Disney and Marvel: A roundup of Comic-Con news

Let’s face it, Disney owned Comic-Con in San Diego this year. How could it not? It also happens to own Marvel Comics and the Star Wars franchise, two massive Comic-Con draws.

It didn’t disappoint. Well, it might have disappointed a little bit by not showing any footage from “Star Wars: Episode VII.” But it still had a lot of exciting news to share.

Here are some highlights of the week’s presentations: (Here are 10 photos of Marvel stars who showed up to Comic-Con)

• The Guardians of the Galaxy are everywhere: It’s still a week until the movie opens, but the buzz is deafening and the early reviews are excellent — with 25 reviews in, Rotten Tomatoes is giving the movie a 100 percent fresh rating. So it’s no surprise there was plenty of Guardians news this week. Maybe the biggest: the sequel already has a release date. Look for Guardians of the Galaxy 2 on July 28, 2017. The Guardians also are joining the Disney Infinity 2.0 lineup in Sept. 23. Marvel Animation also confirmed it’s working on a Guardians of the Galaxy animated series, although it did not say when the series will hit Disney XD. 
• Animated Marvel series renewed: Disney XD has renewed both “Marvel’s Avengers Assemble” and “Marvel’s Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.” In season two, the animated Avengers will take on Thanos, the villain who first showed up after the credits in the last Avengers movie and will appear in “Guardians of the Galaxy.” And Hulk and his team will make it to “Planet Hulk.”

• “Age of Ultron” brought down the house: There wasn’t much news about the Avengers sequel, but the panel was a smash hit. The panel included a length teaser trailer, which promised a “darker” take on the Avengers story. The trailer isn’t be available to the public yet. One bit of news: There will be an original graphic novel released to tie in to the movie. “Avengers: Rage of Ultron” is a standalone story that will explore the relationship between the super villain Ultron and his creator. The graphic novel will be published next April, the month before the movie’s May 1, 2015, release date. 
• Phineas and Ferb getting “Lost”: On the heels of its Star Wars homage, Phineas and Ferb will take on the TV classic “Lost.” Damon Lindelof himself wrote the episode, which is slated to air this fall. Lindelof, you may remember, was one of the creators of “Lost,” and was its head writer. “Lost in Danville” will “revolve around a mysterious locked capsule that suddenly appears in Phineas and Ferb’s backyard,” the New York Times reported. 
• More Pirates: The fifth and, supposedly, final installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean series will be released July 7, 2017 — six years after “On Stranger Tides.” Johnny Depp is on board to do one more turn as Captain Jack Sparrow, and Geoffrey Rush and Keith Richards will be back as well. No word on Orlando Bloom or Keira Knightly. 
• New Star Wars comics: Marvel announced that it will introduce three new Star Wars comic series next year. The main ongoing series will debut in January, followed by an ongoing Darth Vader title in February and a five-issue Princess Leia miniseries in March. The series will take place between the original Star Wars movie and “The Empire Strikes Back.” 
• New “Star Wars Rebels” trailer: Disney did not bring the cast of Episode VII to Comic-Con, but it did bring a new trailer for its upcoming “Star Wars Rebels” animated series, which is slated to debut on Disney XD in October. The series is set five years before “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” and focused on a small group of rebels aboard their starship. Here’s the new trailer: