D23 2026: 7 Things We Loved and 3 Things We Didn’t

The dust has settled, the release dates are set , and now Disney can go back to being secretive for a few more months. Yes, D23 2026 is officially over. Three full days of nothing but Disney news , Disney merch, and Disney madness . io9 was on the ground for the event and, below, we’ll get into some things we really loved about it and a few we did not.

Sure, we pretty much knew that Lucasfilm president Dave Filoni was going to give fans the first footage from Ahsoka season two and Star Wars Starfighter , but it was still brand new footage from two Star Wars projects . And, sure, we would’ve loved a little tease at what’s coming after that, but it was just nice to finally see what the future of this franchise holds.

Star Wars and Marvel got most of the headlines, but it was Disney’s animated divisions that probably showed the brightest future. Pixar gave us updates on its next big release, Gatto , two highly anticipated sequels ( Incredibles 3 and Coco 2 ), as well as showing footage from a new original film called Ghost Market. Disney Animation similarly focused on its next release, Hexed , announced a new original film, Clay , broke the news of Zootopia 3 , and then not only showed a full scene from 2027’s Frozen III , but debuted two songs too. That’s how you give the fans what they want.

Like many things at D23, we had a pretty good idea Marvel Studios would announce its X-Men cast. But when it happened, it was still exciting. Plus, we got a few surprises too, such as Obsession ‘s Inde Navarrette as Rogue. The cast is going to lead the next iteration of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and now, fans can point back at D23 2026 as the moment when it all first came together.

More than anything else, D23 is best known for its shopping. Disney runs several specific and unique stores on the convention center floor each year, each filled with exclusive merch you can only buy there, and most are only accessible through a virtual queue system. Which means you have to be up at 6 a.m. every morning and choose to maybe get into one store per day. In general, the system worked okay, especially with standby lines opening later in the day. But it still wasn’t fun to be on your phone, refreshing like crazy, and enter one of the exclusive pin stores literally one second after 6 a.m., only for it to be sold out for the whole day. How can that not be bots? Again, there were ways around it, and some stores were easier than others, but it left many fans frustrated and tired.

While there was no mention of the future of Avatar movies or Avatar in the theme parks in the major panels, the convention center floor was something else. There, we got to see an amazing model of an upcoming Avatar expansion coming to Disney’s California Adventure as well as a huge display of props and characters from the three films in the series so far, which had a long line at all times.

With Harrison Ford approaching 90, and the movies all but over, it would be safe to assume Indiana Jones has gone the way of the Lost Ark. But not yet, says Disney.