Wildest MCU Predictions For Comic-Con 2022

Comic-Con returns to the San Diego Convention Center for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Marvel Studios will have a predictably large presence, leading to wild speculation about what they may announce for the MCU. The casting of Mahershala Ali as Blade was Marvel’s big announcement back in 2019, so there are considerable expectations surrounding what Comic-Con 2022 could reveal. Wild rumors of what audiences can expect have already emerged in the run-up to the MCU panel on July 23 via a “leak” posted on Reddit that went so far as to suggest that Steven Spielberg was being courted to direct the MCU’s upcoming Fantastic Four.

The Spielberg rumor has since been debunked, but it reflects the voracious appetite and wild speculation that surrounds information about Marvel’s SDCC Panel. While the involvement of Steven Spielberg and The Boys‘ Anthony Starr with the MCU have both since been proved to be highly unlikely, there are some safe bets for what to expect from the panel. For example, Comic-Con acts as a big trade show for studios to promote their upcoming movies so attendees can, at the very least, expect to see a trailer for November’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. As for what else Marvel may have up their sleeves for the MCU panel, there are various other wild rumors and predictions circulating.

San Diego Comic-Con is a key marketing stop for Marvel Studios, and the first in-person event since the pandemic could prove to be bigger than ever. With the MCU currently setting up multiverses and mutants, it’s clear that the storytelling scope is continuing to expand in the MCU’s divisive Phase 4. This will likely be reflected in the panel on July 23, when Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige takes to the stage to discuss their future plans for film and television. Here are some of the wilder things that Feige could announce for the MCU.

Werewolf By Night Confirmed

Werewolf by Night has been heavily rumored to be the MCU’s secret Disney+ Halloween special for some time now, so it’s not the most outlandish possibility for an official Comic-Con announcement. However, if the rumors are confirmed to be true then it would mark a significant shift in tone for the franchise While the MCU has been moving away from the more grounded reality of its early phases for some time now, there’s been more of a focus on science fiction, rather than horror movie concepts. Even the gods of Thor: Love and Thunder feel more like sci-fi characters than mythical ones.

Created by Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, and Mike Ploog in the early 1970s, Werewolf by Night is supernatural in scope and would mark a further swing towards horror following Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The comics followed the appropriately named Jack Russell, the victim of a generations-old lycanthropy curse, as he battled various foes from the canon of horror fiction and the Marvel universe. The character Moon Knight was first introduced in the pages of Werewolf by Night, adding further fuel to rumors that Moon Knight, Blade, and Daredevil could lead to the formation of MCU’s own Midnight Sons. Werewolf by Night was another member of this legendary team of supernatural superheroes, so it’s entirely plausible that Feige will confirm this special and plans to create an on-screen incarnation of the Midnight Sons. Such an announcement would form a neat bit of continuity since the last time the MCU was at San Diego in-person, Mahershala Ali’s casting as Blade was revealed.

Norman Reedus Cast As Ghost Rider

Another key member of Marvel’s Midnight Sons is Ghost Rider, who could also be on the way to the MCU. The character previously appeared in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D played by Gabriel Luna. This doesn’t discount an alternate version of the character re-emerging in the MCU, given how Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Ms. Marvel have already delicately side-stepped the issue of the Inhumans. That MCU team had also been introduced in the MCU’s spinoff procedural, but the killing-off of Anson Mount’s Black Bolt is a bold statement about the original Inhumans team first introduced in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D that could similarly allow for a new Ghost Rider to join the MCU.

Norman Reedus, best known as Daryl in AMC’s The Walking Dead, is keen to play Ghost Rider and has previously stated this desire in interviews. He would be ideal casting for the role of Johnny Blaze, the stunt biker who sacrificed his soul. Having Reedus step onto the San Diego stage at the end of the MCU panel would again form symmetry with the last time the MCU was at Comic-Con, confirming another member of Blade’s Midnight Sons team.

Thunderbolts Casting Announced

An MCU Thunderbolts movie has been previously confirmed by Marvel, and audiences have already seen the early stages of the team’s formation. The Thunderbolts are a team of antiheroes created by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley in the late ’90s and are the MCU’s answer to The Suicide Squad. They were originally a team of supervillains masquerading as superheroes, formed by Baron Zemo. Actor Daniel Bruhl recently reprised his role of Zemo in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, last seen plotting on board The Raft. However, that series also suggests an alternate origin for the MCU’s Thunderbolts, assembled by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss.) She has so far employed the services of Black Widow’s sister, Yelena (Florence Pugh), and the failed Captain America replacement and current U.S. Agent, John Walker (Wyatt Russell).

Comic-Con 2022 could introduce the remaining cast of the MCU’s Thunderbolts movie or the identity of the person for whom Valentina is recruiting this team. It’s likely the Thunderbolts line-up will feature characters previously seen in the MCU to better reflect its Anti-Avengers aesthetic. This could include the returns of Tim Roth’s Abomination, Hannah John-Kamen’s Ghost, or Olga Kurylenko’s Taskmaster. As for Valentina’s employer, the recent death of actor William Hurt makes it unlikely to be Colonel Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, leaving it open for Earth-616’s Norman Osborn, another Thunderbolts leader, to make his debut.

MCU Enters The Mutant Age By Confirming X-Men Casting

The MCU isn’t starved of super-powered teams post-Avengers: Endgame, yet the biggest Marvel team yet to make their debut is the X-Men. Kevin Feige confirmed that mutants were on their way to the MCU at SDCC 2019, so it’s not unreasonable to expect an update on this. Following Professor X’s cameo in the Doctor Strange sequel, Ms. Marvel‘s mutant twist finally confirmed they also exist on Earth-616, presumably laying the groundwork for X-Men updates in San Diego. Kamala Khan’s genetic mutation was a surprising way to ready the MCU for the arrival of the X-Men and suggests it won’t be a simple case of recasting the line-up made famous by the early 2000s movies — so don’t expect those Taron Egerton as Wolverine rumors to come true just yet.

However, there’s no X-Men without Professor X, and with Patrick Stewart stating his reluctance to return to the character after the perfect ending of Logan, it’s unlikely he’ll reprise this role once more. Current rumors suggest Better Call Saul‘s Giancarlo Esposito is being lined up to play the character, also known as Charles Xavier, a bold bit of casting that feels legitimate given the actor’s existing history with Disney via The Mandalorian. Bringing Esposito onstage to announce the MCU’s X-Men at SDCC alongside protege Cyclops — heavily rumored to be played by Top Gun: Maverick‘s Glen Powell — would be a huge headline-grabbing moment. That is exactly the sort of thing a studio like Marvel would want to pull off in the industry trade show environment of Comic-Con.

Fantastic Four Casting Confirmed

Another key Marvel property so far unexplored by the MCU is Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s classic superhero family, the Fantastic Four. While John Krasinski’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness cameo as Mister Fantastic was a satisfying bit of fan-casting, it doesn’t necessarily confirm his involvement in future outings for the Fantastic Four. It’s possible that Krasinski and his wife Emily Blunt may appear on stage as the MCU’s Reed Richards and Sue Storm, a.k.a. Invisible Woman, but the nature of the multiverse means all bets are off.

An alternate Fantastic Four team has been rumored in the run-up to Marvel’s SDCC 2022 panel, featuring Jamie Dornan as Reed, Amanda Seyfried as Sue, and Stranger Things‘ Joe Keery as Johnny Storm, a.k.a. the Human Torch. Keery’s star is currently riding high, and if he has indeed been cast as the Human Torch then Marvel would do well to cash in on the hype surrounding Stranger Things seasons 4 and 5 by announcing it at Comic-Con. The Keery rumor comes from the same source as the debunked Spielberg rumor, so it would be a big surprise for audiences if it turns out to be true.

The MCU Casts Its Galactus

With the MCU’s increasingly cosmic focus and the impending arrival of the Fantastic Four, it seems inevitable that Galactus will also join the MCU. Originally introduced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the pages of Fantastic Four #48, the terrifying cosmic entity is one of Marvel’s biggest antagonists. Galactus feeds on the energy from living planets and would be a far bigger threat to the MCU than Thanos ever was since Galactus’s insatiable appetite can’t be halted by a snap of the fingers.

Josh Brolin was announced as Thanos way back in 2014, four years prior to the climactic events of the Avengers’ Infinity Saga reaching theaters. It therefore wouldn’t be surprising if the casting of Galactus were to be announced prior to him playing a substantial role in the MCU’s Phase 5. Current speculation suggests Liam Neeson is being considered for the role of Galactus, and he certainly has the gravitas to deliver on the promise of the character. While it’s more likely that Marvel Studios will want to focus on Jonathan Majors’s Kang the Conqueror as their primary antagonist going forward, confirming Liam Neeson as Galactus would be quite the statement of intent for the scope and scale of the MCU’s future phases.

The Avengers: Secret Wars Announced

It’s become hard to narrow down exactly what the MCU’s main focus is during Phase 4. Ms. Marvel sets the scene for a potential clash between the Avengers and the X-Men while Eternals and Thor: Love and Thunder set up a future clash of the titans between the world of gods and the world of superheroes. More compelling is the potential multiversal conflict set up by Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness‘s incursions. The battle between universes was memorably explored in Marvel Comics’ Secret Wars event series from 2015 that destroyed the Marvel universe and hit the reset button on numerous long-running series. With negative responses to recent MCU releases like Thor: Love and Thunder and a seeming lack of direction from the infamously meticulous Kevin Feige, SDC2022 would be the perfect time to nail down their future plans.

While the die-hard MCU devotees will likely still turn up for each new release in theaters and on streaming, it’s important for Marvel to give the more casual audience members a narrative throughline. That interconnectedness is what defined the best movies of the MCU’s first three phases, and it’s arguably why the MCU has struggled to move past its Infinity Saga obsession. A Secret Wars movie would be an ideal way for the MCU to broadcast their wider storytelling intentions, and the concept of warring realities is a significant step-up from Thanos’s snap. It would be the wildest, most exciting announcement the MCU could deliver at SDCC 2022, affirming that they’re moving past the concept of a big bad like Thanos or Kang and into something more high-concept and visually spectacular. The numerous possibilities for the MCU panel mean that it will be an unmissable part of San Diego Comic-Con’s 2022 calendar.