Weekly Recap: San Diego Comic Con News Edition

Ordinarily, every week there is a recap of the latest streaming titles to come out that weekend. In lieu of that this weekend, a collection of some of the biggest stories out of pop culture’s biggest event is more useful. This weekend marked the return of San Diego Comic Con to an in-person event in July for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic began. While last year there was a smaller version that took place in November, it was not quite what it usually is. Due to its placement in the calendar, it is the perfect places for studios, networks, and comic publishers to announce their biggest titles for the end of that year into the next, and this year it was back with a vengeance.

As a heads up, there are spoilers in this for people who are not up to date on everything going on in the various intellectual properties covered. If someone is trying to go in blind, or has not caught up on titles like Ms. Marvel, Star Trek: Picard, The Walking Dead or other recent releases, they should be warned that these things may be spoiled for them.

Prey, the upcoming Predator spin-off/prequel slated for an August 5th premiere on Hulu, received a new trailer as well as a world premiere screening in front of a packed theater. The film will follow a Predator that arrives on Earth and is fended off by a Comanche warrior. The premiere received a lengthy standing ovation.

Star Wars did not bring too much to San Diego this year. Independent of the event, it was confirmed that Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games, The Hate U Give, The Darkest Minds) will be the lead of the upcoming Disney+ show The Acolyte. The Acolyte is set about 200 years before the Skywalker Saga as part of the “High Republic” initiative. The show is being written by Natasha Lyonne of Netflix’s Russian Doll.

At a panel for
Lucasfilm Publishing, The Battle of Jedha was announced. This is similarly set in the High Republic era and will tell the backstory of the planet with the ancient Jedi temple that Jyn Erso visited (and the Empire subsequently destroyed) in Rogue One. Similar to Dooku: Jedi Lost and Tempest Runner this will be an audio adventure told like a radio play with a script book released after, however George Mann will be taking over from Cavan Scott. Mann has a robust history with licensed writing, having done considerable work within Doctor Who and Warhammer 40000. IDW’s The High Republic Adventures comic is returning alongside Marvel’s The High Republic comic. As a matter of personal preference, the IDW runs have been consistently better than Marvel’s, though Marvel’s Darth Vader and Doctor Aphra (both of which got some previews into 2023) are both among some of the strongest Star Wars content of the Disney era.

As the event began, Disney added three new titles to their age-locked portion of Disney+. Previously, this was just the home of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher, however now it is also home to Fox’s Deadpool, Deadpool 2, and Logan. This fueled speculation of a Deadpool 3
announcement, however none would come on Saturday’s Marvel Studios panel. More on that below.

A new trailer to Halloween Ends was released, showcasing the (God-willing) final confrontation between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. The trailer looks interesting, however after the last entry, hesitation should be exercised before getting excited or this movie.

Amazon Studios brought some interesting information to SDCC this year. They unveiled a full trailer for their Lord of the Rings series The Rings of Power and renewed Wheel of Time for a third season ahead of its second season. Amazon seems to be fully committed to big budget fantasy series so hopefully this works out for them.

Information was sparse about Masters of the Universe: Revolutions, the sequel series to last year’s Masters of the Universe: Revelations, however two key pieces of information were released. The first was that William Shatner will be joining the voice cast in an undisclosed role. The second, in response to a considerable amount of crying from a subset of viewers, He-Man would be in every episode.

On the nostalgia titles front, there were a few fun announcements. Fans of Disney’s Gargoyles
can get excited for a new comic series coming from Dynamite Comics. At the same time Boom Comics is doing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers crossover event. Fans of the show will remember that there was a live action crossover during Power Rangers in Space in the late 90s, however this new event will unite the original cast from the 1993 show with the Turtles. Also in this vein is a revival of Darkwing Duck from IDW.

In the world of video games, Marvel’s Midnight Sons, due out in October from Firaxis games and 2K received a new gameplay trailer that shows the arrival of Iron Man as a playable character. This is designed to be a tactical role-playing game like XCOM with tons of playable Marvel characters. On the other side of the street, DC showed some footage from Gotham Knights, a game that seems like a follow-up to the Arkham Asylum series. This trailer showcases how Batgirl will play in the game. While Midnight Sons will be available on both current-gen and next-gen consoles, Gotham Knights will be exclusively on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC.

Paramount+ brought a lot of children’s programming to the show. A new trailer for the second season of the Rugrats revival was released, and a massive crossover was announced for Kamp Koral, The Patrick Star Show, and SpongeBob SquarePants. They also showcased Transformers: Earthspark, a new 26-episode animated show designed to bring Transformers to a new generation.

In network television, announcements came about the second seasons of CBS’s Ghosts and ABC’s Abbott Elementary. At a panel for Ghosts, it was confirmed that the second season would mark the arrival of new ghosts and, because the Bed and Breakfast is now open, there will be more guest stars. Abbott Elementary was scarce on details, however it was confirmed that the show was renewed for a 22-episode second season. This was not uncommon until the pandemic hit when renewals for new seasons were downgraded to 18 episodes, with the possibility of adding in additional episodes at the end of the season. The full season renewal could be the first sign of the networks moving back to pre-pandemic operations, or (and more likely), ABC is very confident in the second season following how well the first was received.

In terms of Disney+ shows that don’t have the Star Wars or Marvel logo in front of them, it was announced that Olivia Rodrigo will be exiting High School Musical: The Musical: The Series after the forthcoming season three. A trailer was also released for National Treasure: Edge of History, the sequel series to the mid-2000s cult classic National Treasure with Nicolas Cage. While Harvey Keitel will be reprising his role in the sequel series, Cage will not be. That said, the showrunner said the door is always open for him to return. Finally, Seth McFarlane’s Star Trek parody The Orville will also be making a debut on Disney+. As more and more shows move to Disney+ from Disney-owned networks and Hulu, it does make one wonder how Disney is intending to act when it comes time to make a decision on full ownership of Hulu in the near future.

Keanu Reeves had a substantial presence this year with two major announcements. The first, and probably most obvious, was the arrival of a John Wick: Chapter 4 trailer as the movie is slated for a March 24th, 2023 release. The movie will also feature Donnie Yen in a major role. His other announcement was that his comic BRZRKR
from Boom Studios will be getting an anime adaptation for at least two seasons on Netflix.

In industry news, Jim Lee was asked about the movement to Restore the Snyderverse, referring to allowing Zack Snyder to return to DC to make a follow-up to Justice League. This follows on reporting from the Rolling Stone about what role bot accounts had in the #ReleasetheSnyderCut movement and how much Snyder knew about the power he wielded by this subset of the fanbase. Jim Lee, currently the Publisher and Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics, said there are no plans to revisit the Snyderverse at this time. Snyder responded to all this in a healthy way, by posting a picture of a film reel with the Justice League logo on it with a Mussolini quote overlayed on the image so that’s fun. In other news, Disney+ is actively attempting to acquire the streaming rights to Doctor Who
from HBOMax. This would probably be a better fit since Disney+ is better designed to find new content, especially compared to HBOMax’s interface. Marvel also announced a very expensive partnership event with East Continental Gems where, if someone has $25 million laying around, they can buy a very expensive Infinity Gauntlet stocked with a real Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Amethyst, Yellow Diamond, and Spessartite.

Apple TV+ brought two shows this year. The third season of Jason Momoa’s See received a trailer in advance of its August 26th release date. This will be the final season of the show. Meanwhile the alternate history title For All Mankind received a renewal for a fourth season following the success of the recently released third season.

In comics news, Eisner Award winning writer Tom King is going to be working with DC Comics again on a six-issue miniseries called Gotham City: Year One. This series will show the fall of Gotham City to the state that it is in when Batman is active. DC is also releasing another one-shot Batman and Spawn crossover comic. Paul Dano and Matt Reeves are teaming up to do a Riddler origin comic set in the world of The Batman called Riddler: Year One. This week also marked the official branding of DC’s annual maxi-event: Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths. Over at Marvel, details were released about the upcoming event Dark Web that was previously teased in this year’s Spider-Man/Venom Free Comic Book Day comic. This event will be a Spider-Man and X-Men crossover event in 2023. Finally, Chris Claremont is returning to X-Men having previously written landmark events for the team including Days of Future Past and Dark Phoenix Saga. He is reviving his 2001 series X-treme X-Men which was in and of itself a revival of his iconic past run.

Wrapping up the other news before launching into the biggest stories, during his annual Hall H panel, Kevin Smith screened five minutes from the forthcoming Clerks III. The movie will be released with a Fathom Event at select theaters and will also be screened at live shows during a nationwide tour like Jay and Silent Bob Reboot was. Rick and Morty
spinoff Rick and Morty: The Vindicators was released in its entirety on YouTube. Both AMC’s Interview with a Vampire and Netflix’s The Sandman received new trailers, and both were praised for how much like they looked and felt like their source material. The Sandman also had a screening of part of episode three which was described as a faithful recreation of the issue “Dream a Little Dream.” In advance of its August 19th
release date, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero got a trailer for the English dub. It will be played in theaters with some IMAX screens showing it as well. A full trailer was released for a new Dungeons and Dragons movie DND: Honor Among Thieves, featuring Chris Pine of Wonder Woman and Star Trek fame, which will be released March 3rd, 2023. A full trailer was also released for the impending Game of Thrones prequel/spin-off show House of the Dragon on HBOMax. This show comes out on August 21st and will follow the story of the Targaryan civil war 300 years before Game of Thrones.
One detail was announced of the previously announced three feature Avatar: The Last Airbender-universe films in so much as the first movie would be focused on Aang, the protagonist from the original show. Lauren Montgomery was previously announced to be developing. Finally, animation great Craig McCracken was announced to be leading reboots of his iconic franchises Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends on Cartoon Network.

When Andrew Lincoln left The Walking Dead, AMC turned the departure into an event that marked the end of an era. The original plan was for a trilogy of movies about Rick Grimes to be released after that. Now, The Walking Dead is coming to an end as well and audiences got their first taste of what this means. The idea for a trilogy of movies has been abandoned and instead will be an AMC/AMC+ series about Rick Grimes and Michonne. On top of this, both Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira will be reprising their roles in the new show. The final stretch of season 11 will begin in October and a new trailer was also released.

Star Trek is definitely the show that launched these fan events. Shatner talked about what it was like to go to these early events at a retrospective panel so it makes sense that Star Trek would have a major showing at this event. A teaser was released for season three of Star Trek: Picard that showcased the reunion of the entire crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation reunited. A new trailer was also shown for the third season of the animated show Star Trek: Lower Decks and it was also announced that it would have a blended animation and live action crossover with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

DC Films came into this convention in an awkward situation. They have two movies coming out this year (Black Adam and Shazam: Fury of the Gods) and two movies slated for next year (Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and The Flash). They also have one movie that is shot and in post-production, is contingent on the release of The Flash, and is currently in distribution limbo because it was slated for a release on HBOMax before the Discovery takeover and now might be going theatrical (Batgirl). As it stands, considering the terrible press that leads Amber Heard and Ezra Miller are receiving, DC Films could not exactly trot out their big releases for next year. That said, DC came stacked with a new trailer for Black Adam
that showcases more of the Justice Society of America and a trailer for Shazam: Fury of the Gods. At the panel, director David Samberg did confirm that there were plans for a third Shazam movie, contingent on the reception to this one. If someone liked the first movie, they will probably like the trailer for the new one, but it is unlikely to change any minds about the movie. On top of the fact that the movie will be competing with the second week of Avatar: The Way of Water, making its box office prospects not fantastic. Considering that the CinemaCon footage did showcase an appearance from Wonder Woman, it is strange that the new trailer omits her entirely, especially considering the fact that Greek gods are openly involved in the plot. The biggest reveal from the panel was that Black Adam would mark a return for Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, however Henry Cavill will not be reprising as Superman. It is interesting that the trailer ends with Black Adam beating Hawkman in a fight, as if that’s something to brag about. DC also showcased a new Cars-esque animated show about the vehicles of the DC universe called Batwheels.

Marvel came ready to play. The amount that they brought was unreal, especially considering Disney has two more events this year to showcase their stuff where they can basically dominate a news cycle without any competition (D23 in September and Investor Day/Disney+ Day in November). Their announcements were broken up into two separate panels; on Friday there was an animation panel and on Saturday there was a panel focused on live action and (mostly) theatrical releases. Now this is significant because when Phase Four was announced in 2019, there was no differentiation between What If…? and the rest of the offerings. That said, the animated offerings have spread out a bit, but it seems that the animated entries are going to be used by the movies to pick and choose what they want (see Captain Carter’s appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness).

In terms of animation, they brought five shows. The first of which was I am Groot, an ambiguously canon Guardians of the Galaxy spinoff about Groot that is currently being pushed in ads for Wonderful Pistachios. It is an anthology series that features Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper reprising as Groot and Rocket Raccoon respectively and will be released on Disney+ in its entirety on August 10th, similar to Baymax.

What If…? season two has been delayed into early 2023 and will be more of what people loved from the first season. Of note, there is an episode that was cut from season one that explains where Gamora in the finale came from, an episode with a fight between Odin and the Mandarin, a sequel to the afore mentioned Gamora episode, an episode with a Captain America and Thanos rematch, and, taking the role of the Zombies episode in season one, an episode that seems to be adapting Neil Gaiman’s Marvel 1602. The full episode “What If Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper” was screened.

Late 2023 marks the return of the iconic X-Men cartoon called X-Men ’97. This will be a direct sequel to the original show and pick up with Professor X having left earth to face the Shi’ar and Magneto taking control of the team. Joining the original cast are Bishop, Morph, Cable, Forge, Sunspot, and Nightcrawler while Emma Frost, Mr. Sinister, Callisto, and Sebastian Shaw will appear as villains.

Two shows arrive in 2024: Marvel Zombies and Spider-Man: Freshman Year. Marvel Zombies is a spinoff of What If…? and will be rated TV-MA. The team of survivors from the zombie apocalypse will include Death Dealer, Red Guardian, Black Widow (Yelena Belova), Hawkeye (Kate Bishop), Ms. Marvel, and Shang-Chi. At some point in the show Ikaris will become zombified (somehow, considering the Eternals aren’t organic matter but it’s forgivable since the design is pretty amazing) and will act as an adversary. Spider-Man: Freshman Year will serve to flesh out Peter Parker’s story before meeting Tony Stark in Captain America: Civil War while also expanding the Spider-adjacent parts of the MCU. Charlie Cox will be reprising his role as Matt Murdock/Daredevil in the show (get ready to hear his name a lot) and the show will also introduce Norman Osborne, Harry Osborne, Amadeus Cho, Lonnie Lincoln, and Nico Minoru (no word on if Lyrica Okano will be reprising from Hulu’s The Runaways
but she is coming back for Midnight Sons
and they brought back Anson Mount from the abysmal Inhumans show so it is probable) while also bringing in MCU versions of Doc Ock, Scorpion, Chameleon, and Rhino.

In terms of live action, Marvel brought everything for the next decade it feels like. In housekeeping, Marvel Studios announced that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever will mark the final entry in “Phase Four” and that Phases Four through Six will collectively be called “The Multiverse Saga” similar to how Phases One through Three were called “The Infinity Saga.” Phase Five will kick off in February of next year with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and end with the impending Thunderbolts movie while Phase Six will begin with Fantastic Four and end with Avengers: Secret Wars. A few more dates after that final date were announced for a presumable Phase Seven, but that is so far out the dates have to still be in flux.

That seems like a lot, but it is just the announcements of titles for various dates. To round out this year there are still two releases left. August 17th on Disney+ marks the arrival of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law which received a new trailer that revealed that Charlie Cox will be reprising his role as Matt Murdock/Daredevil in the show. November 11th is the release of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever which also got a trailer and will grapple with the death of T’Challa and introduce Namor the Submariner to the MCU.

Looking ahead to Phase Five, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania will start things off with a movie that will feature both Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors reprising from Loki) and MODOK as villains. Footage was shown that indicates that Cassie Lang (Scott’s daughter that has been again recast, this time with Kathryn Newton of Freaky
in the role) will follow in her father’s footsteps and will suit up as Stature as well. Following that will be Secret Invasion, a Nick Fury focused show about an invasion of evil Skrulls from Captain Marvel that have been taking over people in key roles across the universe. It is described as a tense and dark spy thriller, a tone that has served the MCU well in the past. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 comes to theaters May 5th, 2023 and will dive into Rocket’s backstory, introduce the High Evolutionary, and show the 2014 version of Gamora that escaped during Avengers: Endgame and her band of Ravagers while also introducing Adam Warlock for the first time. Summer of 2023 has two Disney+ shows: season two of Loki and the first spinoff of the Hawkeye spinoff Echo in which Charlie Cox will be reprising his role as Matt Murdock/Daredevil alongside Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. July 28th,2023 is the release of The Marvels, which will pick up where Ms. Marvel left off while also serving as a sequel to 2019’s Captain Marvel. Fall 2023 will be the release of the Disney+ series Ironheart following her debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The long-awaited Blade reboot starring Mahershala Ali will be released on November 3rd, 2023 and Kathryn Hahn’s WandaVision spinoff Agatha: Coven of Chaos (Previously titled Agatha: House of Harkness) will arrive in winter 2023 into 2024. The name change is interesting considering that Wanda’s powers are characterized as “chaos magic” in WandaVision. According to Disney’s release calendar, Marvel Studios still has a February 2024 release date held, however nothing has been attached to that date yet (Deadpool 3 perhaps?). That said, spring 2024 will be the return of the Daredevil show with Charlie Cox reprising his role as Matt Murdock/Daredevil alongside Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk/Kingpin in a show called Daredevil: Born Again (no doubt because Netflix cancelled the show and they’re now bringing it back since season three was kind of Miller’s Born Again; see Spider-Man: Homecoming if you need proof of passive-aggressive naming conventions). May 3rd, 2024 is the release of Captain America: New World Order which will be Sam Wilson’s first feature as Captain America. Phase Five will be rounded off with Thunderbolts on July 26th, 2024 with a team-up of Marvel’s anti-heroes and villains (hopefully Sam Rockwell’s Justin Hammer from Iron Man 2 comes back).

Phase Six’s details are sparce but will kick off on November 8th, 2024 with their reboot Fantastic Four. There is no word on casting or directors for this film yet but that may be unveiled at D23. The two other movies that were announced and dated were Avengers: The Kang Dynasty on May 2nd, 2025 and Avengers: Secret Wars on November 7th, 2025. Presumably (similar to Infinity War and Endgame) this will be a two-part culmination of the saga before launching into the next one. Two other dates were reserved, February 14th, 2025 and July 25th, 2025, however no titles were attached to these dates and four dates were announced for 2026, again without dates. Phase Six will also include Disney+ titles, however no further details were given.

With another San Diego Comic Con in the books, it is always best to use this to look to the future. Hopefully somewhere in all these announcements there is something for everyone and it is not just for hardcore fans of certain genres anymore. As mentioned earlier there is still D23 for major announcements and events like New York Comic Con, which tend to attract a lot of attention.