San Diego Comic-Con Unofficial Blog

Hollywood Abandons Hall H.

That was the headline for many a week recently, as Dreamworks, Disney and Marvel all said they would not be following tradition and bringing their big movie reveals to Comic-Con’s fabled auditorium. And with that announcement, emotions among fans ranged from confused to disappointed to downright cheated. This is the place where 140,000 like-minded geeks go on an annual pilgrimage and immerse themselves in swag, celebrities and worldwide media attention. This is the place to where people travel thousands of miles, cross whole continents and into time zones on the other side of the world. This is the event for which fans save their vacation schedules and hard-earned spending cash.

This is San Diego Comic-Con.

If you understood any of that, then you no doubt could sympathize with people who felt the same thing. Maybe you were even one of those people. And if so, you have been asking yourself, “Why would Hollywood destroy the very thing they helped create?”

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Yup, rumors have been floating around for a while but the LA Times just made it official. Marvel will sit out Hall H this year. It sort of makes sense as Avengers might still be filming and even if it’s done, the footage will be in such rough shape that there won’t be much that can impress. After all, when you consider how much effects work all the heroes on screen together will take, the raw footage can’t look very spectacular.

Marvel will likely have a booth promoting the films and might even have some stuff strewn around the con (virals, outdoor displays, and the like) but it definitely takes some thunder out of Hall H as The Avengers would’ve surely been its biggest panel. Now the question becomes Captain America. It comes out the Friday of the con but will Marvel have a big event screening with the cast and crew on hand or just let the fans flock to it on their own? We shall see soon enough.

Comic-Con isn’t just for comics anymore, this much we know. But over the past couple of years, video games have been taking a more prominent role on the show floor. With E3 just past and video game companies prepping for a big push into the second half of the year, expect this year to be no different.

Let’s take a look at some of the video game companies we might expect to see at this year’s con.

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In the last day we had two major developments in con news. On the movies side, the New York Times dropped this story explaining how many movie studios are skipping the con entirely this year, fearing fan backlash or wasted money. On the TV side, Seat 42f launched their annual list of what shows will be at the con and being a major force in the TV news world, had confirmations that are totally new. We’ve got a full rundown on all the announcements below.

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UPDATE: The park must not have worked out as Favreau just announced through his Twitter “World premiere at San Diego Civic Theater Saturday night, 7/23. Printing tix for 2000 fans!”

Just moments ago the LA Times Hero Complex blog announced that Cowboys & Aliens will be having its big premiere at this year’s SDCC. Director Jon Favreau has always been a huge con supporter and though this is great news, its not entirely unexpected. What is shocking though, is where it’ll probably be held.

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The good news is that Comic-Con has started sending out panel confirmations to each group that’s putting one on. The bad news is this doesn’t really affect us. Most of these hosts will keep the info private for at least a few weeks and might not even say anything until the full schedule drops very close to the con. Some details have started to slip out though, and they’ve given us a better look on what we’ll see of the new Hobbit movies at SDCC.

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Around the time that the new Ghost Rider film was confirmed for the con, two other films also locked in appearances. The Amazing Spider-Man took to their official site and launched a “Face Of The Fan” contest where you can submit a video saying why they should send you to SDCC to meet with the talent for the film. At the same time, the new Conan the Barbarian film also publicized an appearance when they promised to give away con passes if their Facebook page passed 150K likes. The interesting thing that links all three of these films though, is the fact that they’re all reboots of established franchises. But how does this affect their presence at the con? Read on for my predictions.

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Who says there isn’t anything worth watching on TV?

It’s evident the networks haven’t abandoned the SDCC crowd, based on the line-up of new shows scheduled for summer and fall. This, on top of the shows returning to the airwaves in 2011, will undoubtedly give our DVRs a workout.

Let’s take a look at which returning TV shows might be coming back to SDCC in July, and which panels you won’t want to miss.

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Now that the entire schedule is out, most of the Offsite Events have been posted, and many off the celebrity appearances have been revealed, I thought I would take a post to get your opinions on everything.

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The Thursday schedule is jam packed with awesome panels but the question becomes which are must see and what can you skip. In this post I’ll break down the major Thursday panels in both Film and TV. After a brief rundown of what is expected I’ll give it a grade between A+ (Must See) and F (Avoid). Read on to see what I think.

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