Disney’s big-budget fan event D23 returned to Anaheim this past weekend, kicking off with a celebration of upcoming releases and premieres from the many arms of the entertainment giant. Attendees at the Honda Center would be the first to see footage from the latest Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars projects, with seemingly endless surprises in store—starting with a statement that maybe should have been saved for someone else.
It’s certainly a bold move to start your cavalcade of clips and casting announcements by talking about how it’d all be impossible without Disney “cast members”—company lingo for its employees, a thousand of which were recently laid off, followed shortly by several hundred more at Pixar. But hey, that’s why Disney put visionary new CEO Josh D’Amaro in charge, right? To hype up 12,000 fans in a way that helps them forget that the magic they love comes at a cost and that he and his $45 million pay package decide who pays it?
Before the show itself kicked off with D’Amaro’s tone deaf sentiment, arguably overly bubbly hosts played games with the crowd. These games, though benign, immediately showcased that fans travelled from near and far to meet the new X-Men and ponder all the ways Goofy might kill Disney villains in a Kingdom Hearts TV show. They came from Canada, Mexico, Germany, and the Netherlands, a global audience gathered to be enchanted and, for better or worse, Disney still remains the best in the biz when it comes to that sort of thing.
It was a perfect illustration of what it’s like to be a Disney fan in 2026. (And what it was like to be one in 2016, and 2006…) What Disney makes is magic, and D’Amaro is right—everyone on the payroll, be they unseen animator or the celebrities who front our favorite films, makes it possible. D23’s Friday-night Entertainment Showcase did illustrate a level of understanding of that: Jon Favreau got a stage to excitedly announce that Disney+’s Oswald: The Lucky Rabbit series will render Walt Disney’s original cartoon creation in hand-drawn, 2D animation; meanwhile, multiple live performances gave ensemble dancers and future West End headliners alike a chance to shine in a huge venue.
But there are little tidbits of the magic that don’t come across in the livestreams or the footage that inevitably makes its way to the internet. Disney would never let you see the number of people who took the Bluey Movie segment as the perfect opportunity for a bathroom break (odd given the popularity of the series, but when you gotta go, you gotta go). Meanwhile, there’s no way for you to know that when Paul Bettany introduced VisionQuest and said “I am told in the Marvel Universe that no one is ever really dead,” the entire room took it to mean Wanda Maximoff is around the corner and lost their collective minds, or that Kathryn Hahn got one of the loudest pops of the night after she took the stage following a first look at her portrayal of Mother Gothel in the live-action Tangled.
The thing about these kinds of shows is that they really are electric, but it’s only in part because of what we’re seeing on screen. Joke all you will about energy, it’s hard to remain cynical alongside 12,000 people who love something so much that they braved rush-hour traffic and/or multiple international flights to be a part of it. The reality is that the folks who paid to be in that room are probably going to be hyped regardless of what’s shown, so long as Disney lives up to its end of the bargain.
In this case “living up to its end of the bargain” doesn’t even necessarily mean quality. Though I’ve remained a faithful fan to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there’s no arguing that there’s been a dip in quality lately. That wasn’t at all evident in the fan reaction in the room. What was, was the differing reactions to Ahsoka and Star Wars: Starfighter. The Ahsoka presentation was met with huge cheers throughout. Meanwhile, Star Wars: Starfighter saw an explosion of excitement for Ryan Gosling’s arrival alongside a happy-but-smaller response to the film itself. Lucasfilm has struggled significantly with its film slate since Star Wars: Episode IX—The Rise Of Skywalker—of the many movies announced in the sequel trilogy’s wake, only The Mandalorian And Grogu and Starfighter have come to fruition. Everyone in that room was going to cheer regardless, but that cheering, while relative and still quite impressive in a vacuum, likely has nothing to do with lack of anticipation for Starfighter and everything to do with The House Of Mouse’s over-promising and under-delivering on theatrical Star Wars.
Marvel’s Blade debacle is frustrating, but it’s nothing compared to the “I’ll believe this is a real project when I’m butt-in-seat in a movie theater” frustration that now greets every new Star Wars announcement. In fact, Spider-Man: Brand New Day seems to have bought a level of goodwill that was evident both in the room on Friday night and online. Not only were the reactions for the X-Men cast introductions (Christopher Abbott as Professor X, Inde Navarrette as Rogue, Maya Boyd as Storm, and Adam Driver as Mr. Sinister) explosive, but the hype for Doomsday seems to have multiplied significantly. Of course, a portion of that can be attributed to Marvel finally putting together an interesting trailer for the movie. For its part, VisionQuest was always going to be well-received given that it’s the closer to a wildly popular trilogy of TV shows‚ but it still successfully set the tone for Marvel’s portion of the evening.
But in this environment, even a botched finale could draw a positive reaction. Frozen 3 was a foregone conclusion, but if you put Broadway legend and longtime Disney queen Idina Menzel next to Kristen Bell, pop on some microphones, and send them out to sing, the audience will give you the impassioned reaction that you’re looking for. Even if your sound cues are screwed, there’s a weird delay, a bad audio pop, and Bell’s ear piece never actually turned on.
To everyone’s credit, the finale was the only bungled moment during a night of wildly complicated tech cues. Better still was the fact that it gave Bell and Menzel the opportunity to riff a bit, adding an essential level of humanity to what was otherwise an overly scripted event. A fun fact on full display throughout D23’s opening night: You can be both a great actor and bad at reading a teleprompter!
Speaking as a journalist, D23’s Entertainment Showcase was a mixed bag that reminded us that we will be getting Lilo & Stitch 2 whether we want it or not—the live-action remakes won’t stop, no matter how loudly we beg. Speaking as a fan, I lit up like a Christmas tree when Hayley Atwell joined Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. on stage—the possibility that Doomsday will give Peggy Carter the kind of critical role she’s always deserved to play is just that exciting to me. And my eyes will well up every single time Disney pumps fake snow into any space, particularly when it’s attached to Frozen, which I am simply incapable of hating no matter how much Josh Gad it forces me to endure.
It was magical. The cost of that magic is high, whether you’re considering the livelihoods lost or the literal price tag of the Ultimate Preferred Fan Pass that’ll run you over a grand or 3-day passes that include nosebleed seats at the Honda Center for a few hundred. But, if you manage to end up in that room, you will feel the boundless energy of tens of thousands of fans who are deeply moved by what they’re seeing. You may take that as either a promise or a threat.
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