Marvel gave fans a taste of what's to come at New York Comic Con, with a look at some of the live-action shows and animated series coming to Disney+ in 2026.
The shows' stars and Brad Winderbaum, the head of Marvel Television and Marvel Animation, gave ABC News some additional hints of what to expect for these beloved characters' journeys at the convention last weekend.
Live-action series "Wonder Man" will be the next Marvel Cinematic Universe show to hit screens, with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II starring as struggling actor Simon Williams. In the comics, Williams uses ionic powers to protect the world from catastrophe, having joined the Avengers in the 1970s.
The show's first trailer offers a taste of the challenges Williams faces in Los Angeles.
This isn't the first superhero role for Abdul-Mateen, who played a villain in DC's "Aquaman" movies and an all-powerful being in HBO's "Watchmen" series. He told ABC News about how "Wonder Man" is more grounded than those outings.
"In the past, I was playing characters who were in an environment where the entire world was at stake," he said during New York Comic Con. "This is about one guy in his world and it feels like the stakes of the entire world are at play -- that's what it feels like when you're after something that's really important to you."
Williams is teaming up with a familiar MCU face and a fellow thespian -- Trevor Slattery, played by Sir Ben Kingsley since 2013. Kingsley reminded ABC News of the journey the character has been on and how he's evolved.
"When we first discovered him in [2013 movie] 'Iron Man 3,' he was seriously addicted to all the wrong substances. In [2014 short film] "All Hail the King," he's in prison. In [2021 movie 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,'] he's sobering," he said.
"Wonder Man" will see the next step of his character's growth, Kingsley noted.
"He's been 13 years sober, which I think is quite a giant step for Trevor. And it reveals a side of him that actually he'd forgotten … he's a very kind man," he said. "I think he has the opportunity to talk to Simon, a fellow actor, in a very caring way."
Kingsley gave credit to the show's creative leads for giving him the opportunity to explore a new side of the character, suggesting that evolution has a hint of Shakespeare about it.
"It's very rare that an actor can get a chance to peel off the layers and, of course, it's a lot to do with the writing," he said. "Destin [Daniel Cretton] and Andrew Guest created this act four, if you like, of Trevor where he's more like King Lear than he is the clown."
The eight-episode series debuts on Disney+ on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026.
It'll be followed by the second season of "Daredevil: Born Again," which starts on Disney+ on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. The show will pick up with the titular hero in the wake of New York City Mayor Wilson Fisk declaring martial law and outlawing vigilantism in the season 1 finale.
Speaking to ABC News, Charlie Cox, who plays Daredevil and his alter-ago Matt Murdock, hinted at the danger of this new status quo.
"Daredevil has been vilified and a lot of people have bought into his tarnished reputation that Fisk has escalated," Cox said. "And so for the first time he's not only having to work against criminals and bad guys, but he's also having to work more in the shadows than ever because he is facing the terrifying public opinion."
This season will also see the return of Krysten Ritter as superhuman private investigator Jessica Jones, six years after the the end of her eponymous series. The actress told ABC News about the character's significance to fans.
"Jessica Jones is a very deep, rich character and she's a survivor and she is an underdog and I think people really connect with her in a very special way," she said. "Years and years later, I still have really emotional interactions with fans and the appetite for her has only grown … it's so exciting to be back, by basically fan popular demand."
Ritter noted that she's glad "Daredevil: Born Again" feels tonally consistent with her solo show, which ran for three seasons from 2015 to 2019.
"I was really kind of thrilled that the shows were maintaining the DNA of our original world that we built, which was very boots on the ground -- very real, very gritty," she said.
Season 3 of "Daredevil: Born Again" is already in the works, the group noted.
Marvel surprised the convention audience by revealing the first details about the long-awaited "VisionQuest." Coming to Disney+ sometime in 2026, the series will pick up one of the major dangling plot threads from 2021's "WandaVision" and reveal what happened to superpowered android Vision.
It'll see MCU veteran Paul Bettany once again playing the Avenger, with James Spader returning as villainous artificial intelligence Ultron. Bettany told ABC News the show will find his character searching for identity.
"We meet Vision at a point where he is trying to figure out who he is and what he's for," he said. "There is a lot of philosophical debate between me and James Spader. There's a lot of philosophical stuff, but with lasers."
Bettany believes that pursuit is key to the character's popularity.
"The wonderful thing about the Vision and why he appeals to young people so much is that he is in the process of becoming," he said. "You always find him in a process of discovering, or at least trying to discover, who he is. And I think that's an urgent business for young people."
On the animated side, fans got a teaser for "X-Men '97" season 2 that saw the mutant superteam scattered through time and preparing to face immortal supervillain Apocalypse. The new season will land on Disney + in summer 2026, and a third is in the works.
It'll be followed by season 2 of the animated series "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" in fall 2026. A teaser revealed that the upcoming season will bring in more elements of classic Spidey lore, with the show's versions of the Venom symbiote and Gwen Stacy debuting. Cox will once again voice Daredevil.
The next year will also mark the fifth anniversary of Marvel shows on Disney+ -- "WandaVision" debuted in January 2021. Winderbaum, head of Marvel TV and Animation, reflected on what he's learned in that time.
"The last five years of making any television has been a ride. The rules change every year because technology changes, the market changes, what it means to make a streaming show, what it means to make a television show," he told ABC News. "The industry has a big high rate of new information and new analysis and new strategies on how to make shows in general."
Despite this changing environment, Winderbaum noted that the basic creative process remains consistent.
"The thing that stays the same is the way we make shows at Marvel -- which is from the heart as fans and with characters that have been around sometimes for 85 years," he said.
He highlighted the importance of keeping the fan perspective in mind.
"I think part of my job is to try to remember that I'm a fan and to imagine myself on my couch watching these things with my kids or with my friends," he said. "And that's as long as I keep that as a guiding light, I think that's what makes these shows special."
Marvel is owned by Disney, parent company of ABC News and "Good Morning America."
