Disney drops bombshell Star Wars footage
Warning: Star Wars spoilers ahead.
The contract between the Disney studio and its most die-hard fans – that is, buy a ticket to fan convention D23 and you'll see what no one else gets to see – was proven with devastating effect as the studio unveiled the first footage from the final chapter of the nine-film Star Wars saga.
The stunning scenes, and the shocking twist contained in the final frame, were screened to cheering and applauding fans in Hall D of the Anaheim Convention Center in Los Angeles this weekend.
But unlike most movie marketing machines which then deposit those "exclusive" clips online for wider consumption, this particular clip has not been released by the studio.
Instead, what those scenes contained is now between Disney-owned Lucasfilm, the 7000 or so fans who packed the auditorium and those websites which have offered graphic descriptions of the footage but are unable to provide the footage itself.
Such is the brutality of modern marketing where it's more about what you don't say, and what you don't show, than the old-school notion of "any publicity is good publicity".
And while there was no video takeaway from the highly-anticipated Walt Disney Studios panel at the D23 convention, there were a series of blockbuster reveals about the studio's upcoming plans for Star Wars, Marvel and other titles.
Director J.J. Abrams introduced the cast of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, including R2-D2 and BB-8, and unveiled a new poster showing the heroic Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Sith fanboy Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) facing off in front of a shadow that looks like sinister Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid).
The film itself is significant to fans as it is the final chapter in the Star Wars "Skywalker" saga; that is, the nine-film cycle which began with 1977's Star Wars.
The poster art is also significant because of the appearance of the supposedly dead Sith master Palpatine, who by all accounts will be resurrected in some form in the story's final chapter.
The "reveal" had the room on its feet, applauding.
Abrams then screened the aforementioned footage – warning: massive spoilers in this sentence – which included a glimpse of the franchise's heroine, Rey, wearing a black cloak and wielding a double-bladed red lightsaber.
Translation: either Rey herself turns to "the dark side of the Force" in the upcoming film, or we were looking at some kind of "dark side" reflection of her character. Major reveal or major misdirection? No one knows. Either way, the fans went nuts.
In other major news, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige showed footage from the upcoming Black Widow film, and introduced the auditorium to the cast of its upcoming film The Eternals, which stars Angelina Jolie. Feige confirmed The Eternals would also star Game of Thrones favourite Kit Harington.
Other highlights included footage from the Frozen sequel Frozen II, and the new Pixar films Soul, starring Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Daveed Diggs and Phylicia Rashad, and Onward, starring Tom Holland, Chris Pratt and Julia-Louis Dreyfus.
Disney also unveiled an Indiana Jones-Romancing the Stone film titled Jungle Cruise, based on the Disneyland and Disney World ride of the same name, starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.
The panel also featured a look at the live-action film about the life of iconic Disney villain Cruella de Vil, starring Emma Stone, details about Black Panther 2, a new film, Raya and the Last Dragon, from Adele Lim, who wrote Crazy Rich Asians, and a clip from the live-action Mulan remake.
While the biggest applause in the room seemed to go to Star Wars and Angelina Jolie in equal parts, there was also an intensely strong reaction to the arrival of Tom Holland, on stage to promote Onward but best known as the Marvel universe's young Spider-Man.
The web-spinner has been in the headlines this week as Disney-owned Marvel and Sony walked away from plans to continue co-producing films featuring the character, an unexpected move which yanks Spider-Man out of Marvel's "Marvel Cinematic Universe" films, leaving fans devastated.
The sensitive topic of Spider-Man's future was not addressed on stage, though he did tell the audience, "It's been a crazy week but thank you from the bottom of my heart and I love you 3000".
The last part of that statement is a line from the film Avengers: Endgame and was met with thunderous cheering.
Backstage, Holland and Feige were more forthcoming on the topic.
"Who knows what the future holds, all I know is I'm going to continue playing Spider-Man and having the time of my life," Holland said.
"It's going to be so fun, however we choose to do it," Holland said. "The future for Spider-Man will be different but it will be equally as awesome and amazing and we'll find new ways to make it even cooler."
Feige said that the agreement to co-produce films was "never meant to last forever".
"We knew there was a finite amount of time that we'd be able to do this and we told the story we wanted to tell," he said. "I'll always be thankful for that."
The raft of Disney announcements came on the second day of D23, a three-day fan convention similar to Comic-Con but staged by Disney itself and wholly focused on the studio's own brands and franchises.
Earlier, the studio unveiled the Disney+ streaming service, which will launch in Australia on November 19.
That service will carry the first live-action Star Wars television series, The Mandalorian, a High School Musical television spin-off, a new Lizzie McGuire series and a raft of original content.
The studio also announced plans for a new Marvel television series focusing on the characters Loki, Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk, as well as Marvel series WandaVision and Moon Knight, a Toy Story spin-off titled Forky Asks a Question and a new Star Wars television series about legendary Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, starring Ewan McGregor.