Avengers: Doomsday steals CinemaCon spotlight: don’t forget The Dog Stars and Wild Horse Nine

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• Standout first looks and emotional trailers
• Marvel’s big reveal: trailers, talent, and a new theatrical format
  • Key beats from the new Marvel trailer
• The Mandalorian and Grogu: a cinematic cold open
• Toys reunited, a new animated witch, and Moana’s live-action tease
• Searchlight’s adult titles and festival-style offerings
• What fans expected but didn’t appear
• Box office strategy and theatrical priorities
• Short takes and memorable moments

CinemaCon closed with Disney delivering a marathon of footage and star-studded moments. From surprise trailers to nostalgic reunions, the studio packed its presentation with franchise updates and festival-style teases that kept the audience buzzing.

Standout first looks and emotional trailers

Among the most talked-about clips was a new trailer for Ridley Scott’s post-apocalyptic drama, now titled The Dog Stars. Jacob Elordi opens the footage with a tender scene before the tone shifts, revealing the harsh world the characters now inhabit. The cast includes Margaret Qualley, Josh Brolin, and Allison Janney. The film lands in late August.

Martin McDonagh’s period piece, Wild Horse Nine, also showed a striking airport scene set during the Chilean unrest. John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell spar verbally with two young Chilean women. Malkovich’s performance is sharp and darkly comic, delivering some of the presentation’s most memorable lines.

Marvel’s big reveal: trailers, talent, and a new theatrical format

Disney used CinemaCon to promote both the upcoming Marvel slate and a premium-lobbying push for theaters. They unveiled a new premium large format called Infinity Vision, timed with an “Endgame” re-release.

Key beats from the new Marvel trailer

• Robert Downey Jr. appeared to introduce a trailer that teases his role as Dr. Doom.
• The footage showed the Fantastic Four meeting the wider Avengers team.
• We saw Gambit in combat with Shang-Chi and Mystique morphing into Yelena.
• Thor’s hammer was blocked at point-blank range by Dr. Doom.
• Chris Evans returned as Steve Rogers, now bearded, delivering a quiet line that lit up the crowd.

Evans explained he only returned for a reason he believed in. The audience’s reaction was so strong the studio played the trailer twice.

The Mandalorian and Grogu: a cinematic cold open

Jon Favreau previewed the feature-length The Mandalorian and Grogu, including a full cold open. The sequence follows the duo infiltrating a base, racing across an icy cliff amid AT-ATs and chaos. The action crescendos inside a captured walker, ending with an explosion and a quiet, adorable beat from Grogu.

Favreau also showed a new trailer and confirmed tickets go on sale the next day. The footage included a Top Gun-style title sequence and a scene where Mando meets Sigourney Weaver, who assigns a new mission involving a mysterious man and Jabba the Hutt’s last descendant.

Toys reunited, a new animated witch, and Moana’s live-action tease

Toy Story 5 was represented by two clips. One shows Bonnie captivated by a tablet called Lilypad, sparking tensions about screen time. Another moment brought Woody back to his fellow toys. The surprise: Tom Hanks and Tim Allen appeared on stage together, joking about their long-running voice roles.

Disney also revealed casting for a forthcoming animated feature, Hexed. Hailee Steinfeld will voice Billie, a young witch, and Rashida Jones will play her uptight mother. A clip introduced an enchanted shrine, a talking book, and a quill pen recruiting new witches.

Dwayne Johnson introduced footage from the live-action Moana. He dedicated his portrayal of Maui to his grandfather and shared a personal moment with the crowd. The clip teased moments of Johnson performing “You’re Welcome” and introduced co-star Catherine Laga’aia.

Searchlight’s adult titles and festival-style offerings

Searchlight highlighted Wild Horse Nine as its primary footage tease and reminded audiences of its broader line-up: projects like Super Troopers 3, Behemoth!, and Sweet Sick are on the way. The studio kept most of the adult-focused films to short glimpses rather than long previews.

What fans expected but didn’t appear

Not every anticipated title showed up. Studios held back on early looks for several high-profile projects:

• No footage for Ryan Gosling’s Starfighter film.
• No new Pixar reveal for the next feature, Gatto.
• No updates on a Simpsons Movie sequel, Frozen III, or a Bluey feature.

Box office strategy and theatrical priorities

Disney used the stage to make a business case for theatrical releases. The studio stressed its recent performance, noting multiple billion-dollar titles in the last two years and strong results into 2025.

Disney emphasized a typical 57-day theatrical window before PVOD for its releases. They also celebrated the global success of Hoppers, calling it the largest opening for an original animated film since Coco.

Short takes and memorable moments

• A brief clip from The Devil Wears Prada 2 shows Miranda Priestly with an HR rep on her heels.
• Dwayne Johnson shared a family moment and underscored themes of supportive masculinity tied to Maui.
• Brian Duffield’s thriller Whalefall revealed a tense scuba sequence involving a massive whale. The film opens October 16.
• Ice Age: Boiling Point adds Baby Scrat to Scrat’s chaotic saga.