My Friday of San Diego Comic-Con 2026 was another packed day. If you missed my previous recaps, here are my writeups of Preview Night and Day 1. Day 2 included activations for Hulu Animayhem and Audible’s Level Up Lounge, a panel for CBS comedies Ghosts & Eternally Yours, a press room for MeTV’s Collector’s Call, IGN’s annual Party, and a late night screening for Season 2 of Apple’s Dark Matter.
Hulu Animayhem Activation
I started off Friday early, with a press preview of Hulu’s usual Animayhem activation. This year it was about half the size that it has been in the past, but was in a much more convenient new location (directly across from my hotel). This year’s offsite focused only on two animated series, Futurama and King of the Hill.
Upon entering, there were some Futurama-themed photo ops, including one with Amy holding stacks of coffee cups, Leela holding a tray of cups, and one where you could pretend to be a head in a jar being fed from above. There was also a Planet Espresso coffee shop where you could order your choice of four different coffee drinks—Fry’s 100 Cups of Cold Brew (cold brew with citrus cold foam top), Leela’s Lavendar Latte (latte with lavender syrup and cold foam), Planet Esperesso Over Ice (two shots of Bender’s Bendy Blend over ice), or a Planet Espresso (two hot shots of shots of Bender’s Bendy Blend). The cafe also offered the option of 3 varieties of “Dark Matter” aka chocolate donut holes—the choices were plain, with sprinkles, and with chocolate glaze. They already had pre-made trays with 2 sprinkled and 2 glazed donuts, so I grabbed one of those. There were some tables that looked straight out of the Plaet Express office to sit at while enjoying the refreshments. Next to this was a stand offering visitors their choice of a Planet Espresso ball cap, or an Alamo-themed trucker hat. As a huge fan of Futurama, this was an easy choice for me!
After this was the King of the Hill side of the activation. There was a woman handing out cans of Alamo water. I never tried one, but folks were saying it almost tasted like beer—however, it wasn’t supposed to. There was also a food truck for Bobby’s restaurant, Robata Chane. We were offered 3 different choices of main dishes—beef, chicken or veggie yakitori skewer—all of which came with vegetable fried rice, and the choice of three sauces&mash;chili oil, soy sauce or teriyaki. And the drink options were iced tea, sparkling water or plain water.
After getting my food (I opted for the beef with chili oil and water), there were two different places to sit. One area looked like a Japanese steakhouse counter, an the other was wooden picnic tables. The latter also offered a grill and propane photo opp as well as a cornhole game.
There was someone there from Hulu PR having everyone hold a frame of the King of the Hill opening title sequence that they were going to stitch together to post on social media, but I’m not sure when/where that is going to be posted.
While there didn’t seem to be as many activities or giveaways at this year’s activation, the food and drinks were really good, and I love my Planet Espresso hat!
The Dead & the Undead: CBS Studios: A Ghosts Exclusive Panel and Eternally Yours Premiere Screening
I had a panel pass for reserved seating for “The Dead & the Undead: CBS Studios: A Ghosts Exclusive Panel and Eternally Yours Premiere Screening” but got to Ballroom 20 a little early. I was surprised I was able to walk right in, even without the pass! I caught the end of DreamWorks Animation’s Forgotten Island panel, which included Dave Franco, and a performance by Filipino P-pop group BINI.
Once the panel finished, I moved into the press seating for CBS’s panel. I enjoy the Ghosts panel every year and this was their fifth consecutive year at SDCC. This time around, they brought executive producers Joe Port and Joe Wiseman and stars Utkarsh Ambudkar (“Jay”), Asher Grodman (“Trevor”) & Román Zaragoza (“Sasappis”). It was a fun panel. They talked about the previous season’s cliffhanger—with all of the cast joking that they were glad to see Pete gone because no one likes Richie Moriarty, who is a bit much on set. They said we’ll find out what is up with Pete early in the season, but that the situation won’t be resolved quickly. Ben Feldman (“Kyle”) has been promoted to series regular this season. Even though the series won’t be returning until midseason, there will be two hour-long holiday specials in the Fall. First is a Halloween special in which we’ll meet Hettie’s sister, a new type of ghost. And the Christmas special is inspired by Die Hard. The series will also hit 100 episodes this season, and so will the in-show reality show It’s Getting Hot in Here, which will be filming at Woodstone! Also this season, we will see something temporarily happen to the ghost boundary, and the first ghost-on-ghost possession. The panel was a little short but ended with a quick Q&A—and the return of the family who showed up last year dressed up like all of the characters.
Next, we were shown the pilot episode of upcoming supernatural comedy Eternally Yours. The series follows two vampires who have been married for 500 years and their struggles to accept the human who is dating their daughter, starring Ed Weeks (The Mindy Project) and Allegra Edwards (Upload). It also comes from executive producers Joe Port and Joe Wiseman, who had come up with the idea over a decade earlier. The episode was a lot of fun, and had a similar feel and tone to Ghosts. In addition to vampires, the series will also include some other supernatural creatures, such as witches. The series will premiere Thursday October 8. For the panel afterwards, the EPs were joined by stars Ed Weeks (“Charles”), Allegra Edwards (“Liz”), Jaren Lewison (“Max”), Helen J Shen (“Emma”) and Parker Young (“Jesse”).
Press Room for MeTV’s Collector’s Call
My only press room for the day was for the MeTV series Collector’s Call. I had never heard of the show until I was skimming the list of panels for this year’s San Diego Comic-Con and saw a listing for “Collector’s Call with Lisa Whelchel and MeTV”. Lisa Whelchel? as in Blair from The Facts of Life?! I was instantly interested, so I tried to find more information on this series, and was shocked to discover that it was currently in its seventh season. It didn’t appear that there was any way to stream episodes, so I set it to record on my TiVo, and when I checked out the series, I was immediately hooked. MeTV (Memorable Entertainment Television) is a broadcast TV channel that airs lots of nostalgic TV shows, and this series fits right in. Host Lisa Whelchel is so fun and genuinely interested in the guests who come on, which makes the series just a joy to watch. Each week, Lisa talks to a collector of some sort of pop culture memorabilia, bringing in experts to showcase and evaluate pieces from the collection. At the end of each episode, the expert presents a trade option to the collector, offering something they believe the collector will want in exchange for a specific item from the collector’s collection—this is the titular “collector’s call” that is to be made—if they want to go through with the trade or not. The series airs Sundays at 6:30 ET on MeTV and currently isn’t available on demand in any way, so you need to watch live or set your DVR!
In the press room for the series, I got to speak with host Lisa Whelchel along with several Collector’s Call experts—including professional archivist Rob Klein, screen-used costume historian Jennifer Klein, and toy collecting authority and comedian Matt Weinhold.
Lisa discussed her work on Collector’s Call as well as on The Facts of Life, and how those two worlds came together. Then we talked with toy collecting authority and comedian Matt Weinhold, who previously had his collection featured on the series, and also served as an expert. And finally we spoke for a long time with husband and wife team, professional archivist Rob Klein and screen-used costume historian Jennifer Klein, who talked about being on the show as both featured collectors as well as experts. They shared lots of fascinating and fun stories about items/collections they’ve come across, and also got into a long but interesting discussion with the other journalist at the table about Star Wars collecting/collections.
Check out our press room interview videos here.
Audible’s Level Up Lounge
Audible returned to SDCC again this year to heavily promote Dungeon Crawler Carl, and one of the ways they did this was with the Level Up Lounge activation.
When you enter the lounge, you are handed a scratch off card to rank different aspects of your personality. This is used to determine which of the four class pins you are given. You are also handed your first XP coin. As you make your way through the activation, there are different stations you can stop at to earn additional XP coins, which could later be exchanged for loot. The first station gives the option of makeup or costume enhancements. At the makeup desk you can get a temporary tattoo, a fake scar, etc. and at the costume desk you can get a patch added to your costume. The line was a bit long for this so I ended up skipping, but I still earned my coin.
The next station featured some activities for the Audible Original Bobiverse. You could either write a message, tip or lesson on a card and tack it up on the appropriate board on the wall, or you could take a series of photos that would form an odd geometric photo that you could have emailed to yourself. As you exited this station you were given another XP coin.
As you walked to the last station, there was a photo opp. Then a sound-proof booth where you could leave an audio crawler incident report that would be played back. Upon exiting the booth you were handed your final XP coin.
After this was the bar, which had some themed drinks as well as some really good food that included a tater tot/pork belly boat, a giant meatball, fish & chips, and a colorful donut. The food was so good, but I was a little disappointed that there was no “Dirty Shirley” drink option (but more on that on Day 3).
Across from the bar was a loot redemption station which offered various stickers for 1 XP, patches and keychains for 2XP, and socks and a plush Audible earbuds holder for 3XP. Somehow, I ended up 5 XP, so I opted for the “New Achievement” socks and a heart boxers patch.
There was a photo station by the exit, so I posed holding some signs announcing my achievements. But just as I was about to leave, audiobook narrator Jeff Hays arrived, so I got a selfie with him and congratulated him on being cast as Princess Donut in Peacock’s upcoming live-action Dungeon Crawler Carl series.
IGN Party
Next up was IGN’s annual party at Float at the Hard Rock. This year it was sponsored by Prime Video, Upon entering the venue, we were given two drink tickets. There were also people walking around with passed apps. In the main lawn area there was a large D.J. station. Shortly into the night, actor Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things) took over D.J. duties. There were also light displays for Blade Runner 2099 and a huge photo op for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The line for this was incredibly long, so after I got some food, I lined up, and it took well over an hour to get through.
Special Sneak Preview of Dark Matter Season 2
I was exhausted but headed back to the convention center for one final activity, Apple’s special sneak preview of Dark Matter Season 2. Some of the cast and producers took the stage for a short Q&A before they showed the first episode of the new season, which premieres Friday, August 28. The panelists included star/EP Joel Edgerton (“Jason Dessen”), star Dayo Okeniyi (“Leighton Vance”), author/
I loved the first season of this series and the book, and was excited to check out the new season. Unfortunately, once those lights went off and the episode started, the next thing I remember is seeing the credits—exhaustion won this time! As we exited the room, they handed us a nice metallic poster. I made my way back to my hotel and quickly fell (back) asleep.
Look for my Day 3 recap soon.
