It’s the most exciting celebration of pop culture in the western hemisphere, the place where 135,000+ people converge to trade autographs, nerd out on their favorite films and indulge on all things comic books and film culture. Yes, it’s 2018 Comic-Con time! It will be taking place from the July 19th”“22nd in San Diego and tickets have been sold out for a while.
First started in 1970, only 140 people showed up to the first edition, so it is quite impressive how quickly and comprehensively it has grown over the years.
Comic-Cons aren’t just limited to San Diego, they are spread out across the world, franchised throughout every country from Puerto Rico to the U.K. But its original life source is San Diego where it remains big business; in fact, the financial impact sits just below $200 million every year. Just check out the Airbnb rooms listed around that time, with some going for upward of $1,689 per night. It’s no wonder this is a place where top film studios vie for attention and publicity, the latest blockbuster franchises premiere their trailers and stars are treated like the superheroes they portray in films.
Even though some people call it the biggest convention of its kind in the world, that’s not true; over in Japan, their comic con, which is called Comiket, it brings about 550,000 people every year. You can’t beat those Anime diehards.
So, which films are being unveiled this year in San Diego? Here is a short list of films that have tongues wagging already.
First up is the new franchise built around Spider-Man’s arch nemesis. Venom is set to debut on October 5th and will star Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams and Woody Harrelson.
What Comic-Con wouldn’t be complete without a new X-Men movie premiere? X-Men: Dark Phoenix, which will have its first airing this July, stars James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence and is centered on a space mission gone wrong. That makes it the 12th in the X-Men series. X-Men: Dark Phoenix will hit theaters February 2019.
Fans of the DC film enterprise Aquaman will also be getting a sneak peek at the festival this year. Directed by James Wan, the Australian behind the horror blockbuster Saw, Aquaman sees the reprisal of the character first seen in 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League in 2017 and will star Jason Momoa as Aquaman who is destined to protect his underwater kingdom of Atlantis. Starring alongside Momoa is Amber Heard and Willem Dafoe. Aquaman will hit theaters by the end of this year.
We all love Harry Potter, and its offshoot, Fantastic Beasts, is getting a lot of attention too. Fantastic Beasts is set to make another appearance in 2018 under the title Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Set 70 years before Harry Potter emerged, it centers on the life and times of “Magizoologist” Newt Scamander and stars the usual eccentric culprits Eddie Redmayne as Newt as well as Jonny Depp and Jude Law. It is slated for release in November 2018. Do expect fan fever around this one.
A new offshoot of Transformers titled Bumblebee is slated for December 2018 and is the first film in the franchise to not feature director Michael Bay. Starring Abby Quinn and Hailee Steinfeld, the storyline centers on a broken-down Volkswagen Beetle left in a car yard but mysteriously comes back to life.
Remember the Sony hacked emails? That was when word first got out about a possible animated Spider-Man feature, and now it will see the light of day. Called Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, it is the first animated feature from the franchise to be released later this year. Starring Liev Schreiber and Mahershala Ali, it centers on a high school student struggling to balance his superhero status. We can’t wait for that one.
As for an early whiff of other 2019 blockbusters, Comic-Con takes care of that too with teaser trailers being unleashed for Hellboy (January 11) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (March 22) all being shown at the convention.
On the TV side of things, the standard fanfare hits like Stranger Things and The Walking Dead will premiere upcoming seasons as well.
While it’s too early to say which big-name actors and directors will be attending Comic-Con this year, comic book writers and sci-fi auteurs that have been confirmed range from the co-editor of Boing and the author of Walkaway
Cory Doctorow as well as a key writer on Superman and Batman and Robin Peter J. Tomasi, plus many others.
Of course, if you can’t attend the mayhem, you can watch all the action from outside the convention center. Or you can stay glued to their social media channels. Well, what are you waiting for, put on your mask and get out there?
Header Photo Credit:Â Picography, CC0 Creative Commons
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