The first few initial events will have by now opened this year’s San Diego Comic Con, but it won’t be until the coming weekend that the big companies and studios debut the teasers and trailers they’ll be hoping will make the headlines and send the Internet into meltdown over the next few months. In terms of the big guns, we know that Marvel will be pushing promotional material for next year’s ‘Dr Strange’, and have the GOTG2 cast scheduled to attend, so it’s reasonable to expect a ‘Guardians’ teaser trailer to be unveiled. DC will also be in attendance, with ‘Wonder Woman’ the top of their list of items to promote, and most likely some cheeky ‘Justice League’ movie material thrown to whet the fans’ appetite as well.
But Comic Con isn’t just about ‘The Big Two’. SDCC is a Broad Church that spans the entire comic industry, and celebrates the past, as well as the present and future. With a seemingly endless number of announced projects and planned reboots that are currently in existence at various stages of readiness, and thinking ever so slightly outside of the box, what cool craziness do we want to have seen happen by this weekend’s close of play?
10. Deadpool 2 (See it, before they make the sequel…)
Ryan Reynolds is fast becoming the unassailable ‘King of Comic Book Nerdery’. Having picked himself up from previous misfires in the genre (Wolverine: Origins, RIPD), he single-handedly spearheaded the campaign to force the Deadpool movie right into the hands of the studio, who must be very glad they decided to listen to the Crazy Canuck.
He was also an integral part of the utterly bonkers and multi-platform advertising campaign for the first movie, and has already been using his social media accounts to tease the early progress of the much anticipated sequel. Assuming that Reynolds will be in attendance at SDCC, it’s reasonable to expect he’ll have something to show the fans. Worst case scenario it’s some concept art and a plot summary for the new film. Best case scenario, it’s whoever’s been lined up to play Cable. Cue frenzied Twitter sightings of Ron Perlman, Dolph Lundgen and Kevin Nash in the vicinity of San Diego as the weekend approaches…
9. “Has anybody seen Hal?”
On the subject of Ryan Reynolds, you might notice the above paragraph makes no reference at all to his involvement in one of DC’s greatest missteps to date, 2011’s ‘Green Lantern’. And if there’s one thing that we want to see this weekend, it’s some proof of life that the intergalactic lawman is still alive, well, and will be featuring in DC’s future plans.
Yes, we know there’s a ‘Green Lantern Corps’ movie planned for 2020, but are DC really going to wait that long before inserting a Lantern into the DCCU? The Green Lantern has always been a key player in the Justice League, and had been heavily tipped to cameo in some form in ‘BvS’. So, c’mon DC? Let us know exactly what’s happening with Hal Jordan….
8. “I only work in black, and sometimes very dark grey…”
Sticking temporarily with DC, it’s usual for a couple of superhero vehicles to be premiered at Comic Con. And with Bruce’s Batmobile having been totaled by Supes this year, then he’s clearly in need of a new one. As the Batman movies have come and gone, they’ve somehow continually kept on managing to upgrade the crime fighting chariot. So hopefully, the new model that Bats will be sporting in the ‘Justice League’ movie might just make an appearance in some form this weekend. Though, to be fair, any bat-related vehicle will do!
7. “Kneel!”
As well as vehicles, a growing recent trend at Comic Con is for actors to rock up wearing props (Josh Brolin) or in full-on costume and character. With production on ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ in full swing, what are the chances of Tom Hiddleston repeating his trick of attending the coin in his full Loki get-up? And maybe even bringing his brother along with him this time too? Having seen the barrage of Twitter tomfoolery that’s currently coming off the film’s set, it’s not entirely beyond the bounds of possibility.
Of course, with Tom Hiddleston currently cooing all over Taylor Swift, that also brings the danger that he might turn up with her desperately clinging to him and firing off selfies. So, instead, I’m going to turn to the actor next most likely to pull such a stunt. That’s right, I’m calling Jason Mamoa in full on ‘Arthur Curry’ mode, striding the floor of Comic Con and screaming ‘Outrageous?’, whilst waving a trident around. You heard it here first….
6. Urban Legend
Having already touched on Thor 3, it’s worth remembering that a certain Mr. Karl Urban is on board that project playing ‘The Executioner’. What are the chances of this notoriously mischievous kiwi actor turning up in his Thor 3 costume? Well, Urban’s a massive fan of the genre, and in addition to promoting his Marvel efforts, and no doubt the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, there are one or two other little projects that he might be in a position to confirm, deny, or cosplay in.
Firstly, there’s the fact that a fourth Star Trek reboot has been announced, and that it’ll see fellow Thor actor Chris Hemsworth returning as Jim Kirk’s father’ George. Go on, Karl, explain that one away… Then there’s the rumour of another Riddick sequel, which would most likely see Urban’s demented Lord Vaako facing off against the titular intergalactic renegade. But, c’mon. Let’s cut the crap. There’s only one thing we want to witness Urban wearing and talking about. That proposed ‘Dredd’ series, that’s what. MAKE. IT. HAPPEN…
5. “It’s just a phase he’s going through…”
With the lineups and release dates for Marvel’s Phase 3 in a constant state of being tweaked and adjusted, you’d think that might have freed up some room and simplified things for Phase 4 a little bit. Alas, this is not the case, and all that’s happened so far is the death of the proposed ‘Inhumans’ movie, which sadly looks like it won’t be magically returning from the grave in classic comic book fashion, but will actually be staying deader than disco. We do know that Marvel have four mystery movies planned for the aftermath of the ‘Inifinity War’ in 2019, and we also know that the bulk of these are likely to be sequels for the existing Phase 3 movies, but what original character movies could also be lining up ready to make their MCU debut?
Well, there’s more than a few to choose from. Yes, I appreciate that being as we’re only just at the start of Phase 3, it’s wishful thinking to think any Phase 4 announcements are on the cards, but then marvel DO like to plan ahead for these and they also like to test audience reaction and opinion by dropping the titles of their movies years in advance. Given the predicted success of ‘Suicide Squad’, could they go down a similar path with a ‘Thunderbolts’ movie? Might we also finally see the MCU debuts of Namor, Nova or the Runaways? Or is it finally about goddamn time that Marvel gave the Black Widow and the Winter Soldier their own standalone movies. Or a prequel where they work together and get it on prior to Steve being defrosted. We’re not fussed. But we would like to know what those 4 planned movies are, Marvel? Please? Pretty please?
4. “We are Legion….”
Mention the name ‘Legion’, and people probably still think about that distinctly average apocalyptic movie from 2010 involving a pre-Vision Paul Bettany. But it’s also the name of the new TV show set in the ‘X-Verse’, focusing on the life of the son of Charles Xavier and Moria McTaggert, David Haller. In the comics Legion is one of the most powerful mutants of all time, but is also dangerously unstable given the powers bestowed on him by his Alpha Mutant father. He is being played by Brit actor Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey), with Aubrey Plaza (Parks & Recreation) featuring as Dan’s onscreen love interest.
The project’s all a bit mysterious, as it’s not coming directly from the Marvel stable due to the ongoing rights issues, and there’s been nothing formally revealed about it other than the casting choices. Well, after the critical mauling that ‘X-Men: Apocalypse’ received, Sony will be desperately looking for some way to bounce back. Preferably a way that doesn’t involve publicly flogging Oscar Isaac and Bryan Singer in the main SDCC Hall, so ideally, some promo art or footage from ‘Legion’ might be the best way to go about it.
3. The name’s 8, Star Wars: 8…
The promotional campaign for this year’s ‘Rogue One’ is in full swing, and we already know a new trailer featuring a certain wheezy Sith Lord is due to drop at SDCC. Thanks to leaked book material and a couple of magazine articles, the full details of this first standalone movie in the franchise are pretty much well known by now, so hopefully that will leave the good people at Lucasfilm with the room to answer some of the questions associated with the next entry in the new trilogy.
We already know that the 8th formal movie will be released in December 2017, that it will pick up directly after the events of ‘The Force Awakens’, that it will feature Han Solo’s funeral (thanks for that, Carrie Fisher!), and that it will star Benicio Del Toro, Ade Edmondson and Laura Dern. But there’s just so damned much we don’t know. Who will the new actors be playing. Just who exactly is Supreme Leader Snoke? And who the hell are Finn and Rey’s parents? Hopefully by the weekend’s end, at least one of these questions will have been answered.
2. Ripley’s Believe it or not…
‘Star Wars’ isn’t the only franchise experiencing an anniversary this year, with Jim Cameron’s ‘Aliens’ also celebrating its 30th birthday. Whilst there will undoubtedly be a cast reunion and some form of retrospective at SDCC for arguably the most perfectly executed sci-fi sequel of all time, it’s the other proposed Aliens sequels that we’re interested in.
The officially endorsed Ridley Scott sequel to ‘Prometheus’, which was quickly rebranded as ‘Aliens: Covenant’ in order to bring it more closely into line with the rest of the series canon, finished filming this week. With Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender back for mote acid-blooded anarchy, they will also be joined by Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride and Carmen Ejogo. Set photos have already been officially released in relation to the project, so it’s reasonable to expect a teaser trailer, surely?
But ‘Covenant’ isn’t the only ‘Aliens’ film doing the rounds, with ‘Distrct 9’ Director Neil Blomkamp having scripted and planned an ‘Alien 5’ movie that would erase the existing ‘Aliens’ sequels from the timeline, and see Ripley, Hicks and Newt alive and trying to combat a growing Xenomorph menace. The concept art’s already online and Sigourney Weaver is massively supportive of the idea, so here’s hoping the weekend sees some form of official announcement about this proposed sequel/sidequel/reboot (whatever the hell it is!).
1. “Kaiju lookin’ at me?”
Guillermo Del Toro isn’t one to let a negative response to his work put him off, which is just as well given the tepid response to his recent passion project ‘Crimson Peak’. He faced similar criticisms when ‘Pacific Rim’ debuted back in 2013, with accusations of it being too similar to Godzilla, and the fact it hadn’t made enough money on it’s domestic release. Since then, despite having been buoyed by a huge international haul, a sequel has looked less and less likely.
But Del Toro has persisted, and the sequel, ‘Pacific Rim: Maelstrom’ has been penciled in for a 2018 release. As well as Max Martini, Ron Perlman and Charlie Hunnam all returning, John Boyega has been cast as the Jaeger piloting son of the deceased Stacker Pentecost, and Scott Eastwood has also been announced, in an unspecified role. So what do we want to see this week? Well, firstly we want to see Scott Eastwood reveal exactly who he’s playing in ‘Suicide Squad’. And then we want a plot summary and some concept art for Pacific Rim 2. We want to see jaegers, jaegers, and more jaegers. C’mon, Guillermo, don’t let us down!
What would you like to see? Tell us below!