For a company that thrives on nostalgia, Disney knows how to make the past feel spectacularly new. That was the clearest message from the latest D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event 2026, where a gathering of Disney Princess performers celebrated the company's legacy before the weekend turned toward its next generation of blockbusters.

D23 is essentially Disney's biggest showcase. It is a biennial gathering where the entertainment giant looks back at the characters and stories that built its cultural empire while teasing its next chapter. Named after 1923, the year Walt Disney founded his first studio, the event brings together Disney Animation, Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and Disney+ for a weekend of announcements, performances and fan celebrations.

Disney Princess: The Ultimate Concert Celebration brought together performers from across Disney’s animated, live-action and stage history at Disney California Adventure last Thursday ahead of the main D23 event. Brandy, Halle Bailey, Jodi Benson, Anika Noni Rose, Auliʻi Cravalho, Paige O’Hara and other performers associated with Disney Princesses took the stage for a celebration Disney billed as the largest gathering of Disney Princess talent ever assembled.

The lineup represented several generations of Disney storytelling. Bailey, who played Ariel in the 2023 live-action The Little Mermaid, shared the stage with Benson, who voiced the character Ariel in the 1989 animated classic. O’Hara, the voice of Belle in Beauty and the Beast, appeared alongside Susan Egan, who originated Belle in the Broadway musical, while Cravalho and Catherine Lagaʻaia represented two generations of Moana. The concert celebrated where Disney has been and clarified its next direction. 

Also, Marvel Studios closed out the showcase with the long-awaited reveal of its new X-Men cast. Sadie Sink will play Jean Grey, Kit Connor as Cyclops, Christopher Abbott portrays Professor X, with Maya Boyd coming in as Storm.Inde Navarrette will play Rogue, Samara Weaving will portray Emma Frost and Adam Driver will play Mister Sinister. The film is currently scheduled for release in May 2028. Marvel also showed more trailers of the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, while Disney+ announced its new miniseries VisionQuest, starring Paul Bettany and James Spader, for October 14.

Meanwhile, Lucasfilm offered a first look at Star Wars: Starfighter, starring Ryan Gosling. Set after The Rise of Skywalker, the film is scheduled for release in 2027, arriving as  the latest attempt to push the Star Wars universe into stories beyond the original Skywalker saga. Disney Animation and Pixar were equally committed to familiar names. Fan-favorites such as Frozen 3 is set for release in November 2027, with Disney teasing Anna and Kristoff’s wedding and a new female antagonist. Pixar announced Incredibles 3 for summer 2028 and Coco 2 for November 2029, while Zootopia 3 is in development, following the blockbuster success of last year’s Zootopia 2. 

The nostalgia continued with Disney’s live-action Tangled adaptation, which received a first look at D23. Fans were introduced to Kathryn Hahn’s take on Mother Gothel, bringing a new live-action interpretation to one of the more memorable villains in Disney’s modern animated canon. The reveal is another example of Disney revisiting its catalogue while recasting familiar characters for a new generation.

Finally, the weekend also brought the announcement of a Bluey movie and a new project featuring Disney’s early animation character Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, further expanding Disney’s already enormous franchise pipeline. What made D23 notable, however, wasn't simply the number of film release announcements. It was the way Disney connected them. The princess concert was a celebration of the performers and characters that have shaped Disney for decades. Hours later, the company was introducing the characters it hopes will define its next era. From Cinderella and Ariel to Jean Grey, Mother Gothel and the next generation of Pixar heroes, D23 showed how Disney continues to harness the cultural currency of nostalgia.  

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