What started off as a lighter day 3 of San Diego Comic-Con, turned out to be a pretty packed Saturday, with some panels (including the biggest one of the Con) as well as some press rooms and activations.
Ghosts Panel
My Saturday morning started off with a 10AM panel for the CBS comedy Ghosts in Ballroom 20. Fortunately I had a panel pass that I had picked up the previous day, so I didn’t have to wait in line, and had some nice reserved press seating. It was a fun and “spirited” panel, with stars Utkarsh Ambudkar (“Jay”), Rebecca Wisocky (“Hetty”), Richie Moriarty (“Pete”) & Román Zaragoza (“Sasappis”), and executive producers Joe Port & Joe Wiseman. They talked about returning to the set for season 4, and teased some of the things we’ll see in the upcoming season. They said that Jay will finally open his restaurant and he will also finally see the ghosts (though they didn’t specify how). They also talked about casting Mary Holland as Patience, that Dean Norris will be playing Sam’s father, and that there will be two holiday episodes this season—a sequel to the previous Halloween episode, as well as a Christmas episode were we’ll meet Jay’s family. It sounds like another fun season, and I’m looking forward to it. They also announced that there will be some spooky immersive experience coming to Los Angeles this October, for those who live in the area.
Press Room for Audible’s The Safe Man
After the panel I headed over to the Hilton Bayfront for some press rooms. The first of which was for the Audible Original The Safe Man, an 8-part audio production based on New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly’s short story of the same name.
The Safe Man tells the story of Brian Holloway (Jack Quaid) who was hired by famous horror author Paul Robinette (Titus Welliver, Bosch) to crack an antique safe in his home, he had no idea what he was about to encounter. Opening that safe door unleashed something sinister — something that continues to haunt him. But what exactly? And can whatever slipped through that threshold be stopped? Plagued by a series of disturbing supernatural encounters, chilling prophecies, and a criminal investigation into a missing girl, Brian begins to realize that he is inexplicably linked to the eternal, and that he must defy fate if he has any chance of saving the most important person in his life.
I had listened to the production on my plane ride to SDCC (it is only about 2 hours in total), and really enjoyed it. It is a spooky supernatural tale that delves into the idea of whether or not we can change fate.
For the press room roundtables (which were easily the most packed of my Con), we got to talk with star Jack Quaid and author Michael Connelly. (I found it amusing that they gave us a tip sheet identifying which was which.) I will be posting these two interviews soon.
Press Room for Hulu’s Futurama
Right next door was my next press room, for Futurama. Hulu just premiered the 12th season of the long-running, often-canceled animated series, and will be airing episodes weekly. This is such a hilarious group of folks. We could pretty much just ask a single question and they would keep running with it. The actors especially, who just had a lot of fun, breaking into their characters as they chatted with each other. There were only two of us doing video at the roundtables, so we got our own table, where we spoke with Executive Producers David X. Cohen & Claudia Katz, and stars John DiMaggio, Billy West, Lauren Tom, Phil LaMarr, Maurice LaMarche & David Herman. We will post the interview videos soon.
Next I was supposed to have a press room for Tracker in the same room, but unfortunately this was canceled at the last minute…after I had already given up my press panel pass for the Star Trek panel in Hall H, which had conflicted with this press room. I tried to get in the regular Hall H line, but with the Marvel panel later in the day, that wasn’t moving at all. So I never made it into the Star Trek Panel, but did manage to get inside in time for The Penguin panel.
The Penguin Panel
The panel for HBO/Max’s upcoming series The Penguin, which is a follow-up to the feature film The Batman, which first introduced viewers to this version of the iconic character. Star/EP Colin Farrell (“Oz Cobb” a.k.a. “The Penguin”) joined virtually as he was filming something else abroad, and on stage were stars Cristin Milioti (“Sofia Falcone”) & Rhenzy Feliz (“Victor Aguilar”), and executive producers Matt Reeves, Lauren LeFranc (showrunner) & Dylan Clark. They showed the trailer and talked a bit about the series, though didn’t reveal too many details. The series will launch this September on HBO.
Marvel Panel
The next event in Hall H was the eagerly-anticipated Marvel panel. I had never been in the room for one of these Marvel panels, so I was excited to see if it lived up to all the hype, and it did. It felt like one of those Apple events where you have the superfans cheering after every single sentence, often even standing up. Even though the questions felt so overly rehearsed, the folks at Marvel know how to work a crowd, and they had a slate of films to announce and a couple big reveals.
The panel opened to a choir singing “Like a Prayer” as loads of Deadpools took the stage like a circus act. I hadn’t yet seen Deadpool & Wolverine, so I didn’t know of any references to the movie, but it was an exciting way to open up the event. Kevin Feige and Rob Delaney (“Peter Pool”) took the stage.
Next up was the cast of Captain America: Brave New World—Tim Blake Nelson, Danny Ramirez, Giancarlo Esposito, and Anthony Mackie. They showed a trailer, Mackie was taking jabs at Tom Holland about getting his own movie, and Esposito confirmed he would be playing Sidewinder. Harrison Ford also took the stage and talked about playing Red Hulk. The film will be released in February.
Next up was the cast of Thunderbolts*. David Harbour came out in costume and in full character, speaking with his Russian accent, only to discover the rest of the cast ignored the memo and were dressed normally as they took the stage. They showed the first trailer for the film, and said that the asterix in the title has a meaning, but wouldn’t say what.
After this was The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which was going to begin filming the Tuesday after SDCC, but that didn’t stop the cast from showing up. The film will be set in a retro future of the ‘60s, and they showed some test footage and animatics in the form of a trailer. They announced that it will be released next July, and the characters will also appear in the next 2 Avengers films. A flying car went across the stage during this segment.
Finally, the next two Avengers films were announced, along with the return of the Russo brothers to direct them. Avengers: Doomsday replaces the previously announced Kang film, and in a big reveal, Robert Downey Jr. was unmasked on stage as playing Victor Von Doom, taking advantage of the MCU’s multiverse. Avengers: Doomsday will be released in May 2026, followed by the previously announced Secret Wars in May 2027.
Here’s Marvel’s official video of the panel:
After leaving Hall H, we took the long trek to the Hyatt to redeem the swag tickets we were given at The Penguin and Marvel panels, only to discover that they they were just posters as well as a paper fan/map for The Fantastic Four (definitely not worth that long walk!).
Then we met up with some friends for some tacos before heading to our final event of the night.
Borderlands Moxxi’s Bar Activation
We had a 9:30PM timeslot for the Borderlands Moxxi’s Bar Activation, but it seemed quite dead outside with no line when we arrived early. They had us walk right in and gave us a token for a drink. Inside it was pretty crowded. They had a few activities like a dunk tank (which had a huge line) as well as a slot machine. We went to the slot machine and they were just giving out piles of keychains (I ended up with 4)—this being the final night, I suspect they had run out of the larger prizes. We stopped off at the bar to get a drink, but everything seemed to be watered down (even my Diet Coke was half clear!), so we pretty quickly called it a night.
Afterwards, I headed back to my hotel to pack and prepare to check out the next morning.
Check out our recaps from the previous days: Preview Night, Day 1, Day 2
Look for my Day 4 recap soon.
