Thursday of San Diego Comic-Con 2022 began with a visit to some roadside experiences Disney had set up to celebrate the Digital and Blu-ray/DVD releases of Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and 20th Century Studios’ The Bob’s Burgers Movie.
The Bob’s Burgers Movie and Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness Activations
The Bob’s Burgers station had picnic tables, umbrellas and some wooden standees of the various characters. There were a couple of photo ops, one where you could look over the sinkhole from the movie, and another where you you join Bob selling burgers. There was also a circular inflatable pool filled with small rubber ducks where visitors could play Lucky Ducks, using a fish tank net to pull out three ducks, and if the colored dots on the bottom of two of them matched, they could win things like posters, puzzles, digital copies of the film, and even the Best Buy exclusive 4K SteelBook if lucky. Also, the experience is offering free hamburgers every day during “patty hour”, 3-6pm
To the right of this was a station for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness where visitors could get their photo taken wearing a cloak, and then play Pop-A-Poppa, a Whac-A-Mole like game inspired by the movie, in order to win a poster or digital copy of the film.
“Nathan Fillion and Niecy Nash-Betts: ABC’s The Rookie and The Rookie: Feds” Panel
Next I headed to the convention center for my first panel of the con, “Nathan Fillion and Niecy Nash-Betts: ABC’s The Rookie and The Rookie: Feds“. I was surprised to see that Ballroom 20 was only 2/3 full for the very first panel of the Con, but I had received a panel pass and headed for green chairs in the press section, which only had about a dozen people. The flks with panel passes had been warned ahead of time that, due to the shows being in active production and increasing COVID cases, that the panelists would be appearing remotely on the screen. However, the official panel information hadn’t been updated and the audience didn’t take this news well. However, once the panelists—stars Nathan Fillion & Niecy Nash-Betts and executive producers Alexi Hawley & Terence Paul Winter—appeared live on the screen, everyone seemed to forget and enjoy the panel. They discussed the upcoming seasons of both shows, talking about how John Nolan (Fillian) will be training officer and have his own rookie. They tried to be secretive about this character but Fillian accidentally said “her” at one point, and so the moderator pounced on that. As for Feds, we will meet more of Simone’s (Nash-Betts) family in the first season. Since both shows film on the same lot and are both set on L.A., we can expect a lot of crossover between the two series. It was a fun and lively panel, with Fillian and Nash-Betts trying to one-up one another with stories of falls and injuries, and happily making use of stunt doubles. The panel closed with a sizzle reel for both shows.
Next I headed down to the interactive zone outside Petco Park, which was filled with all kinds of tents and stands for various products and properties. I was here for CBS’s Ghosts activation, but first ran into Wiley Wallaby, who was handing out pins and free samples of licorice.
Ghosts Pete’s Friend Zone Activation
This year has been “The Summer of Ghosts“, with CBS setting up experiences across the U.S., each one celebrating a different one of the characters from the hit CBS comedy Ghosts. For Comic-Con, they chose to celebrate Pete, the 1980s scout leader who was accidentally killed by an arrow through the neck. Upon entering the experience, visitors can visit various stations to get a tarot, crystal or palm reading, get a drink, try their hand at archery, or get a photo with some ghostly friends. Doing these various activities, they earn merit badges, which can be traded in for swag such as a mug, bandana, whistle keychain or even an arrow through the head so they can be like Pete. The camp mugs looked cool and were the main thing I wanted.
Vampire Academy Press Room
Next I headed to the Hilton Bayfront for my first press room of the con, for the upcoming Peacock series Vampire Academy, which is based on the novels of the same name. At the roundtables we got to speak with everyone for at least 8-10 minutes. First up were stars Sisi Stringer (“Rose Hathaway”) & Kieron Moore (“Dimitri Belikov”), followed by Julie Plec (Showrunner/
As I walked out the press room I saw a familiar and welcome sight…one that you only see at Comic-Con… Captain Kirk running a shoe-shine with Spock as his customer…
Solar Opposites / Koala Man Press Room
My next press room was a combined room for Hulu’s Solar Opposites and the upcoming series Koala Man. First we spoke with Justin Roiland, the creator/star of Solar Opposites, who not only talked about what’s to come in season 4 of the series, but also his company’s upcoming first person shooter game, which sounds very unique and creative (spoiler, the guns talk). Next we spoke with writers Mike McMahan, Josh Bycel & Danielle Uhlarik, who talked about how the series is constantly reinventing itself. The main show will be going from a family comedy to a workplace comedy next season, and The Wall will become more of a Cold War spy story. They also talked about the Halloween episode that will be airing in October. We then spoke with stars Thomas Middleditch (“Terry”), Mary Mack (“Jesse”) & Sean Giambrone (“Yumyulack”) who talked about the show’s excessive adult language, and shared some fun stories—it was interesting to learn that the actors all record their lines separately. I was also surprised by how much Sean Giambrone is like his The Golbergs character in real life.
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Finally, we spoke with the three folks representing Koala Man, creator/star Michael Cusack and writers Dan Hernandez & Benji Samit, who discussed how the series came about, the characters and premise of the series, scoring Hugh Jackman to star in the series, and more.
“Koala Man” follows middle-aged dad Kevin and his titular not-so-secret identity, whose only superpower is a burning passion for following rules and snuffing out petty crime in the town of Dapto. Though it may seem like any other Australian suburb, forces of evil both cosmic and man-made lie in wait to pounce on unsuspecting Daptonians. On a quest to clean up his hometown, and often roping his frustrated family into his adventures, Koala Man stands at the ready. He’ll do whatever it takes to defeat villainous masterminds, supernatural horrors, or worse: jerks who don’t take their rubbish bins down on the proper days.
Unfortunately video was not allowed at this press room, but I will be posting a more detailed write-up later on.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Tavern Experience
Paramount Pictures has taken over a local bar, turning it into the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves Tavern Experience. Upon entering the experience you go down a hallway filled with moving posters of the film’s cast, classic D&D posters, and statues of monsters, before making your way into the massive bar. Servers hand you a glowing mug of Dragon’s Brew (either alcoholic or not) and lead everyone in song, chants and cheers. However, this celebration is suddenly interrupted as a dragon makes its way to the tavern. The roof starts shaking and the sounds of the creature can be heard coming from various directions as it tries to make its way in. Some of the servers start cowering and expressing their concern. From a screen on the ceiling we can see the dragon, the red glow of its eyes fills the tavern, and smoke from its mouth starts to pour in. It seems like all hope is lost, but soon the day is saved and we must quickly make our exit.
Overall the experience was pretty fun—the the dragon stuff cool, with the audio of the creaking and scraping of the roof being really immersive—I was fully expecting a giant dragon to pop out at some point. The sound was moving all around the room, making you wonder if an attack was imminent, and where it would come from. However, I didn’t really get to experience the full experience…instead of letting us in at our scheduled 9:30 time, they ended up letting us in at the tail of the 9:15 group, so we didn’t have any time to explore any of the photo ops or tavern—we were rushed through the initial hallway as the main event was already starting before we got into the bar area. And after the dragon attack we were told to chug the drinks down and exit.
Fandom Party
The final event of my day was the Fandom Party which was being held at Float on the roof of the Hard Rock. Upon entering you were given a lanyard with a pin, and then headed up the elevator to the rooftop club. This is where WB had held their party the last time I was at SDCC. There were a lot of people and plenty of free alcohol, but not a whole lot of food—there was the odd server walking around with chicken skewers, spring rolls and empanadas. There was a DJ as well as a red carpet line, though it was a bit crowded with photographers. Someone said they thought they saw Emily Hampshire (Shitt’s Creek, 12 Monkeys) on the carpet when we passed by. We also saw some of the cast of For All Mankind milling about. We didn’t stay long, but did stop by the photo booth before leaving.
