We got the chance to go to San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend. Deadpool, Suicide Squad, Conan-Con, and much more! Join us as we recap our journey to geek heaven.
SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON – JULY 8-12, 2015
WEDNESDAY (Preview Night)
Those of us lucky enough to get a 4-day badge with Preview Night are granted early access to the convention center floor. While roaming, one can browse for limited edition toys and enjoy the ability to freely move about, a luxury which will prove to be more impossible as the weekend goes on. Simultaneously, in the main hall there is usually some sort of special screening, this year’s main event was the new Supergirl series coming to CBS. From the early buzz we heard around the convention, the pilot was very well-received.
Conan O-Brien decided to invade SDCC this year and was taping his show at the Spreckles Theater in downtown San Diego throughout the weekend. We were able to attend on the first night when special guests were Frodo himself, Elijah Wood, and the Nerdist, Chris Hardwick. The set was dressed up to look like a spaceship, likely a nod to Star Wars/Star Trek, and the entire episode was geek-culture oriented. Not a bad way to start it all off.
Oh, and they gave us free Conan O’Brien POP Vinyl toys as a parting gift. Very cool!
THURSDAY
Considering that the craziest panels usually happen on Friday and Saturday, Thursday is another great day to roam the convention center floor. A time to really take in all of the shiny sights. There are so many booths that are worth seeing and honestly not a lot of time to see it all. Comic-Con is all about evenly spreading out your time in a way that allows you to experience a little bit of everything.
After walking around on the sales floor, we decided to check the status of the Hall H line for Friday. Around roughly 3pm we made our way to the very tail end of the line which spanned for miles all the way to the backside of the convention center, past the Joe’s Crab Shack, onto a grassy area that then lead to a basketball court with an ocean view. The new process for entry into Hall H involves getting a special wristband, sectioned A through D. This process can take hours and is never a guarantee. After many hour of waiting, no wristbands, and reading on twitter at about 10pm (still on Thursday by the way) that a line for Saturday in Hall H had already formed, we made the ridiculously hard decision to leave the line and miss Friday’s Star Wars panel as a way to guarantee entry on Saturday. We went to get some quick food and then planted ourselves in our official spot in the Saturday line at 2:45am Friday morning.
FRIDAY
Considering that our entire Friday was spent waiting in line for Saturday’s Hall H presentations we don’t have much to report for Friday other than the weather. It was hot. Like really hot.
Thankfully we heard through the grapevine in our shanty town that there was really no new footage shown at the Star Wars panel, so missing it didn’t hurt THAT bad. That is until we heard that the entire audience was treated to a free concert afterwards. Luckily we at least got to see the fireworks finale from our sleeping bags. Also, the “exclusive” footage that they did end up showing was released online immediately.
In fact, here it is.
SATURDAY
Hands down this was our favorite day of the convention. Hall H is definitely the place to be on a Saturday at SDCC and we were guaranteed to get in.
On the agenda for the day were panels like Batman v Superman and the rumored Suicide Squad, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, Warcraft, Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak, Joss Whedon’s one man show, as well as the highly rumored Deadpool and X-Men: Apocalypse appearances.
As if that wasn’t exciting enough as it is, a little after midnight someone around us looked up at the street and said something along the lines of: “Was that the Batmobile?” We all jumped up from our makeshift beds and booked it over to the street where director Zack Snyder pulled up in the new Batmobile from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to thank everyone for being in line for the next day’s panel and to toss out some hats and t-shirts to the crowd. What a nice guy!
As morning rolled in and we made our way into the glorious Hall H we’d be starting the day off right with the Warner Bros. panel. The first thing that they showed us was some new footage from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. as discussed by Armie Hammer and Henry Cavill. As it’s a new Guy Ritchie movie, it looks pretty solid. Then they showed us a new trailer for the Peter Pan inspired film Pan. It looks to be an origin story that features the Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard. Finally the moment we had all been waiting for. The Suicide Squad logo hit the screens and the room went nuts. The footage screened and then the cast minus Jared Leto came out to express how awesome this movie is going to be.
The footage that the studios bring are intended to be solely for the crowd in attendance, however, because of someone filming it and putting it up online, Warner Bros. has since posted an HD version online for all to see and appreciate the way it was intended.
We imagine that when Warner Bros. finds the person that leaked the footage they won’t kill them, they’ll just hurt them really really bad.
Then of course the main WB/DC event was when Zack Snyder and most of the cast of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Ben Affleck, Jesse Eisenberg, and Gal Gadot) came out to talk about the film as well as share an official trailer. Ben Affleck also shared a great story that involved him bumping into Christian Bale in a costume store shortly after he got the new Batman gig. Apparently when Affleck asked for advice on playing the character Bale simply replied: “Make sure you can piss in that suit.” Typical Christian Bale. Also to clarify, Affleck and Bale were each respectively buying their children Halloween costumes, they don’t just hang out in costume shops.
The day could have ended right there and we would have been content, however there was still a lot more to come. Sony brought some footage of their upcoming films Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Patient Zero, both of which look really good. Quentin Tarantino had an awesome video intro of The Hateful Eight prepared for the Hall H crowd, courtesy of Samuel L. Jackson, and he also graced us with about 8 minutes worth of footage from the film and some amazing incite into the special 70mm camera that was used to shoot the film. To get the amazing panormaic shots for the film they used the original Ultra Panavision 70 which has only been used on 10 films, including Ben Hur and Battle of the Bulge. The Hateful Eight looks fantastic.
Legendary came out and showed off new glimpses at Warcraft and Crimson Peak both of which look equally creepy in their own way. Warcraft appears to stay really true to the source material and is being made directly for fans, but looks good enough to be able to interest anyone that likes beasts that fight each other. As for Crimson Peak, Guillermo del Toro set out to make a beautiful looking scary movie and he appears to have hit it out of the park. Plus Loki is in the cast, it’s sure to be a winner.
Joss Whedon took an hour to address the Hall H crowd to basically talk about his journey through the industry, making Buffy and Firefly, his creative process, how it is making big Marvel movies, words of wisdom, and sometimes just to make fun of himself. The man is a truly down to Earth person that just wants to make good material for the world. Shortly before his time on stage was up he was presented with the much deserved 2015 CCI Icon Award.
Comic-Con knows how to do it right, they definitely saved the best for last this year. Closing out the night was the 20th Century Fox presentation that included Hugh Jackman coming out and talking about Wolverine (yes, he’s making another one but that’s all we know), the Fantastic Four cast showing off their newest full trailer, Ryan Reynolds and the cast of Deadpool introducing a very red-band trailer, and the cast of X-Men: Apocalypse coming out to premiere their trailer. The Deadpool footage had the entire room on their feet. It was very reminiscent of when Batman v Superman was announced in the same hall a few years ago.
The whole crowd chanted “one more time” over and over again until panel moderator/nerdist Chris Hardwick said “fuck it” and demanded the trailer be played again. Once more the crowed erupted in cheers. The X-Men: Apocalypse footage was great, but nothing could get the magical Deadpool images out of our brains. This movie is seriously going to kick ass. The trailer has since leaked online, but the quality is so poor that we don’t even want to show it to you. If you really must see it we’re sure you can find it, but Ryan Reynolds said himself on his twitter account that they will have some official stuff out in about 3 weeks. Trust us, it’ll be worth the wait.
In closing out the night, Chris Hardwick demanded that the casts of Wolverine, Deadpool, Fantastic Four, and X-Men: Apocalypse all come out on stage for a group photo. As the group assembled on stage, out stumbles the god of comics, Stan Lee, to take the photo. Though silly Stan forgot his camera, so who should bring one out to him but none other than Channing Tatum? It was a once in a lifetime moment to see all of those people on stage together and we’re happy to have been a part of it.
Oh and they totally under the radar announced the Gambit standalone movie with a simple title-card up on the projector.
SUNDAY
By Sunday we were exhausted. Waiting in line for over 30 hours is definitely draining, totally worth it, but still draining. Sunday is a great day to keep it mellow. The panels can sometimes turn out to be good and easier to get into and the floor is definitely a great place to pick up those last minute exclusives before heading back to the real world.
In conclusion, if you haven’t ever been to San Diego Comic-Con it is an experience that every true geek has to be a part of at least once. It’s an exhausting week that you’ll instantly miss as soon as it’s over.
Also, the Deadpool movie officially comes out on February 12, 2016. Let the countdown begin.
