Everything Important That Happened At Comic-Con 2013
Only one of them is about The Avengers, too.
This weekend, nerds and the people who market shiny things to nerds gathered in San Diego for the annual pop culture blow-out known as Comic-Con. If you want to wait for eight hours in a convention centre hallway to maybe catch a glimpse of some of the cast of Veronica Mars, then there’s no finer place to be.
Comic-Con is big business and, for better or worse, it more or less sets the agenda for the movies, TV shows and other cultural ephemera you’ll be watching and jeering at for the next year. Quite a few big stories came out of this year’s Comic-Con — and some of them weren’t even related to The Avengers at all.
Here’s a list of the most buzzed-about panels at this year’s event, and what each one means for YOU
The One Where True Blood Went Back To Basics:
Whenever True Blood finds itself in a creative rut, its solution is to pile on even more wacky characters and situations. Between the various trailer trash werewolves and shifters, shady underground organisations and the conga line of evil spirits who seem determined to possess poor Lafayette, it’s all getting a little bit ridiculous.
New True Blood boss Brian Buckner feels much the same way. When asked what new creatures he’d be adding, he revealed that the show’s seventh season will return to the original idea of human-vampire relationships in Bon Temps. “My hope is to get all these people we love living under the umbrella of one story, and one threat,” he said, to cheers from the audience.
He also showed the Comic-Con audience a trailer for the back half of True Blood season six, which features all the things we love about the show: Pam acting sassy, Sarah Newlin being the conniving worst, and Ginger screaming in terror.
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The One Where Ted Mosby’s Kids Cracked The Shits
‘This show is still going? Jeez! How long does it take to tell your kids how you met their mother?’
If that’s what you’re asking, I’d tell you to shut up, because it takes as long as it takes. On top of that, How I Met Your Mother still features some really nifty writing and great performances for a show this late in its career.
But it turns out Ted’s kids are kind of pissed about how long it’s taken. This teaser for the show’s final season, premiered at Comic-Con, shows them as young adults, realising the hell that their lives have become after sitting on a couch for eight-years listening to their dad’s never-ending story.
How I Met Your Mother’s eighth season ended with Ted getting his first glimpse of the mother at a train station. Given the show’s penchant for time-stretching and playing with structure, the ninth and final season will take place over the course of a single weekend, at Barney and Robin’s wedding.
There will be flashbacks and time-jumps galore, and an entire episode that takes place over the course of a single slap. Slapsgiving!
The One Where We Finally Saw Finnick In Action
Comic-Con gave us our first substantial look at the upcoming Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire, and I have to say, the trailer is pretty damn exciting:
This film looks to have a much bigger budget than the first, and you can see it everywhere, from the more elaborate vistas of The Capitol, to the shinier, smoother special effects. We also get our first substantial look at Sam Claflin’s Finnick Odair, so the internet can spend the next few months debating whether he’s smouldering and sultry enough.
The trailer is just as judicious in what it doesn’t show: the tropical island setting where the actual 75th Hunger Games takes place. We get a brief glimpse of Katniss entering the arena, taking it all in, diving into the water… then boom.
It looks like this thing comes out on my birthday, which is a nice bonus.
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The One Where Zack Snyder Redefined Rock Bottom
Zack Snyder’s Man Of Steel was a new low in the trend towards dark, gritty comic book movies: a tonne of stuff done got blowed up, while everyone glowered at one-another and generally took themselves very seriously. It featured some pretty visuals, but was severely lacking in important movie things like fun, adventure and entertainment.
But Man Of Steel was still a success at the box office, which means that a sequel is a foregone conclusion. Snyder confirmed this at the Warner Bros panel, and then added another crucial detail: next time around, Superman will go head to head with Batman. That’s right – two dark, gritty superheroes for the price of one.
Liz Lemon already knows how this movie is going down:
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The One Where Gandalf Got All Up In Fassbender’s Business
Well okay, not really, but things did get a little heated at the X-Men: Days Of Future Past panel. The Bryan Singer-directed film brings the old and new generations of X-Men together through the magic of time travel, meaning that you’ll see First Class cast members like Jennifer Lawrence and James McAvoy all mashed together with original-flavour mutants like Patrick Stewart.
Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender will play the older and younger iterations of Magneto in the film. During the panel, McKellan told the crowd how great he felt to be in post-Proposition 8 California, and said he was looking for a husband — before shooting Fassbender an extremely sultry look.
Were the two of them to actually come together it would probably cause some temporal paradox. But it would still be very entertaining to watch.
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The One That Was All About The Avengers
One day, you’ll be able to tell your grandchildren about the mythical time before every movie featured various members of The Avengers, or was itself an Avengers sequel. They won’t believe you.
The Marvel panel was bursting at the seams with Avengers-related news. First up, there was a teaser for Thor: The Dark World, followed by another for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a darker and more modern film than the first, which apparently sees the return of Sebastian Stan.
There was also a teaser for Guardians Of The Galaxy, an upcoming Marvel film set in the same universe as The Avengers but taking place in outer space, and with a more comedic tone. Chris Pratt got super buff for it, and it also features a talking CGI raccoon. That’s probably all you need to know at this point.
The big news, however, was the official announcement of The Avengers: The Age Of Ultron, in which the heroes… well, deal with some horrible, looming threat to the safety of the planet, you’d assume. This is The Avengers’ world now – we just live in it.
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The One Where The Lego Movie Looked Stealthily Awesome
For a film that’s pretty blatantly geared towards selling toys and video games, The Lego Movie looks surprisingly decent. A big part of the appeal is the cast – Chris Pratt and Elizabeth Banks will voice the two leads, while the supporting cast includes everyone, from Arrested Develpoment’s Will Arnett to It’s Always Sunny’s Charlie Day.
At the film’s Comic-Con panel, directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller announced the details of various other guest stars. Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum of 21 Jump Street will reunite – this time, as tiny Lego versions of Superman and The Green Lantern. Even better, Cobie Smulders of How I Met Your Mother will tag in as Wonder Woman.
It was a big weekend for Smulders – in addition to appearing in The Lego Movie, it was announced that she’ll appear in several episodes of the Avengers-spin off Marvel’s Agents Of SHIELD, with a view to an even bigger part when How I Met Your Mother eventually wraps up.
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The One With Karen Gillan’s Big Reveal
Karen Gillan is joining Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and Lee Pace in Marvel’s upcoming action-comedy Guardians Of The Galaxy — but the big news of the weekend is that she shaved her head for the part. The Scottish actress made the big reveal in a panel on Saturday, whipping her wig off to reveal her shaved scalp underneath.
The former Doctor Who star’s transformation caused quite a stir on Twitter, where the question of ‘does she look as hot bald?’ remains a hot topic. Gillan can now ask Michael Chiklis how it feels to be consistently objectified for your bald head.
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The One Where Dan Harmon Beat A Dead Horse
Recently-fired and reinstated Community boss Dan Harmon appeared on stage in a home-made Iron Man costume, because he is a walking internet meme and the actual literal worst. He then proceeded to blather on at the Comic-Con audience about how he is the greatest thing ever to happen to TV, and we’re all super lucky to have him.
Harmon was there to talk about the upcoming fifth season of Community. “We have to re-ground and re-establish these characters, get back to the emotional basics,” he said. Seriously, dude? Community has all the emotional basics it needs. Community is drowning in emotional basics. Community could do with a little less sentimentality and a lot more laughs.
Community hasn’t been consistently funny for years, and the problems started way before Harmon ever left. The show has lost Chevy Chase, and Donald Glover is on the way out. At this point, the show exists only to give TV bloggers something to obsess over, and Harmon a reason to faff about on his podcast. A Comic-Con panel called ‘Let’s Nuke Community From Orbit’ is something I could get behind.
