk”) would play T’Challa’s son in the film, the “new Black Panther,” bringing the MCU a fresh, popular face. The news elicited the most positive reaction from the audience.
It was a smart move for Marvel to stick to only announcing two new titles, both only two years away, as fans of franchises like “Star Wars” and the DCU get winded by an endless string of titles that are either cancelled or held in limbo. Feige fell victim to that himself by announcing “Blade” at Comic-Con way back in 2019, and he said just days before this year’s Hall H that he feels like “a gigantic loser and failure” now that the project remains on ice.
“New mask, same task”
These two reveals sandwiched the main event of the Marvel panel: the “Avengers: Doomsday” presentation. Here, Marvel brought out a slew of Avengers, New Avengers, old Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four members and more to talk about the film. All actors were already known to be in the film aside from Hayley Atwell, who returns as Peggy Carter.
Well, some of them talked. Given his prominent role in the film, Robert Downey Jr. did the bulk of the emceeing, at one point doing a bit with Ryan Reynolds, who suited up as Deadpool and asked a question from the audience (Comic-Con attendees later posted photos of them posing with Deadpool earlier in the day, not realizing it was Reynolds underneath).
But it’s difficult for a panel to manage so many people with only a brief time window. While the initial reveal of so many cast members (with heavy hitters like Chris Hemsworth and the bulk of the Fantastic Four absent) drove Comic-Con to its feet, several of these actors simply became ornamentation for the stage.
Despite this marking the first time Downey and Chris Evans have shared the Hall H stage in 12 years, the latter hardly spoke during the “Doomsday” panel. Actors like Pedro Pascal and Paul Rudd got a few quips in, while others remained almost entirely silent.
Downey, meanwhile, commanded the panel, putting his classic Hall H charm back on full display. He’s a veteran who knows how to work this room. At one point, he adopted his Latverian accent to invite the entire room to don Doctor Doom masks placed under their seats for a massive selfie of Doom. Marvel then teed up exclusive footage from “Doomsday,” which focused on Doom’s history with Reed Richards and Sue Storm, to thunderous applause.
That reception was much needed after the tempered reaction to the first official “Doomsday” trailer, released online five days before the panel. While that footage got massive views, currently sitting at more than 50 million on Marvel’s YouTube channel, it was criticized for its parade of characters and lack of proper buildup.
Jordy, a Comic-Con attendee dressed in Spider-Man’s new costume from “Brand New Day,” said that “the news was incredible” from the Hall H but that, while he’s excited by the enthusiasm Marvel showed, he was not fully sold by the film’s initial trailer.
“I felt like they kind of put a whole lot of action figures into one lot and then kind of have them fighting against Doom,” Jordy said. “The first trailer, I watched it and didn’t really feel anything.”
These concerns were echoed by multiple fans at Comic-Con — people who waited hours to get into Hall H but are finding their feelings about the MCU more complicated than before.
“The one thing that’s had me kind of raising my eyebrow is honestly the RDJ casting as Doctor Doom because it does come off as a little bit desperate,” said Brad, a Doctor Strange cosplayer who waited since 1 a.m. on Friday for the Saturday night panel. “But in my mind, since I’ve enjoyed pretty much every MCU project up until this point, Feige and the Russos I feel like have earned my trust as a fan.”
“I know there’s going to be a lot of pandering to the audience as far as throwing in every actor who’s ever acted in a Marvel production for the past 30 years. I’m a little worried that there won’t be enough time for the story, but I also think it’s going to be really fun,” said Emily, who got in line at 5 a.m. on Friday. She echoed initial concerns about Downey’s casting and said she has not seen a consistent throughline in the MCU lately, but that she likes many of the TV projects.
It’s unclear how the footage shown in Hall H will resonate with viewers (if it gets a wide release). The “Doomsday” trailer now being criticized online received a positive reaction when it was first screened at CinemaCon. With no big news or buzzy quotes coming out of “Doomsday’s” Hall H appearance, it seems that talk of “Avengers” has been largely overshadowed by Marvel’s other two movies — both of which won’t be released for another two years.
Can “Avengers” avoid its own doomsday?
Beyond obvious markers like $2 billion, there isn’t a specific financial threshold on success for “Doomsday.” “Endgame” grossed $2.8 billion at the worldwide box office, while “Avengers: Infinity War” made $2.05 billion in its global run. But that was pre-pandemic, and the box office is just now getting its groove back in a very different environment. Plus, “Avengers: Doomsday” is opening on the same day as “Dune: Part Three,” the final installment in a lauded franchise, which adds even more pressure.
If Marvel gets a bigger opening weekend than “Endgame” but the CinemaScore is a B, that does them no good. Conversely, if the movie grosses less than “Brand New Day” but the word-of-mouth is strong and there are new plot threads that make people want to see already-greenlit sequel “Avengers: Secret Wars,” then that’s far more meaningful.
So “Doomsday” needs to fill in this blank for the MCU: Come for Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans return, but stay for what?
If “Doomsday” follows the same pattern as “Fantastic Four: First Steps” “Thunderbolts” and “Captain America: Brave New World,” a huge opening followed by a fast fade, it won’t be enough to reverse the tale that 2025 started to tell. If audience interest lasts in the weeks that follow, it could be the first sign that Marvel’s course-correction, from a more selective Comic-Con to star-driven bets like ”Ghost Rider” and surer ones like “Black Panther 3,” is actually working.
Jeremy Fuster contributed to this report.
