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If you walk outside right now, face west, and inhale really deeply, then it is possible that you will catch a whiff of the type of smell that can only happen when 1000s of sweaty nerds in costume converge in one place. The 2015 San Diego Comic Con is this week, and this year, like every year, Whale’s Vagina becomes mecca for all things movie, TV, and comic book related. If you are one of the people who says it has just turned into a corporate event and has lost all of its charm, then I’m here to offer you a counter-argument to that.
It would have never became such a large event if it wasn’t for those nerds who grew up reading comics and are now in charge of making those comics come to life. Would you trade a smaller crowd once a year for no Dark Knight trilogy? Some things are worth it, and I, for one, welcome those corporate studios because they want to get the crowd excited by huge announcements and fanfare. The announcement two years ago that Batman was finally going to be on screen with Superman in the same movie made me cry and jizz at the same time, and that kind of movie or announcement wouldn’t be possible without the SDCC. I mean, just look at the reaction and tell me that this still doesn’t give you the bumps of a goose.
I am very curious to see whose movie or news will dominate all of the talk this year, and have a few thoughts on the topic. Let’s run through some of the top panels and preview what we hope to hear this year.
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice
Marvel has dominated the SDCC for the past few years and has established themselves as the top dog when it comes to comic movies, but they will not be there doing a panel this year. Age of Ultron has already been released, and Ant-Man comes out next week, so all of their movie releases came at points that promotion here isn’t needed. That gives DC a wide open lane to come in with some good footage and a couple of announcements, and destroy the minds of everyone there.
They have to put on a show because they are miles behind Marvel and need to make up some ground. There is a trailer that has been released, but I’m expecting some new footage that includes more than Bats and Supes glaring at each other. I’m hoping for some Wonder Woman footage because she is going to be one of the main characters, and if they don’t show her, then the fears that are present that they made a bad choice in casting are going to show up again.
On top of wanting some Wonder Woman footage, I would like to see Aquaman and his trident pimping around on the back of a whale. I have a sneaking suspicion that Aquaman is going to have more to say in the plot than the title would suggest, so there may only be a quick shot, but it still needs to be a shot nonetheless. This movie has so much more than Batman and Superman, and even though it is a year away, we want and need to see those other elements, and hopefully DC doesn’t let us down the way they did with that piece of shit Green Lantern movie like it has in the past. Bring it on DC, drop your big movie dick on the table and show us what you’ve got!
The Hateful Eight
Quentin Tarantino will be making only his second appearance ever at SDCC, and could quite possibly steal the show. There haven’t been any formal announcements on who will be showing up from the cast with him, but I can’t think of a better way to spend an hour than listening to Samuel L. Jackson say mother fucker while there is some awesome footage of people getting shot in the old west. A trailer hasn’t been released for the movie yet, so get prepared to see it hit the web in the very near future since it will most likely debut in Hall H.
Now, it is very possible that Quentin doesn’t care about making a splash and is only showing due to a studio obligation, and if so, then it will be boring and he’ll be out the door. However, if he is there to drink and party and blow people away with possibly the best cast he has ever had, then I am all for him showing everyone that he means business. You never know which Quentin will show up, but I’m expecting movie fan/heavy-drinking Quentin to show up to crash parties and end up on YouTube doing something ridiculous.
Fear the Walking Dead
Say what you will about having The Walking Dead, the highest rated show on television, to anchor Sunday nights, but AMC is getting scared that they are almost out of programming. Mad Men is gone, Better Call Saul isn’t the hit they thought it would be, and Walter White isn’t walking back through that door……wait, what?? Breaking Bad might have a season 6?? That scares me, and not in a good way. With Fear the Walking Dead, this is a pure spinoff that the network is hoping will catch on the way its predecessor has and give them another show in their depleted arsenal.
The first season is premiering soon, and will only have 6 episodes, so you know full well that those episodes are going to be intense and action-packed. They have some things in their favor, the top of those things being Kim Dickens being cast as the lead, and so there is a chance that it catches on, but for it to be successful, the Comic-Con/comic-reading audience needs to be on board.
This new show isn’t something adapted from the comics, this is a straight spinoff, so part of that huge audience might not respond to the characters the they did with the original. At the end of the day, it’s still zombie-killing, and zombie-killing is fun to watch, but without that emotional connection from the story it will be a failure. I am a huge The Walking Dead fan, so I’m rooting for it to work and for them to eventually meet the Atlanta group, but who knows if that ever happens.
At SDCC, however, the new show will be on the same panel as the old show, so any clips that are seen will have to be taken with a grain of salt. Fans are going to go crazy, but that doesn’t mean they will watch it. A good showing here might change that, or it might ruin it before it ever gets out of the gate. This panel will be one that I watch closely.
Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens
Here is your odds-on favorite to show up this weekend (2nd to last show on Saturday) and shut down Comic Con like Eminem rap-battling a toddler. JJ Abrams could walk into Hall H with a lineup that includes all of the members of nerd Mount Rushmore and make the force awaken in everyone’s pants at the same time, and I wouldn’t put it past him to do exactly that. Sure, there has been some hype about the movie, but that is mostly from fans, and it is close enough now that the studio is going to start ramping up the excitement themselves.
What better way to do that then with Han, Luke, and Leia on stage together at the same time on a panel that will melt the faces of every fanboy in attendance? I’m sure they have appeared together at some point since then, but if they have, I don’t remember it, and it is time for that to happen, even if Harrison Ford will be comatose the entire time and doesn’t give a shit about you. He is still Han Solo, and his presence alone wins the SDCC; if he is as stoned as he normally is, the look on his face when 84 Chewbaccas are looking at him at the same time wins going away. Someone please make that happen! I don’t ask you for much!
Stephen Balding is the Entertainment Badass for The Scoop. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenB_41.
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