My Friday of San Diego Comic-Con 2025 was a relatively lighter day. If you missed my previous recaps, here are my writeups of Preview Night and Day 1. Day 2 included a couple of panels, press rooms for Hulu’s King of the Hill & Solar Opposites, Prime Video’s Upload and USA Network’s Resident Alien, and an autograph signing for King of the Hill.
I started off Friday early, heading to the Sails Pavilion at 7am to pick up my wristband for the King of the Hill autograph session I had won in the SDCC Exclusives Portal lottery. Then I spent some time prepping questions for the various press rooms I had today, before heading to Ballroom 20.
Panels
I had a panel pass for reserved seating for Resident Alien, which opened up Ballroom 20 for the day. It had just been announced the day before that the series had been canceled, and that the currently-airing fourth season would be the show’s last. Fortunately, the showrunner had an inkling that this would be the case after the struggle and budget cuts to even get a fourth season, so he had treated this season like it would be the last, wrapping up storylines and leaving viewers with a sense of closure. Due to this news, moderator Damian Holbrook treated the panel as a celebration of the series, rather than talking about what would come next. Though showrunner Chris Sheridan said that he would love to check back in with these characters in a few years via a movie—something USA Network has done for past shows like Psych and Monk. The other panelists included stars Alan Tudyk (“Harry Vanderspeigle”), Sara Tomko (“Asta Twelvetrees”), Corey Reynolds (“Sheriff Mike Thompson”), and Alice Wetterlund (“D’Arcy Bloom”), who talked about working in the series as a whole, the relationships they made with their co-workers, and what they would miss about the show. Sheridan was constantly trying to bring Sara Tomko to tears by bringing up things that she’d miss about working on the series. At the end, the moderator had the panelists take a bow, which was receives by a cheering audience. Overall, it was a fun and entertaining panel, and of course, most of the questions went to Alan Tudyk, who has become a fan favorite of the con.
Speaking of fan favorites, after the panel ended, I moved out of the reserved seating and found an open seat to watch the next panel, the annual TV Guide Magazine’s Fan Favorites panel, which was also moderated by Damian Holbrook. This year’s panelists included Alan Tudyk (Resident Alien), Katie Stevens (The Bold Type, Providence Falls), Michael Weatherly (NCIS: Tony & Ziva), Cote de Pablo (NCIS: Tony & Ziva), Jennifer Holland (Peacemaker), Nicole Maines (Yellowjackets, Supergirl, and DC Comics), and Maisie Richardson-Sellers (The Originals, Legends of Tomorrow, Tamalasca: The Secret Order). I always enjoy this panel as it brings together a wide variety of TV actors, many of which have never worked with one another. It’s always fun to see them fan out over one another like us normal TV viewers. In this panel, Katie Stevens was especially excited to be sat next to Alan Tudyk, the voice of many a Disney character.
Press Rooms
My first scheduled press room for the day was for Hulu’s King of the Hill, which has been revived for its 14th season on Hulu, which is set to premiere Monday, August 4, 2025 with 10 episodes. Unfortunately the talent was running a bit late, and they wouldn’t be getting to the roundtables before my next press room, so I had to leave before they arrived. Fortunately, I had already spoken with most of those who were coming to the press room at the ATX Television Festival. I will be posting that interview soon, timed with the show’s premiere.
I headed next door for my press room. This was for Prime Video’s Upload, which returns for a four-part series finale event on Monday, August 25. In the press room were stars Robbie Amell (“Nathan”), Kevin Bigley (“Luke”), Andy Allo (“Nora”) & Allegra Edwards (“Ingrid”), executive producer/writer Maxwell Vivian, and showrunner/creator Greg Daniels. This room also started a bit late, and there were lots of roundtables and press line folks for the talent to talk to. So I only got the chance to speak with Robbie Amell & Kevin Bigley before I needed to leave for my next press room. The actors couldn’t really talk about any of the details of this fourth/final season—at one point Robbie Amell even ran away from our table to confirm he was allowed to talk about something. I’ve already checked out the final four episodes, and I think fans will be pleased with the way it gives each of the characters a chance to find closure. That said, you may want to revisit season three before th final season drops to get a refresher as it’s been a while since that aired. Look for my roundtable interview to post soon.
Next up was the press room for USA Network’s Resident Alien, where we got the chance to speak with showrunner Chris Sheridan and stars Alan Tudyk (“Harry Vanderspeigle”), Sara Tomko (“Asta Twelvetrees”), Corey Reynolds (“Sheriff Mike Thompson”) & Alice Wetterlund (“D’Arcy Bloom”). This is a really fun group. It’s a shame the series is coming to an end as in this fourth season it has been better than ever. However, I appreciate the fact that they treated this final season like it would be the last, and are closing out the storylines to provide closure for an audience that has been invested in these characters for four years. I’ll be posting these interviews soon—especially since there are only a couple episodes left to the series.
And my final press room of the day was for Hulu’s Solar Opposites, where we spoke with executive producers Mike McMahan, Josh Bycel & Sydney Ryan, and stars Thomas Middleditch (“Terry”), Mary Mack (“Jesse”) & Sean Giambrone (“Yumyulack”). Actress Tiffany Haddish, who voices the ship/computer, was also in the room for photos, but did not participate in the interviews. We talked about the themes of the final season with the producers (McMahan just went through closing out another series, Star Trek: Lower Decks), and what can be expected from The Wall storyline. For the actors, we got a little sidetracked, with Mary Mack revealing some shocking and bizarre things from her past, but it turned out to be a really fun discussion. Unfortunately there won’t be any holiday specials this year. The sixth/final season of the series will drop all at once on October 13. Look for our interviews closer to that release date.
Hulu’s King of the Hill Autograph Session
After the press room was over, I booked it over the convention floor to the Disney booth for the King of the Hill Autograph Session. I arrived about 30 minutes late, but there was still a line, and so I joined the end as the last one. We moved steadily, but it was more like an assembly line when we got up to the talent, moving quickly down the line with our posters as the folks signed them. Present for the signing were executive producer/showrunner Saladin K. Patterson and voice cast Pamela Adlon (“Bobby Hill”), Lauren Tom (“Minh”) & Toby Huss (taking over “Dale”). I’ve won several of these autograph sessions over the years, ad whenever they take place on the convention floor, they tend to be this way, without a lot of time for conversation or photos, as they are scheduled for only a short period of time, and they need to avoid the extra traffic on the show floor. But it was still nice to get to see the cast and get a signed poster. We were also given one of the coveted Hulu poster tubes to help transport our posters safely.
Afterwards, I stuck around the show floor and once again tried to get a spot in line for the Paramount+ claw machine. But just like on Preview Night, the line was slow-moving and constantly capped. Eventually, I gave up and headed back to my hotel to post some photos from the past couple days and get some rest.
Look for my Day 3 recap soon.
