D23 Expo 2017: the latest news from Disney’s biennial expo

One of the more intriguing announcements to come out of Disney’s biennial D23 expo this past weekend was Marvel’s new virtual reality game, made in partnership with Facebook-owned Oculus VR. The title, called Marvel Powers United VR, is not due out until 2018 as an exclusive for the Rift headset, but we got the opportunity to try out an early build of it at the conference.

As you might expect, Marvel Powers United VR boasts several different characters of varying sizes, shapes, and skill sets, and when playing for the first time I could chose between Rocket Raccoon, Deadpool, Captain Marvel, and The Hulk.

Walt Disney Studios’ artists are being celebrated with a new stamp sheet of 10 Disney villains from the United States Postal Service. The announcement was made over the weekend at the D23 expo in Anaheim, California.

Disney was founded in 1923, and its Ink and Paint department helped create many of the studio’s classic films. “The Postal Service is highlighting the Disney villains and the pioneering spirit of the Ink and Paint Department that brought many of these characters to life,” said postmaster general Megan Brennan in a statement. “These Forever stamps are our way of saying Disney Villains will forever entertain us and serve as a tribute Disney’s artistry and storytelling skill.”

Disney’s D23 Expo is an opportunity for fans to celebrate characters and properties they love, but it’s also a chance for Disney to reveal trailers and make a ton of movie announcements. With studios like Pixar, Lucasfilm, and Marvel all contributing to the company’s prodigious output, there was a lot to cover on the movie front. As in years past, the studio broke things up over two different presentations: one focusing on animated films, and the other on live-action productions.

Below we’ve collected the highlights from Disney’s D23 movie presentations, offering a roadmap for what to expect in the years to come.

This weekend at its D23 Expo, Disney offered several new details about its themed expansion land Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. But it was a much briefer announcement, confirming rumors that the company was working on an immersive, themed hotel set in George Lucas’ universe, that offered perhaps the most intriguing hint of where the company sees its parks and resorts businesses going.

Basically, Disney wants to build a Westworld for Star Wars fans.

Disney always puts a big focus on its parks at D23 Expo, and today it revealed some important new information about the upcoming Star Wars lands. First off is the official name. They’ll be called Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, tying into the overall concept of the lands being set on a remote planetary outpost that’s outside the normal hustle and bustle of space travel.

Walt Disney Imagineering portfolio creative executive Scott Trowbridge revealed some additional details about the two rides in the park, as well. Chewbacca will be present, utilized as part of the narrative set-up to the Millennium Falcon attraction. As revealed earlier this year, that ride will let teams of visitors take the controls of the starship, which will be a key part of the immersive aspect of Galaxy’s Edge. According to Trowbridge, if visitors do well while piloting the Falcon they’ll be rewarded with extra Galactic Credits. If not, they may find themselves hunted by a bounty hunter elsewhere in the park.

Kingdom Hearts 3, the long awaited third major installment in the epic Final Fantasy and Disney crossover RPG series, finally has a release date, although it remains somewhat ambiguous for now. At the conclusion of a new Toy Story-themed trailer of the game shown off at Disney’s D23 expo today, developer Square Enix revealed that the game would indeed be coming out in 2018. Even better news: from the footage shown off of Sora and pals Donald and Goofy teaming up with Woody and Buzz Lightyear, the game looks fantastic, with an even deeper and zanier battle system and ultra-polished visuals.

The news should overjoy Kingdom Hearts fans would’ve waited nearly 13 years for a sequel to the second major game in the series. It should also assuage the fears of those dreading the worst: that the game would simply never make it out of development hell, or in a worst case scenario get canned for good. But Square Enix — which wrapped up long and tortuous development cycle for Final Fantasy XV, its other highly anticipated RPG — appears better equipped to get its most anticipated titles out the door at last.

Disney’s D23 Expo covers all aspects of its entertainment empire, and today the studio revealed that virtual reality is coming to the Marvel universe. Marvel Powers United VR is being made by Oculus and Sanzaru Games, and will let players step into the shoes of characters like The Hulk, Captain Marvel, or Rocket Raccoon. The announcement came during the “Level Up” gaming panel, which also included updates about Star Wars: Battlefront II and Insomniac Games’ upcoming Spider-Man game.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the game will be exclusive to the Oculus Rift headset and Touch controllers. One of the big selling points is that it’s actually going to be a co-op experience. Multiple players can team up, each taking on the role of a different Marvel character, to play together in joint missions. Disney is planning on announcing additional characters for the game starting next week at San Diego Comic-Con, with Powers United VR itself targeted for a 2018 release.

Earlier this year at WWDC, Apple showed off an augmented reality demo that used an iPad to recreate the famous Dejarik holochess game from Star Wars. It turns out that was more than just a tech demo: today Disney announced that it is creating an actual augmented reality platform that it will use to bring that game and other projects to life.

The product uses two pieces to work its magic. The first is a new augmented reality headset, made in conjunction with Lenovo. The device then pairs with a user’s smartphone to do the rest of the heavy lifting. A number of different applications were teased, including the holochess game — which put the animated, holographic monsters on top of a table or other surface — as well as a battle where tiny augmented reality Rebel cartoon characters faced off against an AT-AT.

The hype for Star Wars: Battlefront II has been slowly building, and today EA released a new behind-the-scenes clip detailing the making of the game’s eagerly-anticipated single-player campaign. The video was first shown during the “Level Up” gaming panel at Disney’s D23 Expo, which also featured Janina Gavankar - the actor that plays the lead role in Battlefront II.

Most Star Wars stories have focused on the “good guys”: the Rebel Alliance, or the Resistance in the newer films. Battlefront II will flip that on its head by putting players in the shoes of Iden Versio, an Imperial Special Forces officer who sees the destruction of the second Death Star while on the forest moon of Endor. From there, she sets out to seek revenge against the Rebels, in a storyline that starts during the final moments of Return of the Jedi and stretches all the way up to current movies like The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. Star Wars: Battlefront II is scheduled for release on November 17th.

Disney’s D23 Expo this year is full of Star Wars, and today director Rian Johnson debuted a new behind the scenes reel about the making of The Last Jedi. Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, and Oscar Isaacs all make appearances in the clip, which details the creative process behind the eagerly-awaited sequels. The mood is excited but somber at times, with the director saying at one point that the film may seem “shocking” when audiences finally see it.

The behind-the-scenes reel is part of an expertly-crafted promotional strategy that Disney also followed with both The Force Awakens and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Those films also received a trailer, followed by making-of footage that brought audiences inside the creative process itself. The difference here is timing. For The Force Awakens, the behind-the-scenes clip actually premiered during the film’s presentation at San Diego Comic-Con. But this year, Lucasfilm and Disney are using D23 Expo — the company’s own convention designed to celebrate its fans and films — to deliver the bulk of its Star Wars updates.

Disney has released the first trailer for Selma director Ava DuVernay’s upcoming science fiction film, A Wrinkle in Time at its D23 expo, showing off fantastic worlds and a diverse cast.

The trailer begins with Chris Pine’s character talking about travelling through space instantaneously, before ending up on another world. “Your father has accomplished extraordinary,” intones Oprah Winfrey’s Mrs. Witch. We then jump to his daughter, Meg Murry, who learns that her father is trapped by a dark force, and that she’s the only one who can stop it, all while we’re introduced to some utterly fantastic worlds and characters.

Disney has finally given a first glimpse into its highly anticipated Star Wars lands currently being built in California and Florida, unveiling a 50-foot-wide 3D model of the area that will eventually cover about 14 acres. The Star Wars-themed attractions are due to open in 2019 at Disneyland in Anaheim, and at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Disney World in Orlando.

In a blog post, the company said both Star Wars-inspired lands will take guests to a never-before-seen planet, a remote trading port, and “one of the last stops before Wild Space.” The unveiling came at the D23 expo, currently being held in Anaheim, California, where the models are on display through the weekend.