By Travis Johnson
Whereas Marvel and Fox have passed on San Diego Comic-Con this year – Marvel has Disney’s proprietary D23 expo to flaunt their wares, while Fox is probably confident they’ll mess up capitalising on the popularity of Deadpool anyway – Warner Bros. Pictures have really doubled down on their presence at the wildly popular nerdapalooza, announcing a massive lineup of panels, events and guest to pimp their upcoming genre projects.
Comic-Con, which takes place from July 21-24 this year, long ago grew beyond its roots as an almost purely comics-oriented event to a kind of cultural proving ground where major studios trot out advance looks at their SF, fantasy and superhero blockbusters to both bump up good buzz and gauge the reaction of the hardcore faithful. While the reliability of the Hall H reaction is questionable – plenty of movies that got great buzz, such as Tron: Legacy, went on to underperform at the box office – that hasn’t stopped WB from bringing out the big guns in the service of imminent arrivals Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad, The Lego Batman Movie, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Kong: Skull Island and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
- Stars Gal Gadot, Chris Pine and Connie Nielsen, plus director Patty Jenkins, will be on the Wonder Woman panel.
- The Suicide Squad panel will feature Will Smith, Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman, Viola Davis, Jai Courtney, Jay Hernandez, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Scott Eastwood, Cara Delevingne, Adam Beach and Karen Fukuhara, along with writer/director David Ayer.
- Director Chris McKay and star Will Arnett will pimp The LEGO Batman Movie.
- Charlie Hunnam is on board to promote King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, which finished filming ages ago, so it’ll be nice to see a trailer for the potential franchise-starter.
- Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, John Goodman, Corey Hawkins and Jason Mitchell and director Jordan Vogt-Roberts will be on deck for Kong: Skull Island.
- Director David Yates, along with stars Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller and Colin Farrell will be talking about the surefire smash Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Given that Warners have suffered a lot in the franchise wars, this represents a big push for them to get out in front of the pack – or at least stop trailing so badly. It’s a bit of a scattershot approach to be honest – they’re throwing out a bunch of potential hits in the hopes that one or more of them stick – but it’s all interesting stuff. If nothing else, expect a bunch of new trailers, clips and panel footage by the end of the month.
