For people who follow the massive annual barrage of news out of the Comic-Con International trade expo — popularly known as San Diego Comic-Con, or SDCC — part of the big news in 2024 is that the con won’t have a corresponding virtual or online event this year, for the first time since 2019. That’ll leave fans looking for more ways to follow all the announcements streaming out of one of the year’s biggest fandom events. But don’t worry, Polygon has you covered.
Marvel and DC are both heading into 2024’s big show with major questions to answer. Marvel dialed back its plans for the Marvel Cinematic Universe after some major box-office disappointments, a new wave of “superhero fatigue” discourse, and the conviction and sentencing of actor Jonathan Majors, once the centerpiece of the MCU’s upcoming strategy. Comic-Con will be a preemptive victory lap for the company, with Deadpool & Wolverine opening in theaters July 25, and already tracking as a hit. But this year’s Marvel panel is also where we’ll catch up on Marvel projects that seem to have disappeared, and learn how Marvel plans to invigorate its fan base and retool Phases 5 and 6. Replacing Kang with Doctor Doom? Replacing Majors with a different actor? Something entirely different?
DC, meanwhile, went through its own major reboot in 2022, when Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad director James Gunn took over the company’s movie and TV franchise — but Gunn says he won’t be at Comic-Con for any kind of big DC presentation because he’s too busy shooting his take on Superman. Parent company Warner Bros. will have a small presence, repping the upcoming HBO series The Penguin and My Adventures with Superman. Instead of a presentation, DC will have a booth where it’ll try to stir up excitement over new DC Comics merch. But it’s always possible DC could drop a major announcement during Comic-Con just to maintain its presence.
Leaving aside those big two (and Disney, which saves its announcements for its annual D23 expo), there’s still a lot going on in media at the con, with panels on upcoming franchise plans for Star Trek, Doctor Who, Transformers, Walking Dead, and Alien, as well as upcoming seasons of Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and a lot more.
The event will run from July 25-28, and Polygon will be covering the whole thing. Stay tuned to this page for all the news, trailers, announcements, casting reveals, sneak peeks at upcoming projects, and more.
Robert Downey Jr.’s return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, announced Saturday at San Diego Comic-Con, would have been a surprise any way you slice it. But the fact that he’s not returning to play Iron Man, founder of the Avengers, but to play Doctor Doom, archenemy of the Fantastic Four, is nearly bewildering.
One question has rung out particularly loudly in the wake of the news: How can Downey Jr. play Doom when everybody in the MCU is already familiar with his face as Tony Stark? Sure, Marvel Comics has had Tony Stark become Doctor Doom, and Victor von Doom has become Iron Man. It’s a 60-year-old, continually running comic book continuity, my friend. Who hasn’t been Doctor Doom or Iron Man? Pretty sure I was Iron Man for an issue or two in 1989.
Read Article >When Marvel Studios first announced Thunderbolts* at 2022’s San Diego Comic-Con as part of its ambitious lineup for Phase 5 and 6 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, the movie didn’t yet have that odd asterisk in the title. It didn’t come with many details, either, apart from a July 26, 2024 release date that shifted along with many other MCU projects in the wake of the 2023 WGA strike.
In the wake of the Thunderbolts* segment of 2024’s San Diego Comic-Con, we don’t know much more! The asterisk is still a mystery: Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said at a CinemaCon appearance, “we won’t talk more about that until after the movie comes out,” and confirmed it again at Comic-Con.
Read Article >The Marvel Cinematic Universe is under more pressure than ever before to get it right. After years of uncontested box office dominance and broad critical approval, the tides have started to turn against the once-unassailable theatrical juggernaut, with a big drop in box-office performance, a general air of “superhero fatigue”, and the conviction and sentencing of actor Jonathan Majors, previously set to be the main villain of the next Avengers saga.
All of that and more has Marvel in retooling mode, releasing fewer new movies per year and shuffling some titles around the calendar. But that calendar still remains, and at 2024’s San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige shared a brief look at what MCU fans can expect in the near (and far) future.
Read Article >Two years after announcing Avengers 5 aka The Kang Dynasty at the 2022 San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige took the Hall H stage at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 to announce a different take on the project. It’s now called Avengers: Doomsday.
The reveal ends months of speculation that Marvel would not go forward with its original plans to position Kang, previously seen in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Loki season 2, as the main villain of its next big Avengers installment. Last December, Marvel Studios parted ways with Kang actor Jonathan Majors after he was found guilty of assault and harassment charges. While recasting the multiversal role and sticking to original plans may have been on the table, Marvel ultimately decided to go a different direction that would still lead the ongoing mega-franchise toward the next Avengers movie, Secret Wars.
Read Article >Giancarlo Esposito showing up in a movie may not be good news for the main characters, but it’s great for audiences. The actor has earned a name for portraying implacably charismatic villains, and the first trailer for Captain America: Brave New World raised the question: Which villain is he playing this time?
Esposito was a late addition to the delayed Sam Wilson feature, which completed principle photography in the middle of 2023, and has undergone several months of reshoots and rewrites in 2024 — more than usual for an MCU film. Both Esposito and Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel) joined the cast during reshoots, and Marvel Studios kept their roles under wraps until the studio’s San Diego Comic-Con panel in Hall H this Saturday.
Read Article >Well, that’s a shocker: Robert Downey Jr. will be returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe to play Victor Von Doom in Avengers: Doomsday, the next Avengers movie. The Russo brothers made the announcement at Marvel’s San Diego Comic-Con panel on Saturday night, shortly after being announced as the directors of both Doomsday and the follow-up movie, Avengers: Secret Wars.
Downey Jr. walked out on stage in a Doom costume, complete with mask, for a dramatic reveal. Marvel Studios’s Instagram account posted the actual moment of the unmasking, and the fan reaction that followed:
Read Article >Captain America: Brave New World has a lot going on. In addition to relatively new Captain America Sam Wilson, we’re going to get a new Falcon, a new Hulk, a new Black Widow, and all manner of super spies and ex-SHIELD agents making their MCU debut. The fourth Captain America movie may also give us some closure to a major event from Marvel’s Eternals, which, back in 2021, plopped a whole dang Celestial into the Indian Ocean.
The fact that that Celestial, Tiamut the Communicator, emerged from the depths of the ocean and was turned to stone by Gemma Chan’s Sersi has barely been acknowledged in subsequent Marvel films and TV shows. Only Disney Plus series She-Hulk: Attorney at Law has made the massive marble hand and head jutting out of the ocean seem like something the people of Earth care about.
Read Article >Star Trek: Discovery’s place in history will be debated forever, but here’s one fact: It kicked off a promising new era of Trek spin-offs, complete with a loopy star vehicle for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Everything Everywhere All At Once star Michelle Yeoh. The Oscar-winning actor stepped out at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 to introduce the trailer for her new movie, Star Trek: Section 31, which drops her Discovery character, Philippa Georgiou, (the mirror-universe warlord) back on the fringe of Federation activity, as part of a “secret division” of the Federation, per the official Paramount Plus announcement.
First announced in April 2023, Section 31 was originally developed as a spin-off series, but at some point — maybe after a Best Actress Academy Award? — Paramount ultimately decided a one-off movie was the best way to continue her character’s story. “Section 31 has been near and dear to my heart since I began the journey of playing Philippa all the way back when this new golden age of Star Trek launched,” Yeoh said in the original announcement. “To see her finally get her moment is a dream come true in a year that’s shown me the incredible power of never giving up on your dreams.”
Read Article >The cast of the upcoming young adult Star Trek series has officially been welcome to the Star Trek universe. At this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, the Star Trek panel showcased a video of showrunner Alex Kurtzman telling the young cast that they got the roles.
Additionally, it was announced that Tig Notaro, Mary Wiseman, Oded Feher, and Robert Picardo would be reprising their Star Trek: Discovery roles for this new show.
Read Article >Among the other reveals about upcoming Star Trek plans in the “Star Trek Universe” panel at San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall H, fans learned when to expect the next season of the offbeat, enjoyably frantic animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks. A teaser trailer for season 5 of Lower Decks gives the season launch date as Oct. 24. The season is expected to run 10 episodes, and the series will end with season 5.
The teaser trailer is mostly a sentimental celebration of the previous four seasons of Lower Decks adventures among the put-upon junior officers of the little-respected Starfleet ship USS Cerritos. (“Moopsy!”) Eventually, though, it shows the Cerritos encountering a quantum fissure (“That’s like the third one this month!” Ensign Mariner gripes) that brings them face to face with an alternate-universe version of their ship and the series’ characters. Other adventures teased in quick flashes include alien disguises, a society reaching the post-scarcity period and destroying all its money, and a “Klingon as hell!” face-off with one of Trek’s favorite alien species.
Read Article >Wynonna Earp’s coming home. After whetting our appetite with a 15-second teaser earlier this week, Tubi released the full Wynonna Earp: Vengeance trailer during Saturday’s San Diego Comic-Con panel.
After three years without Wynonna (Melanie Scrofano) on our screens, it feels so good to see our favorite whiskey-drinking revenant hunter back in Purgatory. And of course, she isn’t coming back alone. Wynonna Earp: Vengeance will also see the return of Tim Rozon (and his mustache) as Doc Holliday, Dom Provost-Chalkley as Waverly, Katherine Barrell as Nicole, Greg Lawson as Nedley, and Varun Saranga as Jeremy.
Read Article >Paramount Plus has given us a first look at season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, in a full scene released during the studio’s panel at San Diego Comic-Con — and it’s exactly the kind of playful situation the series has become known for.
The scene shows several human Enterprise crew members being genetically altered into (kind of racist?) Vulcans for reasons unknown but seemingly necessary. Then, after the successful and unexpectedly swift conclusion of their mission, well... things stay silly.
Read Article >Tsuburaya Productions’ Ultraman and Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man are coming together for Ultraman: Along Came a Spider, Viz Media announced at San Diego Comic-Con. While Ultraman has crossed over with Marvel characters before, this is the first time Spider-Man and Ultraman will team up.
The story and writing are done by Shinji Oishi and Shigenobu Matsumoto, with the art from Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris illustrator Tomo Hirokawa. The comic will have simultaneous Japanese and English releases in comic shops and via the Viz Manga digital service starting on Aug. 14.
Read Article >A new Legend of Vox Machina season 3 clip wasn’t the only Critical Role tidbit to come out of Amazon Prime’s adult animation panel at San Diego Comic-Con — we also got the first glimpse of the Mighty Nein series.
It’s a short animatic — a rough and unfinished clip — which shows tiefling cleric Jester (Laura Bailey) running away from a group of guards, and then quite literally into and quite literally running into strong, silent half-orc Fjord (Travis Willingham). Cue the shoujo-anime-style roses that sparkle into Jester’s vision, before the guards catch up to them. (This is especially funny because Bailey and Willingham are married IRL.)
Read Article >Get ready for another new adventure with Kazuma Kiryu — this time in a live-action TV show.
We first learned in June that Amazon intended to adapt the video game franchise Like a Dragon (née Yakuza) into a live-action Japanese series. We knew it would be a six-episode series released in two three-episode chunks — the first batch on Oct. 24 and the rest on Nov. 1 — and that it would follow Kiryu (played by Ryoma Takeuchi of Kamen Rider Drive) and his friends in what seems like an adaptation of the first game, Yakuza. At San Diego Comic-Con, we learned a bit more — particularly that House of Ninjas’ Kento Kaku will portray organized crime boss Nishiki, Kiryu’s complicated former childhood friend. The trailer is mostly vibed-base, with a music track playing over brief glimpses at scenes and a motif throughout showing Kiryu’s iconic back tattoo getting inked.
Read Article >As previously reported, DC Comics didn’t have a presentation scheduled for San Diego Comic-Con this year, because, as DC honcho James Gunn put it, he’s too busy directing his new take on Superman. We wondered whether DC would find other ways to get a few big reveals in at the expo, though, and sure enough, the “Jim Lee & Friends” panel debuted the first teaser trailer for Creature Commandos, the animated Max series that’s meant to kick off Gunn’s new DC movie and TV continuity. The series features yet another roster for Amanda Waller’s Suicide Squad — this time, with an all-non-human lineup.
Apart from possibly finally explaining what’s up with Weasel, the goggle-eyed oddity voiced and body-acted by Gunn’s brother Sean Gunn in the live-action movie The Suicide Squad, the animated series features Viola Davis returning to her role as Amanda Waller (previously seen in Peacemaker, Black Adam, and both Suicide Squad movies), alongside fellow Peacemaker veteran Steve Agee as John Economos.
Read Article >Mortal Kombat 1’s next year of content will bring six more characters, new story content, and a returning finishing move, the Animality, to the fighting game, developer NetherRealm Studios announced at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday.
NetherRealm chief creative officer Ed Boon was on hand at SDCC 2024 to reveal a new Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath-style add-on called Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns, which arrives on Sept. 24. That expansion will include the following characters:
Read Article >The heroes of Vox Machina are back and ready to take on their most powerful foes yet. The Amazon animation panel at San Diego Comic-Con revealed a new clip of the upcoming season of The Legend of Vox Machina.
Previously, Prime Video dropped opening sequence for the new season. The new glimpse gives some more to dig into, particularly highlighting beloved NPC Gilmore and his magic finesse. Gnomish cleric Pike tries to dissuade a few guards from attacking the group — but that just ends up leading to a chaotic, magic-filled chase through the city.
Read Article >Ncuti Gatwa, Russell T. Davies, and Millie Gibson shared a sneak peak at Doctor Who’s 2024 Christmas special episode during their Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con on Friday.
The episode, titled “Joy to the World,” was written by Doctor Who veteran and former showrunner Steven Moffat. It will be Moffat’s 50th episode of Doctor Who, following “Boom,” his tense entry in the series’ 14th season. Moffat told TV Choice it might be his last Doctor Who episode, although he’s said that before. (And he tacitly acknowledged that in the interview: “What I feel slightly sad about is, even if I do another one, I probably won’t know when I’ve done my last one.”)
Read Article >The Boys is in its endgame as a series, but only just getting started as a TV empire. The violent Prime Video superhero satire will soon have a third spin-off joining the college-set Gen V and the animated The Boys: Diabolical, along with the still-in-development The Boys: Mexico.
Revealed by Deadline and formally announced at The Boys’ San Diego Comic-Con panel on Friday, the new series is a prequel called Vought Rising, and will re-unite previous The Boys guest stars Aya Cash and Jensen Ackles as Stormfront and Soldier Boy, respectively. (The pair will also produce.)
Read Article >The second season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians hasn’t started filming yet, but the San Diego Comic-Con panel revealed one big piece of casting news: Daniel Diemer (The Half of It) will join the cast as Percy’s cyclops half-brother Tyson. The character was previously played by Douglas Smith in the critically panned 2013 adaptation of The Sea of Monsters. Hopefully the CG has come a long way in the more than 10 years since.
In the books, Percy (played by Walker Scobell in the show) finds out that while his father Poseidon hasn’t had any other kids with mortals, he did have a kid with a nature spirit (which is totally allowed), and that resulted in Tyson the cyclops. Percy first meets Tyson at school, and is totally unaware of their connection (or the fact that he is, indeed, a cyclops).
Read Article >An exclusive first-look clip at The Crow that Lionsgate released in conjunction with San Diego Comic-Con 2024 has the title character taking a shot at bloody revenge, and settling for just the “bloody” part. The movie, a new adaptation of James O’Barr’s 1989 comic book series of the same name, stars Bill Skarsgård (of It and It: Chapter Two fame) and British performer FKA twigs as Eric and Shelly, young lovers who are “brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them.” Eric then returns from the dead to seek vengeance and try to save Shelly’s soul.
The initial trailer for The Crow, released several months ago, emphasizes that the undead version of Eric has “the powers of a god,” granted to him so he can correct the injustice of these two murders. But while the SDCC clip throws him into violent combat with some of the men he blames for the killings, he doesn’t come out of it well. It isn’t a comedic clip — nothing about this sequence suggests we’re meant to find it funny when his attempt at gunning down his enemies falls apart — but the tone certainly is remarkably different from the trailer’s attempt to revise 1980s goth chic with a 2020s horror-thriller aesthetic.
Read Article >James Wan is a modern master of horror. The Saw, Insidious, Conjuring, and Malignant director has mostly been working on the producing side of the industry for the past few years, thanks in part to his new partnership with Blumhouse, but that hasn’t stopped him from making sure theaters are full of fun, scary films. But the director’s latest producing project will take on a different speed as he brings his new series Teacup to Peacock.
The series had a panel at this weekend’s San Diego Comic-Con, where the first details about its particular brand of spookiness were revealed, along with the series’ premiere teaser trailer.
Read Article >Two beloved Soul Reaver games from developer Crystal Dynamics may be getting the remastered treatment, according to what appears to be a leak out of San Diego Comic-Con. Branding for Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver I & II Remastered — an unannounced project — has been spotted at comics publisher Dark Horse’s booth at SDCC 2024, strongly hinting at a revival of the long-dormant franchise.
If accurate, the project sounds like it will contain remastered versions of 1999 game Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, released for the original PlayStation and later ported to Sega Dreamcast and Windows PC; and sequel Soul Reaver 2, released for PlayStation 2 and Windows PC in 2001. Both games starred vampire-turned-wraith Raziel as the playable character in his quest to exact revenge on his master Kain, star of the first game in the franchise, Legacy of Kain.
Read Article >The next movie in the Transformers film franchise that launched with Michael Bay’s 2007 movie Transformers takes the action back to Cybertron. Transformers One will tell the origin story of Optimus Prime and Megatron, and the BFF breakup that split the robots in disguise into two warring factions, the Autobots and Decepticons.
A new trailer for Transformers One, coming out of San Diego Comic-Con, shows that in addition to action and heart, there’s also plenty of humor in the animated film that producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura describes as a “biblical” prequel.
Read Article >
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