Thunderbolts, Avatar: Fire And Ash, Fantastic Four: First Steps And More At CinemaCon 2025's Walt Disney Studios Panel - Live Blog
Walt Disney Studios dishes on their upcoming slate!

We're at CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas, where movie studios come to show exclusive looks at their biggest releases of the year. Closing out this year's show is the Walt Disney Studios panel! We hope to hear new information on Thunderbolts, Freaky Friday, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Avatar: Fire and Ash, and perhaps, Avengers: Doomsday? Keep it here for by-the-minute breaking news, and refresh this page for updates!
For more from CinemaCon 2025 coverage, check out our live blog of the Sony panel, which features new information on Spider-Man 4, the Lionsgate panel, which features new information on The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, the Warner Bros. panel, which features new information on Superman!, the Universal Pictures panel, where we got the tea on Wicked: For Good, the Amazon MGM panel, where we got a sneak peek at Masters Of The Universe, and the Paramount Pictures panel, where we got a brand new look at Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning!
And that's it for CinemaCon 2025, folks! Thanks for following along with us on these live blogs. Keep it here at CinemaBlend for the latest news on all of these upcoming releases!
James Cameron has come to us via video to introduce a "new reel" for Avatar: Fire And Ash!. He talked about the "one-two punch" of the pandemic and streaming, and hopes that this film can be the "shot in the arm" the industry needs. He then introduces Oscar winner Zoe Saldaña to the stage.
Saldaña offers a brief word about James Cameron, saying she misses him at CinemaCon this year but knows he's hard at work on the film. Then she throws to the clip... in 3D!
The clip introduces us to the "wind traders," a group who uses impressive ships to live primarily in the air. The aircrafts themselves and the society they've built certainly serve as a visual spectacle. A montage of action scenes follows that, if I'm being honest, are hard to differentiate from the other films in the franchise. Either way, this installment is shaping up to to be a worthy addition! You can see it on December 15!
Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan has taken the stage to talk about Zootopia 2! He informed us that he'd be playing a brand new character, a snake, and then he threw to an exclusive new clip.
The clip featured Jason Bateman's Nick and Ginnifer Goodwin's Judy in group therapy, with Judy claiming that they'd officially been partners for one week. Quinta Brunson's character, who is running the session, psychoanalyzes the duo in hilarious fashion. You can see it in theaters on November 26, 2025!
Kevin Feige joined us via video to introduce a new trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps! Vanessa Kirby's Sue Storm informs the crew that she and Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards are having a baby. Joseph Quinn's Johnny Storm tells Sue that she'll be the best mom ever, but hilariously tells Reed that he doesn't have the same faith in his abilities as a dad.
It seems that The Fantastic Four are in a pretty good place, as the whole world loves them and praises the astronauts as heroes. The crowd erupted as Julia Garner's Silver Surfer appeared on screen! It's really the only way to do the character in live-action, with the look being detailed and textured, not the smooth cartoonish version of the character we've seen in the past. We quickly have to move past how awesome she looks as she informs the crew that Earth has been targeted for destruction. See it July 25!
The Thunderbolts are here! They stumbled in with a disheveled Wyatt Russell, with the bit being that he was having a little too much fun in Vegas. He's joined by Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Hannah John-Kamen. After Florence Pugh hilariously stumbled through her scripted teleprompter banter, telling the crowd that she hadn't been drinking, the crew threw to a clip.
The clip featured the crew together in the back of a truck that Bucky (Sebastian Stan) is driving. Alexei (David Harbour) asks what the plan is, and it's clear that Bucky doesn't have one. They drive the truck through a wall and cause a huge ruckus fighting folks before Valentina (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) says over the intercom that she had "left the door open" for them.
Once together, Valentina looks at The Red Guardian and says "Who's this old Santa Claus," which got a huge laugh from the audience, and we then got footage in what was more of a traditional trailer. Near the end, Bucky tries to make an impassioned speech to the crew, only for Yelena to say, "Beautiful, Dr. Phil." It was all very hilarious, and the action looks great. I, for one, can't wait. See it May 2!
Jamie Lee Curtis is back on stage to present James L. Brooks with CinemaCon's Cinéma Vérité award. He took the opportunity to plead for art within commerce, pointing out that data has nothing on human emotion. He then threw to a clip from his new film, Ella McCay.
Ella McCay (played by Emma Mackey) is an idealistic young politician dealing with her deadbeat dad (Woody Harrelson) who is trying to make amends with her. The film looks honestly delightful, in the same vein as As Good As It Gets, Jerry Maguire, Broadcast News and the other great dramedies in Brooks' filmography. You can see it in theaters September 19!
Jeremy Allen White and Jeremy Strong are on stage to talk about their upcoming Bruce Springsteen biopic, Deliver Me from Nowhere. Jeremy Allen White is a man of few words, but he did say that portraying The Boss was a "dream come true," and they threw to a teaser.
That looks like a biopic, all right! The footage didn't reveal very much, but it did end with a clip of White belting on stage as Bruce, and it was pretty epic. You can see the film later this year.
Elle Fanning is on stage introducing Predator: Badlands! She spoke of how stoked she was to work with Dan Trachtenberg after his massively successful Prey. She then threw to a trailer.
The teaser didn't reveal much, but we got a solid look at the predator himself at the end as he slices a jungle creature in half, and the crowd erupted in applause. It looks pretty phenomenal, and the film will be released on November 7.
Jared Leto and Jeff Bridges have taken the stage to talk about Tron: Ares! Leto promised that this movie was going to hit us "Right in the grid, wherever that is," and threw to an exclusive new clip from Tron: Ares.
The clip opens on a cop car being ripped in half as it drives into a lightcycle line. It is obvious that this movie will very much takes place in the real world, aggressively merged with the game of Tron. The big standout from the trailer was the bit we heard from the soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Another banger. You can see it in October!
Lindsay Lohan and Academy Award winner Jamie Lee Curtis have taken the stage to talk Freakier Friday! They talked about their love for making these films, and how badly they want the fandom to see this sequel in theaters. Then they debuted an exclusive clip from the film.
In the clip, the mom and daughter duo were fumbling to flirt while the man in question had no idea they'd swapped bodies. What can I say? It's a Freaky Friday sequel, and it seems great.
First, Lilo & Stitch! We got a look at a full clip where Lilo had brought the unruly Stitch to Nani's workplace. We saw a bit of the scene referenced in the trailer, and watching it play out gives us exactly what we wanted. It was adorable and funny. You can see it May 23!
On our way into the Coliseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, we were handed Wheaties boxes that, of course, featured the faces of Marvel's beloved group of anti-heroes, the Thunderbolts. Inside was popcorn, which is cute, but to be honest... I'd of rather had Wheaties.
The panel will begin shortly!