If you're a genre fan, Disney+ is going to get your money.
The new streaming channel doesn't launch until Nov. 12, but the House of Mouse held its biennial D23 Expo Aug. 23-25 with enough juicy announcements to make Lockjaw salivate. Disney+ will have both new and legacy content from all its major brands — Disney, LucasFilms ("Star Wars"), Marvel, National Geographic, Pixar and Fox ("The Simpsons") — but it was the Marvel and "Star Wars" plans that had fans swooning.
Especially the former. Four Marvel miniseries had already been announced for Disney+ before D23, and the shows are being produced by Marvel Films, which means they're set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and are blessed with movie-size budgets, producer Kevin Feige and big movie stars.
Then, at D23, Marvel announced three more shows. Those shows are "Moon Knight," "Ms. Marvel" and "She-Hulk." None are household names — but neither were "Guardians of the Galaxy" once upon a time. Here's what you need to know:
"Moon Knight" is usually referred to as Marvel's answer to Batman, but he's a whole lot weirder. In this new iteration, Moon Knight was secretly soldier of fortune Marc Spector, who had been saved from death by the Egyptian moon god, who granted him greater strength and whatnot to be an avatar for justice. Or did he? Frankly, Spector is not a reliable narrator. For one thing, he has four personalities, echoing the four phases of the moon.
Up next is "Ms. Marvel." The show stars the current holder of this title, Kamala Khan — who is the fourth to do so. The first Ms. Marvel was Carol Danvers, before she went full legacy with the name "Captain Marvel." And a young Pakistani-American teen named Kamala, who lived in Jersey City, idolized Danvers. So when Kamala discovered she had superpowers in 2013 — turns out she's an Inhuman — she immediately adopted Carol's old nom du combat "Ms. Marvel." After all, Carol wasn't using it anymore. Kamala came up with a Captain Marvel-inspired costume, and now cuts study hall to patrol the mean streets of Jersey.
Finally there's "She-Hulk." You'd think the title was self-explanatory, but it's not. Jennifer Walters was introduced in 1980, a cousin of Bruce Banner who was making her way as a young lawyer in New York City. In circumstances too contrived to repeat, she received a blood transfusion from her cuz, and BAM! She suddenly started turning mean and green when stressed. But gender-swapped Hulk was just the first phase of Jennifer's career. In later iterations she had full control of herself when Hulked out, and she stayed that way most of the time. The shy, repressed Jennifer loved being the unapologetic "Shulkie," who relished being superhero, lawyer and celebrity all rolled into one.
Those three are in addition to, of course, the four shows already announced for the streaming service. All come from the Avengers stable: "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier," "Hawkeye," "Loki" and "WandaVision."
