Source: Daily News
Convention time is upon us once again! And that means San Diego Comic Con will soon grace us with its presence this week from July 9-12, 2015. A lot has happened since last year’s event. Marvel’s Avengers 2: Age of Ultron was released earlier this spring leading to new heroes joining the team. Not to mention our friendly neighbourhood Spider-man joining the MCU. Another season of Game of Thrones has wrapped up leaving viewers with even more questions than before. The DC movies are in high gear with promotion amping up with Batman vs. Superman and The Suicide Squad is getting a lot of attention as it continues filming in Toronto . And that’s only a small sampling! It’s been quite the year and I’m excited for what’s in store for the future. Here’s a list of 12 things I’m thrilled to see, hear, or just have someone utter under their breath at Comic Con 2015.
Thursday – Day 1
Hunger Games: Mockingjay Pt. 2 (12-1:15PM, Hall H)
https://instagram.com/p/410OqqCtls
Not going to lie, but I kind of forgot about The Hunger Games movies with all the buzz about other films and shows. But, I’m VERY interested in how this will play out. I’ve read the books and I was mildly bored for the first half of Mockingjay. Katniss was suffering from PTSD and since it’s from her POV there seemed to be a lot of pages of her quietly freaking out in a broom closet. And if she wasn’t doing that, then she was obsessed with finding a way to rescue Peeta. So, just as the first part of the movie ended (I won’t spoil it for you), that was also the moment in the books where I felt things started to pick up. And then it went into super overdrive! By the time I was done all I could think was, “How the HELL are they going to show that in a PG-13 movie??” Obviously they’ll find a way, but I’m curious about what will be left in and what will get cut out. I mean, they already took out a lot of the Avox plot, but it’s kind of necessary in the 2nd half of the book. We will see! It’s been teased that they’ll be showing an “exclusive, never-before-seen footage” during the panel but who knows if that’s going to be a trailer or just a teaser as the movie doesn’t come out until November 20, 2015 . There’ll also be a Q&A session with cast (doesn’t say who exactly, but as it’s the final film I’d say most of them will be on hand) and filmmaker. Should be interesting!
Friday – Day 2
Game of Thrones (2:30-3:30PM, Hall H)
Source: HBO
Over the years the Game of Thrones panels has actually become one of my favourites. I think because I find it insightful, but at the same time I’m left knowing nuffin’. It’ll be interesting to see if there are any new cast announcements for the next season. I won’t be sad if there isn’t as that might give away too much about what’s going on. Perhaps some new Dothraki players as we saw them at the tail end of the finale. And I know this won’t happen, but I wish George R.R. Martin would walk out on stage and be like, “Here’s the date for my next book! BAM!” Drops mic. It would be hilarious! Then that would shut up everyone’s questions about what David Benioff & D.B. Weiss are going to do now that some of the books storylines are caught up in the show.
Star Wars (5:30-6:30PM, Hall H)
Source: Lucasfilm Ltd.
This doesn’t surprise me because Disney/Lucasfilm has been pushing Star Wars big time in anticipation for The Force Awakens which releases December 18, 2015. According to the schedule, J.J. Abrams will be in attendance with “special guests.” Hm… I wonder who could that be? I’m hoping for some old and new cast members. That’d be great! And maybe they could show a new trailer that everyone will foam at the mouths over haha.
Update: According to EW, this panel won’t be including any new trailers or footage from the movie. That fans will have to wait until the Fall for a new trailer. It makes sense since it was only a couple months ago that we got a new trailer. But Abrams is said to still have some surprises up his sleeve!
Kevin Smith (7:15-9PM, Hall H)
Source: AMC
I’m both surprised and yet not surprised that Kevin Smith has Hall H all to himself. But I’m excited either way because as a fan he’s working on two projects that align with my interests. First, a sequel to Mallrats titled Mallbrats. This was the first Kevin Smith movie I saw and I rewatched the DVD so many times it’s not even funny. I don’t know what it was about it, but it just appealed to my impressionable teenage brain. And as a proud Canadian, Yoga Hosers sounds awesome! Not many movies about Canada get made (even though so many of them are filmed here) and despite Kevin Smith not being Canadian, I think he could do it justice. His Scan B.C. excerpts on his podcast, Smodcast, are hilarious.
Saturday – Day 3
Warner Bros. & DC Comics (10:30AM-12PM, Hall H)
Suicide Squad
Source: David Ayer/Twitter
I know it would be a little premature seeing as they haven’t even finished filming, but I would love to hear some more rumblings about Suicide Squad. I admit I wasn’t too familiar with it when it was announced. Although, I’ve since picked up The New 52 version and power read through them becoming an instant fan. They will probably save this for next year though. Next summer can’t come soon enough!
Batman vs. Superman
Source: EW
Batman vs. Superman is being showcased as the main event. All the main players are going to be in attendance. I’m talking about Zack Snyder (director), Ben Affleck (Batman), Henry Cavill (Superman), Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Jesse Eisenberg (Lex Luthor), Jeremy Irons (Alfred), Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), and Holly Hunter (Leslie Thompkins). Hopefully this year they’ll bring a sneak peek that EVERYONE will be able to see instead of trying to find crappy phone quality versions on YouTube before it gets taken down… It’s not like I tried looking or anything… I’m sorta hoping that more Justice League cast members will make a special appearance, like Jason Momoa (Aquaman) and maybe sneak in a little Green Lantern cast announcement?
The Hateful Eight (1:30-2:15PM, Hall H)
Source: EW
The Hateful Eight will be Quentin Tarantino’s 8th film set just after the American Civil War in Wyoming and stars Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jennifer Jason Leigh. And that’s about all I know about it! So, I’d be interested in anything new coming out of this. Even if it’s a big run around, Tarantino talking for almost an hour is sure to still be entertaining.
Warcraft (2:30-3:30PM, Hall H)
Source: Legendary Pictures
Little is known about this panel aside from, “[flimakers] will discuss the innovative slate and present never-before-seen material.” But honestly, ANY material from the Warcraft movie would be welcomed! It doesn’t say who will be at the panel exactly, but Chris Metzen will be around on Thursday for Blizzard’s panel. What I really want is a trailer. Even if it’s a teaser trailer. Just something that has motion! This picture is pretty much the only thing we’ve gotten and it’s awesome and I want to see more!
FOX (5:45-7:30PM, Hall H)
I’m going to preface this with the only thing that is written about this on the official schedule. “20th Century Fox Presentation.” So, anything goes!
X-Men: Apocalypse
So, let’s start with the who. Bryan Singer (director) will surely be on hand. Jennifer Lawrence (Mystique), Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Sophie Turner (Jean Grey) will already be at the con, so it’s plausible they’ll be panelists. I’m hoping James MacAvoy (Professor X) and Michael Fassbeder (Magneto) will be joining them. I’d love to see some footage! Maybe see some of the younger X-Men together or Apocalypse. I’m not picky, I’ll take anything (but I’m especially excited to see some Jubilee fireworks action!).
Deadpool
Source: EW
I can’t tell you how much I want to see more Deadpool. I’d love love love an official teaser with the merc with a mouth actually using it! Ryan Reynolds is perfect casting in my eyes and I’m so happy that this film is real. Actually, I don’t even think I’m quite convinced. I’ll have to be in the theatre with the title screen playing in front of my eyes before I believe that it’s actually happening. It just seems so unreal that a character that was so messed up could get a decent resurrection from the same studio while also listening to the fans (what??) and giving them what they want (can we say R-rating?). It’s like Hollywood dream land. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Like I said, we don’t even have an official trailer yet. I’ll reserve my squeeing till after that happens. Hopefully within the next few days.
Gambit
Source: Metalblackfae/Deviant Art
I know that this is incredibly unlikely that they’ll say much of anything because in the really early stages, but I’ll settle for anything and everything if it has to do with Gambit. Seriously. ANYTHING.
Something’s missing…
Marvel Studios won’t be gracing us with their presence this year. Guardians of the Galaxy 1 & 2 director, James Gunn, revealed this back in March on his Facebook when he was asked if he’d be attending Comic-Con 2015. Seeing as the schedule is pretty much fixed right now, it seems that he was right. Marvel is wrapping up its Phase 2 films and seems to still be figuring out things for Phase 3, I guess they really didn’t have much to show to warrant a presentation. Or did they? Here’s my thought…
This was a wasted opportunity. Since October, Marvel has been releasing big news about its films. First they did a big press event to reveal their full Phase III line-up. This was huge news! Not only did it confirm movies, like Civil War, but also revealed Black Panther and Captain Marvel films. Both RDJ aka Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) and Chris Evans (Captain America) were on hand for the announcement too. But wait, there was more! Chadwick Boseman was confirmed to be cast as Black Panther and joined them on stage. Later Marvel Studios President, Kevin Feige, announced that Benedict Cumberbatch would be cast as Doctor Strange. I remember thinking at the time that this was all great, but it lacked some oomph because of the timing of it all. I think this would’ve made a bigger impact if they saved it for a big international stage, like Comic-Con San Diego. Even just 2 weeks ago they sneaked in some big casting news about Spider-man! They couldn’t wait just 2 weeks?
Imagine if Marvel came out during SDCC and hit everyone with this amazing Phase 3 line-up! And they’d have casting decisions done ready for huge reveals. So, imagine RDJ and Chris Evans coming up on stage to pose for the Civil War reveal, but then something flashes on the screen behind them. A web is shot from the side and Spider-man is revealed swinging in from the side. And then newcomer Tom Holland comes out on stage and stands between them to reveal the new Spider-man. Everyone would go absolutely ape-shit! Then Boseman and Cumberbatch could make their reveals too.. It would’ve been glorious! I honestly could’ve gone with the radio silence if it was leading up to a big announcement like that. Yeah, social media is helpful in getting the word out and have people talk about you, but place and timing is really important too. They would’ve taken over Comic-con news and would’ve been talked about everywhere for days. People who were at the event would tell friends about how amazing it was to be there in person to witness it. The buzz generated would’ve absolutely sunk any WB, Fox, or anyone else’s news. Ah well. What do I know, right?
badducks 