Disney spent two hours on Friday night laying out the next three years of its film and television slate, and by the time the lights came up the company had confirmed a full X-Men lineup, given Ryan Gosling’s Star Wars movie its first footage, announced a third Zootopia film and dated everything from Frozen 3 to a new Simpsons movie. The Disney Entertainment Showcase, the marquee event of D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, ran from 7 p.m. PT on August 14 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, and was hosted by Ginnifer Goodwin and Ke Huy Quan, who voice Judy Hopps and Gary De’Snake in Zootopia 2. Unlike Saturday’s Experiences showcase and Sunday’s Disney Legends ceremony, both of which stream on Disney+, the entertainment presentation was not carried live, so most of what happened inside the arena reached the public only through the trailers Disney chose to release afterward and through reporting from the room.
Josh D’Amaro opened the night in his first D23 as chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company, telling the crowd that Disney has not just a customer base and not just an audience but an actual connection. Dana Walden then took the stage alongside Bart Simpson to reveal that the long-gestating sequel to 2007’s The Simpsons Movie is now called The New Simpsons Movie and will open in theaters on September 3, 2027, a shift from the summer 2027 window the studio had previously set. The footage shown was deliberately unfinished, following a foul ball out of a Springfield ballpark and through a bar, a bowling alley, a doctor’s office and a Duff Beer vat before it lands at Bart’s feet while Homer watches in horror.
Anne Hathaway followed with the news that The Princess Diaries 3 is genuinely in the works, though she stopped short of promising a timeline and said the team is still working to get the story right. No release date, title or additional casting was announced. Hathaway is one of eleven 2026 Disney Legends honorees, a group that also includes Bob Iger, Dwayne Johnson, Jerry Bruckheimer, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Alan Tudyk, Susan Egan, Eric Goldberg, Kim Irvine, Chris Berman and the Jonas Brothers, and that ceremony caps the convention on Sunday.
Pixar’s block was the most substantial of the evening. The Incredibles 3 arrives June 16, 2028 with Peter Sohn directing in place of Brad Bird, who produces alongside Dana Murray. There is no time jump, and the film hands the lead to Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack as they sneak out to protect the city while Bob works out where he fits in a world where superheroes are legal again. A new villain was teased but not named. Coco 2 follows in November 2029 with Lee Unkrich directing and Adrian Molina co-directing, and Benjamin Bratt was on hand to confirm that Ernesto de la Cruz returns looking for revenge on a now teenage Miguel. Bratt described the character as a little menace who ruined a career and destroyed a legend.
Pixar also announced Ghost Market for March 2028, its first outright supernatural film, directed by Trevor Jimenez and Jesse Andrews. The story centers on a young content creator named Kyle who wanders into the Ono Market on Oahu’s North Shore, a hidden marketplace that serves lost spirits. The studio posted a short first look online.
Enrico Casarosa’s Gatto, which blends hand-painted two-dimensional work with computer animation, got an extended clip ahead of its March 5, 2027 release, with Mark Ruffalo voicing a Venetian street cat named Nero and Laurence Fishburne voicing Rocco. And in one of the night’s more unexpected turns, Disney confirmed that Kingdom Hearts IV will include a Coco-inspired world when it launches in late 2027, and that a Kingdom Hearts anime series developed with Tetsuya Nomura and Square Enix has been greenlit for Disney Channel and Disney+.
Walt Disney Animation Studios chief creative officer Jared Bush officially announced Zootopia 3, with Goodwin and Quan both confirmed to return. No release date, directors or plot details were shared, and the studio described the project as being in early development. Bush also introduced Clay, a November 2028 original directed by Fawn Veerasunthorn in which Kieran Culkin voices Flip, a reluctant and frankly terrible mentor saddled with a chaotic ball of clay named Mushy. Hexed, the studio’s fantasy comedy arriving November 25, 2026, brought Hailee Steinfeld, Jodie Foster and Walton Goggins to the stage. Steinfeld voices Billie, Foster plays the antagonist Queen Celeste in what she noted is her first voice role in a Disney film, and Goggins voices a three-eyed cat named Beef Roger Crumbchuck.
The animation slate closed with Frozen 3, dated November 24, 2027 and directed by Jennifer Lee and Trent Correy. Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel and Josh Gad performed two new Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez songs, a new version of Frozen Heart and an Olaf number called Ooooh, Samantha. Bell confirmed that Anna and Kristoff marry in the film, and the footage shown to the arena followed the couple on their wedding night as they find Elsa on a dock studying a stone that opens a portal to another dimension. Disney hinted at a new villain with powers to rival Elsa’s but did not name the performer, and none of the Frozen 3 material was released publicly.
Live action had a strong showing. Lilo & Stitch 2 was dated May 26, 2028 with Maia Kealoha returning and Chris Sanders directing, and a short logo video confirmed that Angel, Experiment 624, joins the sequel, which begins production in Hawaii later this year. Michael Gracey’s live-action Tangled opens March 31, 2028, and Kathryn Hahn appeared in person to introduce a first look shot on location in Spain, where Teagan Croft and Milo Manheim are currently filming as Rapunzel and Flynn Rider alongside Diego Luna, Caitríona Balfe and Elliot Cowan. Ice Age: Boiling Point arrives February 5, 2027, and Queen Latifah and Denis Leary presented a clip of the herd navigating melting glaciers and active volcanoes. Latifah noted that the pair have voiced Ellie and Diego for twenty years. Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino turned up in character to preview Romy & Michele 2, which heads to Hulu in 2027 under director Tim Federle, with Alan Cumming, Janeane Garofalo, Camryn Manheim, Keegan-Michael Key, Rob Huebel, Breckin Meyer and Wendi McLendon-Covey filling out the cast.
Jon Favreau handled two projects back to back. Oswald, his three-part Disney+ miniseries built around Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, premieres February 17, 2027 and pairs hand-drawn two-dimensional animation with a live-action middle school setting. Favreau said the team brought back veteran 2D animators who had not worked at Disney in years, and the cast includes Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Mykal-Michelle Harris, Ryder Allen, Al Madrigal, Kathryn Hahn and Albert Brooks. He then introduced Lion, a four-part National Geographic natural history event series made with BBC Studios’ Mike Gunton and scored by Hans Zimmer, which follows a cub named Kio in Kenya’s Maasai Mara across nearly 1,400 days of filming. It premieres August 19 on National Geographic and August 20 on Disney+ and Hulu.
On the television side, Percy Jackson and the Olympians returns for a third season on November 20, adapting Rick Riordan’s The Titan’s Curse with a noticeably darker tone as Percy, Grover and Thalia try to rescue Annabeth and the goddess Artemis. Walker Scobell, Andra Day and Ming-Na Wen presented the teaser, which Disney+ released the same night.
Camp Rock 3 landed on Disney+ the same day as the showcase, and the Jonas Brothers appeared with new cast members Lumi Pollack, Hudson Stone, Malachi Barton, Liamani Segura and Casey Trotter for performances of One Beat Away and We Rock. Disney Theatrical also announced a stage adaptation of The Greatest Showman, opening in London’s West End at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in spring 2027, directed and choreographed by Casey Nicholaw with Oliver Tompsett as P.T. Barnum and Samantha Barks as Charity Barnum.
Marvel Studios closed out the second half. VisionQuest, which completes the trilogy that began with WandaVision and continued through Agatha All Along, premieres October 14 on Disney+, with Paul Bettany and James Spader returning as Vision and Ultron under creator Terry Matalas. Bettany, joking about the franchise’s habit of resurrection, said he had been told that no one is ever really dead in the Marvel universe unless Kevin says they are dead, and even then they may not be. The trailer went online as the panel ended.
Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell then presented a special look at Avengers: Doomsday, in theaters December 18, with Anthony and Joe Russo directing. A video message from Hugh Jackman confirmed his return as Wolverine and strongly implied Ryan Reynolds will appear as Deadpool. The same footage is now streaming publicly.
The X-Men announcement was the showcase’s biggest reveal. Kevin Feige brought out Sadie Sink as Jean Grey, Kit Connor as Scott Summers, Christopher Abbott as Charles Xavier, Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Inde Navarrette as Rogue and Maya Boyd as Storm, with Jake Schreier directing for a May 5, 2028 release. Adam Driver was announced by video in the role Disney has listed as Nathaniel Milbury, better known to readers as Mister Sinister, after a running joke in which he claimed he was playing Magneto. Boyd, who takes over Storm from Halle Berry, comes to the film from the Broadway productions of Merrily We Roll Along and & Juliet. Several major roles, including Magneto, Wolverine, Beast and Gambit, remain unannounced. Marvel also debuted a new sizzle for Insomniac Games’ Marvel’s Wolverine, which arrives on PlayStation 5 on September 15.
Lucasfilm’s segment brought Rosario Dawson, Hayden Christensen, Eman Esfandi and Dave Filoni out for Ahsoka Season 2, which premieres January 20, 2027 on Disney+ with Grand Admiral Thrawn’s attempt to restore the Empire at its center. Dawson called the season massive, and Christensen said Anakin’s role expands as he pushes Ahsoka toward the question of whether she is or is not a Jedi. The teaser was released online immediately.
Shawn Levy and Ryan Gosling closed the night with the first footage from Star Wars: Starfighter, which opens May 28, 2027, timed to the fiftieth anniversary weekend of the original film. Levy confirmed Gosling plays Kade Auberon, describing him on StarWars.com as a guy from the wrong side of the galaxy whose fate is intertwined with the fastest starfighter ever built. Gosling, who got his start on Disney Channel’s The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, told the crowd he owes a lot to Disney and that being back is changing his life again. The clip introduced a young character played by newcomer Flynn Gray and a decommissioned G17 starfighter, with Matt Smith, Mia Goth, Amy Adams, Aaron Pierre, Jamael Westman and Daniel Ings rounding out the cast. That footage stayed inside the Honda Center and has not been released online.
The Bluey Movie was one of the few titles to get a full public teaser on the night. Written and directed by series creator Joe Brumm, the film opens August 6, 2027 with Melanie Zanetti and David McCormack returning as Chilli and Bandit.
Taken together, the showcase was heavier on dates than on finished footage. Disney locked in release windows across four studios and confirmed casts for two of its largest upcoming films, but held back the material fans most wanted to see at home, including the Frozen 3 sequence, the X-Men cast reveal and the Starfighter clip. D23 continues through Sunday, when the Disney Legends ceremony streams on Disney+.
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