Well, the presentation halls have cleared, the cosplayers have gone back to their day jobs and the movie studios have all returned to Hollywood. That could only mean that another San Diego Comic-Con is officially in the books. And while the post-Con hangover might last a few days, it’s important to step back and soak in everything that took place since last Thursday.
As usual, this year’s Comic-Con was the ideal destination for comic book publishers, TV networks, gaming studios and movie studios to trot out their latest projects. And while some of the Comic-Con announcements barely made a blip on the radar, there were a handful that caused a complete frenzy on the Internet. To show you how powerful Comic-Con really is, there were a few movie projects with no expectations heading into the show that are now on the top of every geek's must-see list after a strong showing.
So if you’re feeling overwhelmed at the sheer number of news items dropped over the past four days, we’re here to help with a rundown of the five biggest stories from San Diego Comic-Con 2014:
Quentin Tarantino confirms his next movie is “The Hateful Eight”
Earlier in the year it was revealed that Quentin Tarantino’s next movie would be titled “The Hateful Eight.” However, after the script was leaked online, Tarantino announced that he no longer wanted to direct the film and that he was taking legal action against the parties responsible for the leak.
That didn’t last long, though, because during a panel for his upcoming comic book project, “Django Meets Zorro,” Tarantino confirmed that “The Hateful Eight" would indeed still be his next project.
According to a report from Collider, the director didn’t elaborate on this development other than to say, “Yeah – We’re going to be doing 'The Hateful Eight.' ” The movie follows the story of a group of stagecoach passengers who get caught up in a massive blizzard.
Collider also reported that the director recently staged a reading of the script with actors Bruce Dern, Kurt Russell, Amber Tamblyn, Michael Madsen, James Remar, Walton Goggins, Zoe Bell and Samuel L. Jackson. Fans can expect at least a few of these actors and actresses to appear in the final film.
Godzilla vs. King Kong could be coming soon
After the success of director Gareth Edwards’ “Godzilla” reboot earlier this summer, the announcement of a “Godzilla 2” wasn’t necessarily a surprise. But at Legendary’s Comic-Con panel, fans were actually given some information about the upcoming follow-up. Instead of squaring off against a new enemy or the military again, it was teased that the King of Monsters will face classic foes such as Mothra, Rodan and Ghidorah.
This information was teased to audiences during the panel in the form of a short video that revealed, "There is still one secret that remains hidden. There are others." The names of all three monsters also flashed on the screen. It isn’t known if Godzilla will face all of these monsters, but Legendary CEO Thomas Tull seemed to think it’s going to happen.
"That's what we want to do, yes,” Tull said. “Now we have more monsters to play with, and we're excited about it."
That’s not the only Godzilla-related news, because during the panel Legendary also announced that it would be coming out with a “Skull Island” movie, which will be a prequel to “King Kong.” With both monsters under the umbrella of Legendary Pictures, many fans believe that a clash between the two iconic monsters is inevitable. It just matters if Universal and Warner Bros.—the two studios in charge of distributing the King Kong and Godzilla properties respectively—will let it happen.
“Mad Max” and “Warcraft” exceed expectations
The world may have had its sights set on Comic-Con’s superhero movie news, but it can be argued that two other projects won the weekend: George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” and Duncan Jones’ “Warcraft.” Both movies came in with the lowest of expectations, but they left with the backing of nearly every fan who attended the panels.
First was “Warcraft,” which is an adaptation of the hugely-successful MMORPG, World of Warcraft. Duncan Jones showed the first footage of the film to fans, and it went down quite well with the crowd.
“The orcs look great, very organic and real. The world also looks real and not simply like a CG-rendered realm. We get a sense of the different regions, from the desert wastelands to the wooded regions of the humans,” according to Jim Vejvoda of IGN. “As far as video game movies go, "Warcraft" certainly looks like the most ambitious and -- yes, I'll stick my neck out here -- the video game movie that may finally be an actual great movie.”
The “Mad Max: Fury Road” panel also featured an acclaimed trailer, and thankfully a shortened version of it went online. The footage is raw; action-packed and, most important, very authentic looking. Director George Miller looks to be giving fans a blockbuster without endless CGI and animated special effects. Instead, “Fury Road” isn’t afraid to get its hands dirty to give audience an alternative to capes and spandex.
Marvel announces “Guardians of the Galaxy 2” and unleashes “Age of Ultron” footage
At San Diego Comic-Con’s Marvel panel, it was revealed that the studio is already moving forward with a sequel to this summer’s “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
The movie will hit theaters on July 28, 2017, and it will be written and directed again by James Gunn, according to Deadline. This news bodes well for “Guardians of the Galaxy,” which is already getting positive reviews from critics across the board.
The other big part of Marvel’s panel was the reveal of some footage from “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” This footage apparently showed the Hulk going toe-to-toe against Iron Man in his Hulkbuster armor, as well as footage of the team squaring off against Ultron itself.
There were no big reveals from Marvel regarding new properties or its just-announced “Doctor Strange” movie; still, the House of Ideas made a huge impact and got fans primed for its upcoming blockbuster sequel, “Age of Ultron.”
If you didn’t get a chance to go to the Con yourself, you can get a taste of “Age of Ultron” by checking out this beautiful poster collage that Marvel released during the convention.
Warner Bros. debuts the first look at Wonder Woman from “Batman v. Superman”
Although the film is still about two years away from its release, Warner Bros. walked into San Diego Comic-Con prepared with a short teaser for “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” as well as the main event: the first picture of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman.
Zack Snyder showed the image to the crowd in Hall H before tweeting a hi-res version out to all of his Twitter followers. The costume fits in with Snyder’s visual aesthetic from “Man of Steel,” but it also draws its inspiration heavily from the Wonder Woman comics, most prominently the costume from DC’s recent New 52 relaunch.
It was too early in production for Snyder or the stars of the film to really talk about the movie for the crowd, but the teaser and the Gadot picture was more than most fans could have hoped for. If Warner Bros. and DC want to make their presence felt with a line of comic book movies, “Batman v. Superman” is where it starts. The post-Con buzz was extremely positive, and there is a feeling that next year the studio will be able to show even more and really bring the house down.
Until then, just sit back and bask in the glory that is the first official image of a big-screen Wonder Woman.
