The Mandalorian
For those among us who have waited (im)patiently and avoided the dodgy streaming sites, The Mandalorian has to be one of the most anticipated shows. In case you’ve been living under a rock, the show follows the exploits of the bounty hunter and “the child”, and has already been renewed for a second season due in October this year.
The World According to Jeff Goldblum
Resuming his role as Dr. Ian Malcom, Jeff Goldblum’s National Geographic series pretty much takes us round everything he wants to learn about: “it’s me with all the information and experience that my life has entailed up till this point now”. There’s even a whole episode on coffee – because who wouldn’t want to see the Grandmaster of Thor: Ragnarok on a caffeine kick?
Falcon and the Winter Soldier:
Despite multiple setbacks (first an earthquake in Puerto Rico back in January, now the Coronavirus in Prague), I’ve still got high hopes for this series. Following on from the events of Endgame, it’ll see Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) becoming Captain America, and his abilities being put to the test alongside Sebastian Stan’s Bucky. I’m expecting “on your left” references to make me cry.
WandaVision:
WandaVision looks like a completely different step for Marvel. The teaser trailer for Marvel/Disney content showed us Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) living in a sort of 50s style suburb – but soon realise that something is amiss. There’s a few really important Marvel cast members/characters returning; Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau (the daughter of Maria Rambeau, Carol Danvers’ best friend) – we saw a younger version of her character in 2019’s Captain Marvel, so what role she’ll play is anyone’s guess. Kat Dennings also returns to the MCU as Darcy Lewis from the first two Thor films. Cue more sarcastic lines and 2011 beanies with questionable fashion tastes, I’m here for it all.
LOKI:
The best till last. The God of Mischief (and my favourite Marvel character) is returning to our screens. After his brief appearances in Infinity War and Endgame - that left us with a more mischievous 2012 Loki, escaping with the Tesseract - Tom Hiddleston and his black locks are back to cause trouble. Whilst plot details are somewhat scarce, the cast, like WandaVision, keeps getting better. Sophia Di Martino, Owen Wilson and Gugu Mbatha-Raw have all been cast, and Richard E. Grant was recently announced to guest star. In the words of Owen Wilson himself: wow. It’s going to be the least low-key series on the platform.
Disney+ might essentially just be another corporate cash-grab in the streaming industry. But I’m hoping the freedom of the platform means Disney can become more diverse and take more risks with its content. Hakuna Matata, after all…