Ryan Gosling walked onto the stage of Hall H as if he still could not quite believe it. “Wow. Is this really happening?” he asked the 6,500 fans, many of whom were still wearing the green Doctor Doom masks handed out at the door. It was the question that had followed him for years, ever since he first told a journalist in 2022 that the motorcycle-riding Spirit of Vengeance was the Marvel character he most wanted to play. Now, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige had just confirmed it: Gosling would star as Johnny Blaze in a standalone Ghost Rider film, directed by Shawn Levy and slated for 2028. Levy later recounted how the project had crystallised during downtime on the set of their Star Wars film. “As Ryan started talking about his vision, we started riffing,” he said, “and I finally said, bro, let’s ride.”

Minutes after that roar subsided, the panel pivoted to a different kind of inheritance. Ryan Coogler, director of the first two Black Panther films, introduced David Jonsson as the actor who would carry the mantle into its third chapter. The 32-year-old London-born actor, known for HBO’s Industry and the sci-fi thriller Alien: Romulus, will play an adult Prince T’Challa II, the son of Chadwick Boseman’s king. The character was glimpsed as a child in a post-credits scene of Wakanda Forever; now, Coogler said, “he grows up, he comes of age.” Jonsson, visibly moved, pressed a hand to his chest as the crowd broke into Wakandan chants, then kept his remarks short: “I don’t want to say too much, because I want to let the screen do the talking.”

The twin announcements, arriving less than five months before the release of Avengers: Doomsday, signalled a deliberate recalibration. By looking past the impending crossover event to new standalone stories, Feige and his team offered audiences a roadmap that balances the cacophony of multiverse epics with character-driven originals. Gosling’s Ghost Rider marks the official integration of a cult favourite into the interconnected MCU, after two earlier non-canon films starring Nicolas Cage. In a curious footnote, Cage’s 2007 co-star was Eva Mendes, Gosling’s real-life partner. Gosling has joked about the connection; for years, he said, he was glad one of them finally got to play the role.

For Black Panther, the challenge was far more sensitive. Boseman’s death in 2020 left a hole no recasting could fill. Marvel’s decision to let T’Challa die off-screen and pass the cowl first to his sister Shuri, and now to his son, reflects a broader cultural insistence on legacy over replacement. Jonsson’s casting was greeted not with scepticism but with a standing ovation. Coogler revealed that the film would be shot entirely on large-format celluloid, a first for the MCU, promising a visual texture distinct from the digital sheen of the franchise’s house style.

When the lights came up, the crowd filed out into the San Diego night, many still wearing their Doom masks, but the conversation had already turned to 2028. Onstage, the most indelible image was not the new poster of Robert Downey Jr. in green robes, but an actor, hand still on his heart, who had just been told he was the king of Wakanda.