MarvelBlog News for August 2nd, 2026

San Diego Comic-Con 2026 has come and gone, leaving us to filter through the bombshells.

We’ll discuss them all in this week’s MarvelBlog News. Also, we’ll talk about Spider-Man.

Marvel at Comic-Con 2026

By this point, studios have turned Comic-Con into an antiseptic affair.

At times this past week, I thought about the now-defunct E3 events.

Once video game companies viewed the entire event as one giant marketing opportunity, E3 collapsed.

Comic-Con barely survived the pandemic, and its 2026 reviews were *ahem* mixed.

Fans expect too much while studios provide too little…just like happened with E3.

In Marvel’s case, the studio announced three exciting projects.

Any of them should qualify as a linchpin reveal for an event like this.

While watching social media on that Saturday night, people collectively yawned.

To be fair, fans love expressing their frustration with all things Marvel.

On top of that, the MCU is competing with its own recent history.

Since Marvel couldn’t announce anything as shocking as Avengers: Doomsday, it was kinda stuck.

Anything would have felt like a letdown after Robert Downey Jr’s dramatic return last year.

Still, I agree with the critics who said that Marvel’s presentation felt lackluster.

We’ll start with Ryan Reynolds, whose popularity has taken a recent hit.

The Blake Lively imbroglio with a co-star hurt the couple’s reputation.

You may not know this, but entire sites exist just to slag both of them.

Sure, Lively’s co-star and his agents may have bankrolled them, but still.

Ryan Reynolds was objectively more popular in early 2024 than he is today.

Even so, the Deadpool actor won a few cheers when he appeared at Comic-Con as a surprise guest.

Reynolds hinted to the crowd what I’d mentioned last week: We’re getting a Deadpool sequel!

The excitement was muted, likely because Marvel fans like you and me already knew.

Plus, he never outright said those words, likely because the script isn’t finished.

This non-announcement frustrated fans as much as excited them.

The Two Bombshells

On the bright side, Marvel shocked fans with two reveals.

The first confirms a longstanding casting rumor in the MCU.

Ryan Gosling, Ken himself, will join the MCU as Ghost Rider.

The actor is riding an incredible hot streak right now thanks to Project: Hail Mary.

His next project will be Star Wars: Starfighter, directed by Shawn Levy.

That film comes out next year, which leads to a fascinating subplot here.

Levy and Gosling will reunite on the Ghost Rider film for Disney.

So, they’re doubling up on fan service with the rarest of rare Star Wars/Marvel combo.

You may recall that Levy was, at one point, the favorite to direct the next Avengers film(s).

Had he accepted that role, he wouldn’t have been available for these Disney projects.

As a reminder, Disney owns Marvel and Star Wars…and clearly likes Levy.

His most recent project was Deadpool & Wolverine, which brings us full circle.

The vague comments about the next Deadpool film may be due to Levy’s unavailability.

We’ll have to wait and see how Reynolds proceeds with that one.

My sole advice is that he should resist any and all temptation to direct the film himself.

He’s not popular enough to get away with that right now. It’d come across as an ego trip.

While we’re on the subject of directors, Ryan Coogler also took the stage at Comic-Con.

The hottest director on the planet right now confirmed that he’s returning to the MCU.

As expected, Coogler will direct the previously discussed Black Panther 3.

Meet the New Black Panther

You may recall that Denzel Washington ruined the surprise on this one a while back.

The revered actor confirmed his involvement with the project…that technically didn’t exist.

Now, Marvel has not just confirmed it but given Black Panther 3 a date of December 15^th, 2028.

And that’s not all. Marvel has cast the role, but it’s not the rumored actor.

Damson Idris was supposedly the top candidate. He didn’t get the role, though.

That honor belongs to David Jonsson, who played an android in Alien: Romulus.

Johnsson will portray T’Challa’s now-adult son in the MCU. So, yeah. David Jonsson is famous.

Those are some big shoes to fill as well, but Marvel is doing something smart here.

The presence of Denzel Washington will take much of the focus off Jonsson this time.

Yes, he’ll (presumably) be the lead/protagonist, but he’s not Denzel, who will draw attention.

Still, Marvel needs to nail this casting, as Black Panther is too important to the bottom line.

As for why it’s not Shuri, the next two Avengers movies may clear up that mystery.

Spider Domination

In a huge, shocking twist, the number one film at the box office this weekend was Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

That fate had been a foregone conclusion since Sony pushed back the film to this date.

Any struggles the studio had in getting the film off the ground are but a distant memory.

History will remember Brand New Day as on the shortlist for the most successful opening ever.

For the weekend, the film earned $355 million domestically, narrowly missing the opening weekend box office record.

That puts Spidey in some rare air, albeit not for the first time.

For whatever reason, Spider-Man has proven the most reliable of all comic book characters.

Even Batman isn’t as popular at the box office as Peter Parker.

Back in the day, Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man set the box office record for an opening weekend.

History didn’t quite repeat itself this weekend, but it was closer than anybody expected.

After just one weekend in theaters, Brand New Day is already taking aim at its predecessor.

Spider-Man: No Way Home fell just short of $2 billion. Brand New Day has a real shot at surpassing that total.

Sony forced this film down our throats, yet here we are begging for seconds.

As for the film’s reception, Brand New Day earned a Cinemascore of an A.

Meanwhile, Rotten Tomatoes critics have given it a score of 90 percent.

Sony couldn’t care less about either of those metrics, though.

The only one that really matters is money made on opening weekend…and it’s a metric ton.

Brief Marvel Miscellany

I’ve got three other stories to cover, but they happened late in the week.

So, I’ll discuss the casting of Samara Weaving as Emma Frost more next time.

Similarly, you should expect a rant about the cancellation of Wonder Man.

Sometimes, I legitimately have no idea what Marvel is thinking or doing.

Speaking of which, Mahershala Ali has confirmed he won’t be doing Blade.

And he sounds really angry about it, as he should be.

The highly decorated actor points out that Marvel had him under contract.

So, they could have done the film if they wanted. They just didn’t ever make the movie.

These stories will get lost in the dominance of Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

They still paint a picture of Marvel’s turbulent 2020s, though.

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