After 3 years, San Diego Comic-Con is finally back in person. With all the recent airline cancellations and delays, I had headed to San Diego a day early, which also allowed me to take care of getting my COVID wristband, badge lanyard, and giant Comic-Con bag a day early. I was also able to walk around and see some of the building wraps going up and activations being built:
My Wednesday/Preview Night actually began early in the morning as I had made an appointment to donate blood. I had always heard about the blood drive, they were giving out a free Thor: Love and Thunder t-shirt, and I had nothing else to do, so I figured Why Not?! Afterwards, I just killed some time walking around, meeting up with some friends for the first time in a long time, and getting ready for the day’s events.
Netflix’s The Gray Man Training Program Press Preview
This year Netflix has taken over the massive space where Amazon usually hosts its activations, to promote its new film The Gray Man, from the Russo brothers, and starring Ryan Gosling & Chris Evans. The activation allows attendees to become CIA recruits, putting them through 3 tests of speed, smarts and strength to see if they have what it takes to be an elite CIA operative.
They took people in pairs of two, and after a short mission briefing, we were each handed a super secret coin on a chain, and placed in front of the door to a train car. Upon entering the car, there were lights flashing and instructions that we only had 30 seconds to stop the chaos. There were various switches, dials and toggles on both walls. I pulled a lever on my side and turned some dials, while Paul worked the levers on his side of the car. Eventually everything turned green and the door at the end of the car opened for us to proceed to the next car. This next task was a test of strength. There was a chain that we had to pull to make it easier to pull open the side doors of the car. I pulled this and was able to open the doors but it was a bit of a struggle, and Paul was able to exit. This was the press preview night, and things didn’t seem to be working quite correctly, so I was a bit paranoid the doors were going to close on me, but I did manage to also escape. Next we headed up some stairs to a long pathway. At the end was a timer that counted down and told us to run. As we ran across the top of this train car, sparks flew, and an overhead camera filmed us (more on that later). We now found ourselves in front of a briefcase, and inside was a screen with a countdown and a spot for us to place the coins we were given in order to complete our mission. Here again we hit some technical issues—I don’t think we got the full experience…while we placed the coins correctly, I believe we were supposed to see some sort of message on the screen telling us we were successful. However, we were still congratulated by some agents, who took our pictures in front of a big The Gray Man logo. There were also tablets there to collect our email addresses so they could email us a link to a video with footage of us running integrated into the film’s trailer.
Since this was the press preview, we then made our way to another area where they had various platters of cheese, crackers, fruit, etc., a bar, and people walking around serving appetizers. This last part was special for press preview, and will not be part of the normal experience. I was glad that we got in line early because with only two people getting to go through every 5-10 minutes, it’s going to be a long wait. I can also certainly see why they paired people up!
Convention Center Preview Night
After leaving the activation, we headed right to the convention center and got in line for preview night. However, we didn’t have a whole lot of time by the time we finally got onto the show floor—we only had 40 minutes before we needed to head to our next press activation. With no WB, Starz or TBS booths this year, there was a bit less on the floor, so we still managed to do a quick pass of the major TV-related booths. We first headed directly for the former Twentieth Century Fox, now Hulu, booth to grab the free poster tube, and then we saw a Clerks III booth nearby handing out Quick Stop bags and bagged/boarded posters, so we of course grabbed those. We swung by the Netflix booth which had a photo opp and a prize draw, but the line was too long, so we used their text registration to hold a place in line (though the convention center closed before our turn ever came up). We also saw a large line at the Paramount+ booth which had some sort of photo opp—we could see lockers for Teen Wolf: The Movie. HBO Max also had a Drop Zone, where they would Air Drop a random prize to you, but that line was already wrapping around the far wall of the floor. The one thing that didn’t have a line was a chance to take a photo with SpongeBob and Patrick, so we definitely took advantage of that!
House of the Dragon Activation Press Preview
This year HBO/HBO Max has a massive activation promoting the upcoming Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon. But the immersive experience starts even before you enter the Red Keep. While waiting in line, a pair of joking knights kept us entertained and occupied. They asked us if we were Targaryens, and when we said we weren’t, one of them made sure to announce with a wink confirming that we were certainly NOT Targaryens. When someone asked what House they were from, the poor soldiers had a hearty laugh, joking that they were from the House of the Brown Bowl, and so on. As we moved up the line there were other knights, an old man, and a minstrel with a drum also telling us stories and giving us warnings about the dragons.
Once we got to the front of the line, the next group of twelve people were let into the courtyard in front of the Red Keep. Here you were free to walk around and interact with the characters. There was a woman with a spice stand, an older women trying to sell weapons and armor, and another women selling rugs (her stand oddly had noises of horses clopping). There was also another young woman strolling about offering to sing tunes about various topics. I requested a song about dragons, and afterwards she told us the first one was free but then it would cost us a coin. However, after no one offered up payment she revealed all we needed to do was ask and she probably would have sung us another one for free. Later I heard her singing another song about the City Watch. Several of the people walking around asked if we were Targaryens, hoping that we had a lot of money to spend. At one point our knight friend from the line showed up and did his wink/nod, telling the spice stand owner that we were most certainly not Targaryens. This was really entertaining and fun, and the actors stayed in character the whole time. It is also a really creative way to keep people entertained and occupied while another group is inside the experience.
After about 10 minutes of hanging in the courtyard, we entered the Red Keep where a man ominously greeted us. We were led into a dark room where he talked about dragons, eggs, and how they can bond with humans. He led us through a dark corridor into a room with a large flame in the center, surrounded by 12 dragon eggs. We each selected an egg and headed to the next room, which contained a giant dragon skull, surrounded by candles. He blessed our eggs and heading into same caves built on top of a volcano where we deposited the eggs and were told that we had the uncommon scenario where all 12 had hatched. There was lots of smoke but no actual dragons popped up from the holes in the rocks. We were then told to make our way out a dark corridor, holding the rope closely, and feeling honored should we be touched by a dragon on the way out. I was nervously expecting something to jump out at us, but besides a brief gust of wind from the floor at one point, I never felt contact with a dragon. We then entered the throne room for a photo opp on the Iron Throne. While waiting there were some folks playing the Game of Thrones theme on their medieval instruments, and a flirtatious woman looking for a rich, single Targaryen.
As we left the castle there was a station to use an NFT to activate the new The House of the Dragon: DracARys app early, and we were handed a dragon’s egg pin.
Outside of the activation, we all used our apps to find, hatch and name a dragon’s egg.
After the activation I headed back to the Convention Center to get some more photos. On my way, I passed a paper girl tossing out poster tubes that looked like rolled up newspapers, each containing a poster for the upcoming Prime Video series Paper Girls.
The lines were still way too long for the Netflix, Paramount+ and HBO Max booths, so I didn’t spend much time in the convention center, and just headed back to the hotel.
It was a nice start to the first in-person con in ages. I look forward to seeing what the rest of the weekend has to offer.
