A 3D animated movie for Bluey, a reboot for the X-Men franchise, sequels for The Incredibles, Frozen and Zootopia, a sneak peek of Avengers: Doomsday and a major new Star Wars film are among the new projects unveiled by Disney at the studio’s biennial entertainment showcase in Los Angeles.

The studio unveiled its coming movie and streaming television plans to a captive audience of some 12,000 diehard fans at the Honda Centre stadium in Anaheim, California. Most are part of the larger crowd of more than 100,000 attending the company’s fan convention, D23, held every two years.

Disney confirmed the original Star Wars film, released back in 1977, would return to cinemas next year to mark its 50th anniversary. In a big year for the franchise, a second season of Ahsoka, the live-action television spin-off of the Star Wars animated universe, will also premiere on Disney+.

But all eyes in Anaheim were on Star Wars: Starfighter, one of the most anticipated projects in the studio’s calendar. Marked for a May 2027 release – the same date as A New Hope’s original release – the film launches the space opera’s story forward after the recent sequel trilogy.

Star Wars: Starfighter stars Ryan Gosling as Cade Oberon, a “guy from the wrong side of the galaxy, whose fate is intertwined with the fastest star fighter ever built”, Gosling told the D23 audience.

Marvel boss Kevin Feige unveiled the coming Marvel slate, confirming the reboot of the X-Men, its release in 2028, and brought the cast – including Australian actress Samara Weaving, Kit Connor, Sadie Sink, Christopher Abbott, Inde Navarrette and Maya Boyd – onto the stage. Adam Driver, who will appear in the film as Mr Sinister, sent a pre-taped message.

The D23 audience were also given a sneak peek at Avengers: Doomsday, due out in December, which brings together three superhero teams of the Avengers, the Fantastic Four and the original X-Men.

Feige also announced the television series Vision Quest, the third instalment of a story that began with WandaVision and Agatha All Along, which stars Paul Bettany and James Spader. It will air in October.

Star Wars and Marvel director Jon Favreau will produce and direct a new three-part miniseries, Oswald, for Disney+, based on the pre-Mickey Mouse rodent co-created by Disney founder Walt Disney in 1927. Disney’s rights to Oswald were lost for almost a century and only re-acquired recently. The new miniseries will be hand-drawn in 2D animation, Favreau confirmed. It will air in 2027.

Favreau also gave the audience a sneak peek of Lion, co-produced by documentarian and former BBC natural history unit boss Mike Gunton, for the Disney-owned National Geographic. The series, which will feature music from Hans Zimmer, followed a single family of lions for four years. “Nobody writes a story this good, or on this scale, like Mother Nature,” Gunton said.

Agatha All Along star Kathryn Hahn will play the villainous Mother Gothel in the live-action adaptation of Tangled. And the Disney-produced The Greatest Showman: The Musical will premiere in London in early 2027.

Disney’s coming animation slate includes The Bluey Movie, which will feature 3D animation and be released in August 2027. The D23 audience were treated to an extended preview of Gatto, about a street-smart black cat named Nero who works for a feline mobster in Venice, Italy. The film features a new “painterly” animation style for Pixar and will also be released in 2027.

The studio is also planning a third instalment of The Incredibles, coming in mid-2028, which will focus on the Incredible children, Violet and Dash, and a new, as-yet-unrevealed “supervillain”. The audience also caught a sneak peek of The New Simpsons Movie in the form of a partially completed sequence involving Homer Simpson chasing a runaway ball at a baseball match.

Among other announcements, Disney confirmed Coco 2 from Pixar, coming in 2029, as well as an integration of the film’s characters in the video game universe of Kingdom Hearts IV. The studio also confirmed Kingdom Hearts would be adapted as a Disney+ series. Pixar will also deliver its first “ghost story”, Ghost Market, in early 2028.

A live-action Lilo & Stitch sequel, scheduled for a 2028 release, and a third instalment of The Princess Diaries, still in development and starring Anne Hathaway, were also announced.

Similarly to the pop culture calendar’s other big gig, July’s San Diego Comic-Con, Disney’s D23 convention does not release all the material screened at the Honda Centre widely. Some clips will be posted to the company’s various YouTube channels in the coming days but many will not.

In his opening address the studio’s boss Josh D’Amaro said the Disney brand had a very specific relationship with its audience. “When people return to something and they pass it on from generation to generation, that’s very special,” D’Amaro said. “They become part of something bigger than themselves.”

The “entertainment showcase” is one of three, and is focused on Disney-owned film and TV assets such as Star Wars, Marvel and Frozen. It is followed by two other showcases: one focused on the studio’s theme parks and other consumer experiences, and a third, where individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the company, including the stars of its films and TV series, are inducted as official Disney “Legends”.

It was the major event on the opening day of D23’s three-day weekend. But fans were treated to a special event the night before in the nearby Disneyland theme park: a concert performance by the studio’s princesses.

Australia’s Catherine Laga’aia (live-action Moana) performed with Paige O’Hara (the animated Belle from Beauty and the Beast) and other princesses including Brandy (in 1997’s live-action Cinderella), Jodi Benson (the animated Ariel), Lea Salonga (the animated Jasmine from Aladdin, and the titular Mulan).

The concert ended with a dazzling performance by the group of the Disney classic When You Wish Upon a Star, which was first performed in the 1940 animated classic Pinocchio and has become one of the studio’s most recognised pieces of signature music.

D23 is held every other year in Anaheim, California. The event draws some 100,000 people through its gates across a three-day weekend, for advance screenings, immersive “activations” based on TV series and films, and the chance to purchase exclusive and limited-edition merchandise.

The event runs until Monday AEST.