Marvel TV Watch at Comic-Con: All the News and Highlights

[Nergal]

 

All year round, we'll highlight all the major twists, epic fights, new mysteries, exciting castings and everything else that goes down on Marvel series on the small screen, no matter the network or streaming site. This week, we're on the scene in San Diego for Comic-Con breaking down all the notable news and moments from the Iron Fist, Cloak & Dagger, The Gifted and Legion panels.


IRON FIST


(Season two will return to Netflix in September.)


The big news: Iron Fist season two will stream in full on Sept. 7 at 12 a.m. PT with new villains Steel Serpent and Typhoid Mary taking center stage.


What you need to know: During the panel, Marvel TV head Jeph Loeb revealed the premiere date for the second season after a short teaser of new footage played to the packed Ballroom 20. Season two finds Danny Rand (Finn Jones) fighting against the criminal element corrupting New York City with his kung-fu mastery and ability to summon the awesome power of the fiery Iron Fist. With Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) seemingly gone, Danny has promised that he will step up and protect his city. But a sinister plot twist threatens his very identity and he must conquer his villains to protect the town and people he holds close to his heart. Davos (Sacha Dhawan), Danny's estranged brother, returns in season two seeking revenge against Danny for defeating him and becoming the Immortal Iron Fist. He will become his comic book legacy Steel Serpent, Iron Fist's mortal enemy, and a first look clip showed Davos wielding a glowing red fist teasing an epic showdown between these former friends. As for Typhoid Mary, the classic Marvel villain will be portrayed for the first time in live-action by Alice Eve. Known as one of the most dangerous assassins in the Marvel Universe, she suffers from dissociative identity disorder, going from a normal, unassuming person to her "Typhoid Mary" or "Bloody Mary" personas, becoming a lethal killer at the drop of a hat. When a fan in the audience correctly guessed Eve's mystery character, the actor invited him onstage to give him a kiss on the cheek. Sometimes it pays to be a geek!


Other noteworthy panel highlights: Fans gathered in the packed ballroom were treated to many sneak peek clips of season two, including a few different fight scenes. One in specific showed Danny wearing his trademark yellow face mask from the comics, which hasn't been seen yet on the Netflix show. Seeing Danny finally sporting that iconic look made the crowd go absolutely wild. But the biggest cheer of the panel came when another sneak peek fight scene played, this time with Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) taking out four skilled fighters on her own. "You don't want to make her mad," Henwick says with a laugh. "But the most exciting thing for Colleen is the Daughters of the Dragon. Seeing these two badasses fighting together I think the fans are going to love." Set to a punk rock song, fans got to see Misty Knight (Simone Missick) and Colleen take out a girl gang in an exciting and upbeat fight scene that hinted at even more Marvel female team-ups in the future ... and perhaps their very own spinoff series.
 

CLOAK & DAGGER


(Season two will return to Freeform in 2019.)


The big news: Cloak & Dagger has been renewed for a second season.


What you need to know: After teasing the audience gathered in Ballroom 20 with a call and response of, "Season!" "Two!" Loeb revealed at the end of the panel that Freeform's first live-action Marvel series will return for season two. "When you make a wish sometimes it comes true," Loeb says. "Cloak & Dagger will be returning for season two. We will return to production this fall and we'll be back sooner than you think." Expect the new batch of 10 episodes to air in spring 2019. And as for those rumors of a crossover with Hulu's Marvel series Runaways, Loeb didn't confirm or deny anything. "Wait and see I guess is the answer," he teases. "Wait and see."


Other noteworthy panel highlights: During the fan Q&A portion of the panel, someone asked Loeb if Cloak & Dagger, along with all the other Marvel TV series currently airing or in production, takes place in the same universe as Avengers: Infinity War's now infamous "Thanos snap," and if so, where they all fit on the timeline. "The short answer is the stories you're seeing unless otherwise noted all happen before what is affectionately referred to as the Thanos snap," Loeb says. "We'll continue to be in that place until we find out what happens in Avengers 4. In Avengers 4, something else happens. There are little things, easter egg stuff, it is a shared universe and Roxxon is in this world as well as other places. That's the kind of thing we really like doing but we always want to do it so it works within the story." Fans at the panel were also treated to an exclusive first look at the season one blooper reel as well as a trailer for the final two episodes of this season.

 

THE GIFTED


(Season two will return on Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 8 p.m. on Fox.)


The big news: Mutant antihero misfit group the Morlocks will be introduced in season two.


What you need to know: During the Fox show's Comic-Con panel, Jamie Chung revealed the news while discussing her character Blink's season two journey. "Even though she has found some sort of normal routine with her love life, they're trying to get back on their feet in terms of the Mutant Underground," Chung says. "And the Morlocks, there's a different mutant group that she seems fascinated by." In the comics, the Morlocks were a group of mutants forced underground due to their mutations making it impossible to live normal lives in the real world, which sounds a lot like the The Gifted's Mutant Underground. But based on Chung's comments, it's more likely that the Mutant Underground will find themselves at odds with the Morlocks along with Hellfire Club.


Other noteworthy panel highlights: Because of the expansion of the Hellfire Club first teased in season one and the introduction of the Morlocks in season two, executive producer Matt Nix reveals that more mutants that fans will recognize from the comics will appear this season. Alas, no Wolverine, which one fan in particular asked about during the panel. "Certainly we're going to be bringing in some fun mutants from the past," Nix says. "I'd say not so much the big movie mutants because that's really their world. We have some fun characters straight from the comics. The deeper you read in the comics the more you'll enjoy who we're bringing in."


And with Polaris (Emma Dumont) officially joining the Hellfire Club at the end of season one, a six month time jump will find her ready to give birth in a special, mutant-run hospital room, away from the father of her child Marcos (Sean Teale). "She's very, very pregnant. Nine months pregnant," Dumont says. "She's struggling with missing Marcos. She's scared about the labor. Mutant labor is different than it is for humans. She doesn't want to die." And her impending motherhood might make Polaris start to feel a little more empathy for her very infamous mutant father. "Look, she's Magneto in every way and that's terrible and she hates it," Dumont says. "She hates her father; she resents him for making sacrifices to save a race of people when she was a little girl. Now that she's a parent, she gets it and understands that you have to make sacrifices when you've been given this gift. So maybe her father isn't such a bad guy."


Someone else also dealing with fatherhood issues is Marcos, now abandoned by Polaris back at Mutant Underground. "He's lost the things that matter to him most," Teale says. "The woman he loves and his unborn child are nowhere near him and are actively trying to evade him. That must do terrible things to a man so he's even more incessant and determined and rabid in his quest to right the wrongs and fix his family. [He's] six months older, more jaded and damaged but trying to hold it together."


As for that baby, expect to meet Polaris and Marcos' child very soon. Potentially in the season two premiere. But don't expect to see that baby showcase any mutant powers. At least, not yet. "In the Marvel Universe they tend to not manifest until puberty so it might be a while," Nix says about the baby's latent powers. But based on who the baby's parents are, there's a very high chance it will be one of the most powerful mutants the world has ever seen.


Because daddy issues seems to be a pattern on The Gifted, Reed (Stephen Moyer) will also be struggling with the revelation that his father successfully removed the X gene from him when he was only a child. "On some sort of deep level, his destiny has been taken away from him," Moyer says. "He will delve into his father's past to try to unlock what he really is, thus creating more and more secrets within the family." A quick flash in the season two trailer hints that perhaps he'll become successful in unlocking his dormant mutation, if that glowing arm is any indication.
 

LEGION


(Season three will return to FX in 2019.)


The big news: The stars teased (emphasis on teased) what happens next after that explosive season two finale cliffhanger, since they don't know much themselves. "This is how I get intel on Legion is coming to Comic-Con and listening to the panel," Dan Stevens quipped.


What you need to know: Now that hero David Haller (Stevens) has broken bad and become the new villain of the story, Stevens is thrilled to get to play yet another layer of the complicated former protagonist of the series. While he admits to knowing "very little" about what's coming next, he's "excited" at his new villainous path. "Lenny's [Aubrey Plaza] obviously going to have a part to play in it," Stevens says. "We're off together in some form. Syd's [Rachel Keller] a little mad. But I know very little at this stage." With David now the villain playing god with his powerful abilities, that sets the stage for his former girlfriend Sydney to become the new hero and protagonist of the story. "The best heroes are the ones who are taken by surprise and she's certainly caught up in something that has a necessity for her which calls upon all of her strengths," Keller says. But can she take on the mantle left vacant by David? "She's so self-aware and knowing, so I'm excited to see her tackle something so big," Keller says. "Maybe she can't handle it and maybe she fails."


Other noteworthy panel highlights: After playing an incredible 15 minute recap of the second season, the cast and producers took the stage in Hall H for the final Comic-Con panel of the weekend. Of course, one of the biggest cheers came for the dance scenes in seasons past, and a large chunk of the conversation revolved around the musical sequences on the show. Will there be another dance scene in season three? "If it fits, we'll see," producer Nathaniel Halpern says. "That's the tricky thing on this show but also the great thing is not getting too comfortable. If there's a new way in for the dance scene, we'll definitely be doing that."


As for how Legion fits into the larger Marvel Universe, particularly the other Marvel TV shows, Loeb revealed that the behind-the-scenes red tape makes it difficult to connect the stories across the board. "It is different in that the shows that are currently at Fox and the X-Men characters are really under their control," Loeb says. "It's through our partnership at FX that we found a way to be part of the process, the creative process. It's enormously helpful and it's fun from our point of view. We get to be proud grandparents. As for how it fits into all our other shows, at the end of the day we just try to make sure that certain things we look for in a show, it's aspirational, the hero is someone we can follow and understand and have great love for and each one of these people in their own way is their own hero and their own villain, that's why it's so popular. It feels different and it's its own thing."


But don't go looking for easter eggs connecting to the other series where there aren't many. "We never want to do easter eggs as if we're running an easter egg farm," Loeb says. "We want to do things that [creator] Noah [Hawley] feels is particularly right for the story. and then it's a whole political ladder, it's more like a jungle gym," with all the different networks and studios involved in bringing the X-Men mythology to life.


AGENTS OF SHIELD


(Season six returns to ABC in 2019)


The big news: ABC's first Marvel series didn't host a panel, but two pieces of news did come out of Comic-Con weekend.


What you need to know: Jeff Ward has been promoted to series regular. Ward plays Deke Shaw, grandson of Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge), who had just decided to travel the globe in the season five finale. The second bit of news to come out of the convention this weekend is that former series regular Clark Gregg is returning to direct the first episode of season six. Since Coulson seemingly died in the season five finale, there's still no word on if he will return in front of the camera and Marvel had no comment on what this means for his onscreen presence this season.