Carrie Fisher as Leia in J. J. Abrams' 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'
The four day convention formally known as San Diego Comic-Con International occurred over the weekend. What began as a gathering of comic-book enthusiasts and
cosplayers is now attended by hundreds of thousands and is a multigenre pop-culture event where major TV and film offerings are debuted for the public.
Below the fold is some of the movie and TV news that came out of this year's Comic-Con, including previews of both season 6 of The Walking Dead and its new companion series, Fear the Walking Dead, the newest trailer for Batman v. Superman, the return of Bruce Campbell to the Evil Dead series, the latest info about Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and much more.
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens: While Disney went all out, even putting on a free concert of Star Wars music for fans performed by the San Diego Symphony, not much was revealed in terms of details about the movie. The cast and crew did reveal their thoughts about what the movie should be and what the franchise means. It was confirmed Gwendoline Christie, probably best known as Brienne of Tarth in HBO's Game of Thrones, is playing a female stormtrooper named Captain Phasma.
- Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice: For Jor-El so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. The biggest reveal during the panel for the movie was the film's Comic-Con trailer, with Zack Snyder's take on Superman (Henry Cavill) going full Jesus metaphor, while Batman (Ben Affleck) and the rest of the world contemplate living beside someone who's more God-like than man. There are also small moments which explains possible character developments. For example, Bruce Wayne was present in Metropolis and watched the destruction caused by Zod and Superman firsthand, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman is seen in action for the first time, and an ominous image of what appears to be a Robin costume with mocking graffiti from the Joker is seen for a split second. Moreover, the Kents continue to counsel their adopted child to not intervene in human affairs, with Diane Lane's Ma Kent advising Clark that "You don’t owe this world a thing." However, the weakest part of the trailer is Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor. I know it's unfair to judge a performance by a few minutes in a trailer, but his interactions with Holly Hunter's character look ridiculous. Speculation about Batman v. Superman has been running rampant since it was first announced at 2013's Comic-Con. One of the big criticisms of Snyder's interpretation of Superman in Man of Steel was that it betrayed the essence of the character. Yes, Superman is strong, fast and nigh indestructible, but the character is also a representation of goodness. He's the "big blue boy scout." And the argument becomes that trying to tack on the Christopher Nolan model of angst, darkness and grit for the sake of realism, as Metropolis is destroyed all around Superman, doesn't work.
- X-Men: Apocalypse: Set about 10 years after Days of Future Past, the film exists in a totally new timeline that has erased most of the events of the previous X-Men movies. In this new iteration, the American public circa 1983 totally accepts mutants as equal members of society, and gone so far as to start worshiping their abilities as being the equivalent of godhood. Enter Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), who begins building a cult to carry out his will. This movie introduces new versions of Cyclops (Tye Sheridan), Jean Grey (Sophie Turner), Storm (Alexandra Shipp) and others, while also likely marking the final appearances of other actors in their roles for an X-Men film. A bootleg version of the Comic-Con trailer shown in Hall H can be found here. If the trailer is any indication, the tone of the film is in keeping with Days of Future Past while also being a timey-wimey mess.
- Wolverine: The 2017 film will mark the final time Hugh Jackman will appear as the title character. It's rumored to be based on the Wolverine: Old Man Logan storyline by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. However, if that's true, serious changes will have to be made to the story, since Fox doesn't have the rights to many of the characters which are significant in the narrative.
- Gambit: Channing Tatum appeared onstage with the X-Men cast. Tatum will appear in a planned stand-alone Gambit film next year, and is all but certain to appear in a cameo during X-Men: Apocalypse.
- Deadpool: Even though Ryan Reynolds was in the movie for a few minutes saying things Deadpool might say, fans of the character fumed after what Fox eventually adapted him into at the end of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Reynolds is back and the trailer revealed at Comic-Con for director Tim Miller 's Deadpool shows the movie to be a very faithful adaptation of the source, with it sporting hard-R rated material containing gratuitous sex and violence, as well as the acerbic wit and ability to break the fourth wall of the "merc with a mouth." Including Reynolds taking shots at his own portrayal of a certain "Green" superhero with a "CGI" costume.
- Green Lantern Corps: Speaking of the failed Green Lantern film, Warner Bros. announced at Comic-Con the reboot of Green Lantern will be titled Green Lantern Corps. However, no announcement on casting or directing duties was made. For weeks, Chris Pine, probably best known as Captain Kirk in the Abrams' Trek films, has been rumored to be the studio's choice for either Hal Jordan or Wonder Woman love interest Steve Trevor. Also, Tyrese Gibson, of the Fast & Furious series, has been campaigning on Instagram for the role of John Stewart.
- Fantastic Four: The movie is directed by Josh Trank, who directed and co-wrote the movie Chronicle, and was in the news recently after being fired from directing one of the Star War anthology films. This iteration of the Fantastic Four, starring Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Miles Teller, and Kate Mara, is based more on Ultimate Universe version of the characters, which are much younger than their 616 counterparts. The Fantastic Four costumes are now "containment suits" needed to control and hold their powers in check. Other changes, which have incensed some fans, have included changing Doctor Doom's backstory to being a hacktavist blogger as well as the origin of the characters' powers.
- Spider-Man: Earlier this year, Marvel Studios was able to work out a deal with Sony to regain use of Spider-Man for Marvel/Disney films. Tom Holland has been cast as Peter Parker, with Marisa Tomei rumored to be Marvel's choice for their version of Aunt May. The character's first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will occur in Captain America: Civil War followed by a new Spider-Man movie in 2017. Marvel’s Chief Creative Officer, Joe Quesada, gave an interview at Comic-Con where he stated the new Spider-Man costume will "blow people away" and have fans saying "that’s Marvel doing Spider-Man." However, he was tight-lipped on whether Marvel's version of the character will retain the mechanical web shooters of the comic book or go with Sam Raimi's idea of organic web-shooters.
- Suicide Squad: Director David Ayer threw down the gauntlet during his panel by claiming D.C. Comics villains are better than Marvel's. His film, based on the comic book series of the same name, has a group of villains brought together by the United States government and manipulated into being in the country's service. The movie features Katana (Karen Fukahara), Slipknot (Adam Beach), Enchantress (Cara Delevingne), El Diablo (Jay Hernandez), Killer Croc (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), Captain Boomerang (Jai Courtney), Col. Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman), Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), and Deadshot (Will Smith). Based on the trailer below, the implication is the group's mission is tracking down the Joker (Jared Leto). Like some of D.C.'s other movie properties, the fanboy reaction to the news about this film has been very divided, especially to the appearance of Leto's Joker.
- Crimson Peak: Guillermo del Toro's gothic horror film, which stars Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnam and Jim Beaver, debuted a spoiler-ific trailer at Comic-Con. Set in 19th century England, author Edith Cushing (Wasikowska) falls in love with and marries Sir Thomas Sharpe (Hiddleston), but realizes all too late he's not what he seems. Del Toro has touted the movie's strong female characters, and calls the film "gender liberating."
- The Martian: Directed by Ridley Scott, based on the novel of the same name by Andy Weir, and starring Matt Damon as Mark Watney, an astronaut who struggles to survive after becoming stranded on Mars. The film's Comic-Con panel saw Weir, one of the film's producers, Aditya Sood, and officials from NASA discussing the feasibility of human survivability on Mars. For example, the Mars 2020 rover mission will carry something called MOXIE (Mars OXygen In situ resource utilization Experiment), which Jim Green, the director of planetary science for NASA, described as "the first human exploration instrument.” MOXIE will convert Martian CO2 to oxygen through solid oxide electrolysis.
- Warcraft: Based on the World of Warcraft online role-playing game, the movie will follow the battle between the Alliance and the Horde. This occurs after members of the Orcs flee their dying home in search of a new one. The portal opens on the realm of Azeroth. Directed by Duncan Jones and starring Ben Foster, Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton and Dominic Cooper, Warcraft has been in production for almost a year and a half, and won't premiere until next year. However, the audience at Comic-Con was shown a trailer which sets up the premise, and pleased many of the fans of the game in attendance, but was in many ways a big CGI mess (although, to be fair, the effects probably aren't anywhere near finished).
- The Hateful Eight: This is a movie that was almost not made. Quentin Tarantino at first refused to make the film after his script for the movie leaked onto the internet. The movie, which includes Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Demián Bichir, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Channing Tatum, and Bruce Dern, is set some years after the end of the Civil War. It focuses on eight people in Wyoming, who seek refuge in a stagecoach stopover during a blizzard. It was announced at Comic-Con that Ennio Morricone will be scoring The Hateful Eight. Tarantino, who despises digital filmmaking, shot the movie in 70mm and will release it in that format. The movie was also shot with the same lenses used for Ben-Hur and It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
- Krampus: A Christmas horror story starring Adam Scott and Toni Collette, with the title coming from German folklore. Likened to Gremlins and Poltergeist, director Michael Dougherty described the premise as a situation where people's growing non-belief in Santa Claus twists the myth into a nightmare, where instead of delivering gifts, people's wishes become a form of torment.
- The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: Based on the 1960s TV series, Guy Ritchie's adaptation focuses on CIA agent Napoleon Solo (Henry Cavill) and KGB agent Illya Kuryakin (Armie Hammer), who have to put aside their differences to combat an organization that might upend the balance of power between the United States and the Soviet Union. According to at least one media report, the audience reaction to the movie's trailer at Comic-Con was "mild applause."
- Victor Frankenstein: Described as the "love story" of Dr. Victor Frankenstein (James McAvoy) and Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) as they create Frankenstein's monster. Written by Max Landis (Chronicle) and directed by Paul McGuigan (Sherlock), the movie goes for dark comedy while expounding on why Victor was obsessed with pursuing this creation.
- Game of Thrones: The biggest news out of the Game of Thrones panel was what seemed to be confirmation of the deaths of two characters. And just to be clear, the link in the previous sentence has a BIG SPOILER for the fifth season finale of Game Of Thrones and potentially the future of the show, so think before you click on it. Director David Nutter claimed that when asked by President Obama about one of the character's fates during a recent trip to the White House, he responded by saying “Mr. President, [he] is deader than dead.”
- Doctor Who: The season 9 trailer was revealed at Comic-Con, and it featured Daleks, ghosts, Maisie Williams as a yet unidentified character, and Michelle Gomez's version of the Master. Showrunner Steven Moffat describes the Doctor and the Master as being "friends," but it's the friendship between "a vegetarian and a hunter." Gomez also says the Master's dynamic with Peter Capaldi's Doctor will change. And that's not the only thing that's changed. The Twelfth Doctor's hair has grown a bit longer.
- Fear the Walking Dead: Set in Los Angeles during the initial stages of the
zombie "walker" outbreak (i.e., the 4 or 5 weeks Rick was asleep), the series will reveal exactly how the world fell apart. The story is also structured around an extended, blended family dynamic. The cast is led by Cliff Curtis’s high school English teacher, Travis, and his wife, Madison, a guidance counselor at the school played by Kim Dickens. Alycia Debnam-Carey and Frank Dillane are Alicia and Nick, Madison’s children from a previous marriage, Elizabeth Rodriguez and Lorenzo Jame Henrie are Travis’s ex-wife and son, with Rubén Blades and Mercedes Mason as a father-daughter duo named Daniel and Ofelia rounding out the cast. The showrunners describe the first season as a "slow burn," where the tension is partly built on the audience knowing more about the situation than the characters.
- The Walking Dead: The upcoming season 6 premiere, which airs on October 11, will feature the most zombies ever onscreen in any episode. The Wolves, a major antagonist from the comic book on which the show is based, will be a major factor this season, but not exactly in the way one might think, according to executive producer Scott Gimble. The episodes of season 6 will also flash forward and backward in time. Gimble also warned the trailer below also plays around with the truth of what's really happening.
- Hannibal: The series was cancelled by NBC late last month, and has so far had no luck finding a new home for a season 4. Both Netflix and Amazon have passed, with executive producer Bryan Fuller saying Hulu and Yahoo! have yet to make a decision. Producer Martha Di Laurentiis has dangled the idea the show might return as a new iteration of the Hannibal Lecter film series. Another tidbit from the Hannibal panel was the news a time jump of three years will occur between this week's episode and the next, with the following episodes revealing the state of Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) and lead into the beginnings of Francis Dolarhyde's story.
- The Muppets: Created and produced by Bill Prady, the co-creator of The Big Bang Theory, The Muppets is meant to be a new iteration of The Muppet Show that's a bit more adult. Instead of the variety show of the classic series, this version is centered on a talk show hosted by Miss Piggy that follows Jimmy Kimmel. Kermit the Frog is her executive producer, but he and Miss Piggy are no longer married or a couple. In fact, Kermit is dating the head of marketing at ABC. The other muppets are various members of the crew working on the show. If this all sounds a bit like The Larry Sanders Show or 30 Rock, well it kinda is. According to Prady, the series will be “about the intrigue that happens behind the scenes, but also at home and their emotional and personal lives.”
- Heroes Reborn: Save the cheerleader. Save the world. During the first season of NBC's Heroes, the series was one of the most popular and talked about shows on television. It all sorta fell apart toward the end of season 1, and the show never recovered its mojo. In fact, the show got so bad toward the end of its run that many people's reaction to the news NBC was bringing Heroes back for a limited run was to ask why? The 13 episodes of Heroes Reborn finds two vigilantes (Zachary Levi and Judith Shekoni) hunting down "evolved" super-powered humans. It forces many of the old faces, Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman), Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka), Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg), Mohinder Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) the Haitian (Jimmy Jean-Louis), to reunite to stop some sort of oncoming disaster. If you're interested, the full trailer for Heroes Reborn can be found here.
- Westworld: Based on the 1973 film written and directed by Michael Crichton, and executive produced by Jonathan Nolan (The Dark Knight, Person of Interest), Lisa Joy, and J.J. Abrams, HBO's Westworld will play with ideas surrounding artificial intelligence and human decadence. In a not-so-distant future, a theme park allows the wealthy to live out their fantasies, whether it be in recreations of the Old West, the Roman Empire or Medieval times. This is accomplished by stocking the park with lifelike androids that cater to the desires of the tourists, which includes all forms of sex and violence. However, like in Crichton's other popular theme-park-based novel with dinosaurs, something goes wrong, the park descends into chaos, and people start dying. This time around Anthony Hopkins is the park's creative director, Jeffrey Wright is the inventor of "artificial people," Ed Harris assumes the Yul Brynner role as "The Man in Black," and James Marsden is the story's protagonist, Teddy Flood, who's playing out a gunslinger fantasy.
- Agent Carter: The second season of the show will see the action shift to Hollywood of 1947, six months after the end of the first season. Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) will be investigating a murder, with Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) and Jarvis (James D’Arcy) setting up shop in a new California estate as part of their work for the government.
- Arrow: Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) will be wearing a new costume this season as part of his progression toward becoming the fully realized Green Arrow. The episodes will find Oliver in a happier place, and the tone of the show will be a bit lighter and less dour than last season. Also, Diggle (David Ramsey) will get a costume of his own at some point this year.
- The Flash: Two other versions of the Flash, Jay Garrick (Teddy Sears) and Wally West, will appear this year, as well as Zoom, who's the Big Bad of season 2. Events will pick up a few months after the end of season 1. This year of the series will also introduce characters from D.C.'s Earth-Two. And a major theme of the show will be Barry's isolation even as the popularity and fame of the Flash grows in Central City.
- Legends of Tomorrow: A spin-off from Arrow and The Flash, the show, which stars Ciara Renee, Victor Garber, Brandon Routh, Wentworth Miller, Caity Lotz, and Dominic Purcell, has been described as the place where ideas too crazy for Flash or Arrow will be realized. The basic story will see heroes and villains teaming up to battle Vandal Savage across time. According to the panel at Comic-Con, the first halves of Arrow and The Flash will be used to setup Legends of Tomorrow, including the introduction of Hawkman.
- Supergirl: Even though the series is produced by Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg, the team behind Arrow, Flash and Legends of Tomorrow, CBS's Supergirl will NOT crossover with those shows. Melissa Benoist's Kara Zor-El is, like many young women, trying to find where she fits in the world, with her The Devil Wears Prada day job existence working for Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart) contrasting with her faster than a speeding bullet adventures. And like Arrow, the series will liberally use flashbacks, showing life on Krypton before things went kablooey.
- Gotham: Season 2 of the series will see Gotham City devolve into further chaos. Described by executive producer Danny Cannon as "the rise of the villains," the situation is one in which the people in Gotham stop believing in the authority of institutions and inherent morality, and instead feel they only need to answer to themselves. Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) tries to re-establish control, Selina Kyle (Camren Bicondova) debates which side she's on, and Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor) tries to consolidate the power he's amassed. The new faces stopping by this season will include Batman and D.C. Comics villains Clayface, Mad Hatter and Tigress, as well as the return of Cameron Monaghan as Jerome (a.k.a. the Joker).
- Minority Report: This television series is a direct sequel to the Steven Spielberg film of the same name, with both being based on the short-story by Philip K. Dick. The story picks up after the fall of the Pre-Crime Division. The pre-cognitives were taken into witness protection. But one of the pre-cogs, Dash (Stark Sands), is living among the population. He begins a professional relationship with Lara Vega (Meagan Good), a former pre-crime officer, in order to stop the crimes he sees in his visions. The problem with the TV show is that it takes the most interesting aspect of both the short story and film (i.e., the idea of whether or not the visions and the judgments made about those visions can be trusted), and basically ignores it in order to have a weekly cop procedural.
- Into the Badlands: Billed by AMC as an "original martial arts drama," the series is the creation of Al Gough and Miles Millar (Smallville). Its story, as depicted in the show's trailer, is set in a dystopian Earth after a mass extinction event. What's left of humanity has regressed to feudalism, with the planet divided into territories controlled by barons. Sunny (Daniel Wu), a skilled martial artist, rescues a teenage boy (Aramis Knight) from a group of nomads. However, Sunny is a servant of one of the barons, Quinn (Marton Csokas), who enslaves and trains young boys to be part of his army. His best warrior, of course, is Sunny. But things change when Sunny questions Quinn’s motives and decides to take the boy and run. Millar describes the series as an homage to Hong Kong cinema and Westerns, describing the dynamic of the series being "the barons are the one-percent and everybody else is the ninety-nine percent."
- Outlander: Based on the novels by Diana Gabaldon, Outlander follows a married nurse named Claire (Caitriona Balfe), who falls through a hole in time in 1945, and ends up married to Jamie (Sam Heughan), a Scottish man in the eighteenth century. The first season of the show ended with an act of sexual violence perpetrated by Jonathan "Black Jack" Randall (Tobias Menzies) that creates a deep and lasting trauma. The 13-episode second season sees the characters actively trying to change history by traveling to France in order to prevent the Battle of Culloden and save the Scottish Highlanders. According to series creator Ronald D. Moore, the second season will deviate from the second book in the Outlander series, and the third book presents problems with adaptation.
- Ash vs. Evil Dead: Bruce Campbell returns to his most famous role for this 10-episode series on Starz, which premieres on Halloween night. As we catch up with Ash Williams, he's still working at S-Mart, drinking himself into a stupor, lying about he lost his hand, and according to Campbell "not really the guy who should be dealing with this right now." However, he takes two young souls under his wing, Pablo (Ray Santiago) and Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo), as he battles the Deadites one more time. Sam Raimi is back producing the show, and Lucy Lawless is also part of the series as a woman named Ruby Knoby. According to her, “If you don’t know that name then you ain’t hardcore.”