2024 marks the 85th anniversary of Marvel’s existence, and a lot has changed since the comic book company was founded in 1939. Once known as Timely Comics, Marvel doesn’t just publish comic books, but is now known for games, television, and of course movies in the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe. To celebrate the milestone, the company released a special video full of wonderful walks down memory lane, but if you pay attention you’ll get your first look at some upcoming MCU projects.
The video itself is just under three minutes long and was posted to the official Marvel Entertainment YouTube page on August 29. It begins with footage from an interview with the late Stan Lee telling children that he doesn’t have a favorite of his many iconic characters but loves them all like a parent. It then cuts to a montage that amps up the nostalgia for Marvel comics and the MCU itself. But near the end of the video we see blink-and-you’ll-miss-it clips for Thunderbolts*, Ironheart, and the long-awaited return of Daredevil in the Born Again series.
While these short looks aren’t more than a couple seconds all combined, they are our first glimpse into the projects outside of concept art. For Thunderbolts* (yes there is an asterisk in the title and no Kevin Feige hasn’t told us what that is about), we get a look at the team all together. That includes the return of Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost, Wyatt Russell as U.S. Agent, and David Harbour as Red Guardian. The Thunderbolts will essentially be the MCU’s Suicide Squad—a group of antiheroes doing dangerous missions for the government.
The Daredevil: Born Again shot is especially exciting for fans, as it marks the return of Charlie Cox in the role of Matt Murdock. The show will also reunite most of the cast from the Netflix series. All we really see is Cox wearing the mask, but that’s enough for Daredevil fans. Cox has already made an appearance as Daredevil in the MCU, with a brief cameo in 2022’s She-Hulk. The series, which ended with its third season in 2018, remains one of the best Marvel projects across film and television and having the team back together for a new story has made it one of the most hotly anticipated projects currently in the works from Marvel Entertainment.
Finally, we got a short clip from Ironheart. The upcoming Disney+ series focuses on young genius Riri Williams, who we first saw in 2022’s Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Dominique Thorne will be reprising her role ). Riri was created by Brian Michael Bendis— who also created Miles Morales—in 2016. She’s a character in the comics who tries to fill the void left by Tony Stark’s death through a combination of her own intelligence and scrappy inventing along with the aid of an AI recreation of Tony. The show seems to be taking some cues from her comic story, as the short clip shows her flying around in her makeshift Iron Man suit. The show is set to premiere next year and will be six episodes long.
All in all, the 85th anniversary celebration video is a nice look back at the many amazing worlds Marvel has created in comics on the page and screen as well as a nice glimpse into the future, giving fans something to get excited about.
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