‘Avengers: Doomsday’ Steals the Show at Disney’s CinemaCon, but Don’t Forget ‘The Dog Stars’ and ‘Wild Horse Nine’

Disney also showed extended looks at "Toy Story 5," "The Mandalorian and Grogu," and the animated "Hexed."

For the big finale at CinemaCon, Disney came to showcase a slate that couldn’t be more stacked between new Disney, Star Wars, Pixar, Marvel, Searchlight, and 20th Century titles. The studio does have a D23 coming up in the fall, so maybe some of the biggest secrets are being kept until then, but this presentation didn’t disappoint the fans.

In these Daily Dispatches from CinemaCon, we’re sharing the highlights of what we saw, what was announced, what we didn’t, and what was the overall vibe.

The BEST Thing We Saw

Jacob Elordi holding a puppy at the start of “The Dog Stars” trailer before a quick cut to learning that the world has ended certainly got us in the feels, and it was one of the few true first looks we got of a film among the Disney slate. The film stars Elordi, Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin, and Allison Janney and is directed by Ridley Scott. It opens August 28, and the trailer is available now.

Martin McDonaugh’s “Wild Horse Nine” also teased a clip of the 1970s period film and shows John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell talking to two young Chilean women in an airport during the Chilean revolution, with Malkovich threatening that they’re there to “destabilize their democracy” and that “their country is fucked.” Malkovich looks like a real stand-out, telling Rockwell in one scene that he’s “killed people in countries you can’t even spell.” He’s also not thrilled with Easter Island. “Once you’ve seen one big head, you’ve seen them all.”

The BIG News in the Room

We know a lot of you were waiting for “Avengers: Doomsday,” and they took some time to tout a new PLF format called Infinity Vision that Disney is rolling out along with an “Endgame” re-release in September. But then directors Anthony and Joe Russo alongside Kevin Feige brought out Robert Downey Jr. to hype up his appearance as “the best Marvel villain” Dr. Doom. He said he wants to give away “37,000 spoilers” but instead showed “The Trailer of Doom.”

It showed the Fantastic Four meeting the other Avengers, Gambit fighting Shang-Chi, Mystique transforming into Florence Pugh’s Yelena and Dr. Doom blocking Thor’s axe with his hand. We also see the return of a bearded Chris Evans’ Captain America saying “Hey pal” before calling Mjolnir to him.

Evans took the stage and said he’d “only come back if there was a real reason,” and he said the Avengers “really needed Steve Rogers.” And the crowd demanded it and got it: they even played the trailer again.

So what else? Jon Favreau introduced the entire opening of “The Mandalorian and Grogu” as well as showed a new trailer for the film, which is available now and said tickets are on sale for the movie tomorrow. But the opening sequence was a rip-roaring cold open in which Mando and Grogu are infiltrating a base to take down an empire loyalist. He follows the loyalist to a fleet of AT-ATs on an icy mountain cliff, darting in between gun fire and stomping legs with his own commandeered walker. He then breaks into an AT-AT, kills a bunch of guys inside, and uses its guns to shoot down the loyalist’s escaping pod before the whole thing explodes, with Grogu tapping on his helmet just before things go boom. It was followed by a title sequence, which looked like something out of “Top Gun,” as well as Mando meeting with Sigourney Weaver giving him a new mission to track down an unidentified man hiding out with Jabba the Hutt’s last descendant. There was some other Baby Yoda cuteness too.

We also got two clip from “Toy Story 5” in which Bonnie gets a gift of a tablet called Lilypad and is immediately hypnotized by it, despite her parents’ worries about screen time, followed by another in which Woody makes his return to the other toys. The bigger surprise was Tom Hanks and Tim Allen both appearing on stage together, joking about trying to explain to kids that they really are Woody and Buzz Lightyear. Allen also said they looked at an old video of the two of them doing the voices on the original “Toy Story” 30 years ago and thought it was their grandkids in the video.

Dwayne Johnson dedicated his performance as Maui in the live-action “Moana” to his grandfather, showing an old photo of his grandfather and talking about his memories of him and how they seeped into the animated character. He also introduced star Catherine Laga’aia, who told him she had done her first interview ever, and it even cut to her parents sitting in the audience. The footage shown was another trailer with just a bit of Dwayne performing “You’re Welcome.”

Disney announced the cast for its next animated film “Hexed,” with Hailee Steinfeld voicing the lead role of a young witch named Billie and Rashida Jones voicing her uptight mother who gets dragged along with her into another magical realm. We also saw a clip from the film in which Steinfeld’s character came across a shrine with a talking book and quill pen recruiting new witches and inviting her into the world of Hex. The characters gave some “Beauty and the Beast” vibes.

What We EXPECTED To See But Didn’t

A bit more? Disney showed plenty, but this was not a presentation for new announcements or super early first looks for fanboys. So that meant no “Starfighter” with Ryan Gosling, nothing more on the next Pixar film “Gatto,” no “Simpsons Movie” sequel, “Frozen III,” or “Bluey” movie that are a bit further out on the release calendar. “Wild Horse Nine” was also the only Searchlight film that teased any footage, though it noted its upcoming slate that also includes “Super Troopers 3,” “Behemoth!” and “Sweet Sick.”

What We LEARNED

Disney made the case that out of all the studios that talk a big game about believing in the theatrical experience, they deserve the most praise. They had six billion dollar movies in the last two years, $6.5 billion in 2025, that they already have an average of a 57-day window for its films (to PVOD). The studio took a victory lap behind the $350 million globally for “Hoppers,” which they said is the biggest opening for an original animated film since “Coco.” Disney doesn’t do as many of the stunts that some of the other studios do, but instead lets the footage speak for itself. This year was no exception.

Other Bullets

• We saw a brief scene of an editorial meeting from “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” in which we learn that Miranda Priestly is now being followed around by an HR rep quietly shaking her head at things she can’t say.
• The Rock’s youngest daughter is turning 8 years old tomorrow. Aww. He had a nice message saying that all men should champion women in the way Maui does for not a princess but a warrior in Moana, and that’s what real masculinity looks like.
• The first clip for Brian Duffield’s thriller “Whalefall” showed the build up to a scuba diver about to be swallowed by a massive sperm whale, with some close-ups at a whole lot of tentacles and tongues. It opens October 16.
• Scrat in “Ice Age: Boiling Point” is now joined by Baby Scrat.