by Piper Nicely 29 August 2019
On July 18th at a convention center in San Diego, California opened it’s doors for the biggest pop culture event in the world: San Diego Comic Con. With over 135,000 people attending, this mecca of entertainment contains all the latest and greatest in the world of comic books, movies, anime, graphic novels and television shows, all celebrated in an action-packed four days. Directors, writers, artists and actors come from all around the world to be involved where they can meet with fans and get involved in panels where they can have deep conversations about the content they create, bridging the gap between creators and consumers.
A famous part of this convention is reveals for movies that will be coming out in the future. At the 2019 comic con, this was kicked off with the news that Tom Cruise would be returning to his role as Navy fighter pilot, Maverick, in the film Top Gun 2: Maverick.
However, this was quickly overshadowed by Marvel announcing all their plans for what they have called Phase 4, the Marvel universe after the events of Avengers: Endgame. Though fans were sad to see the cast list no longer contain Robert Downey Jr. returning to his iconic role as Iron Man or Chris Evans playing Captain America. But nontheless, Marvel shocked fans with a unique spin on classic heroes and villians.
One of the most exciting things they announced is the start of several tv shows to carry on the stories of some major characters. Ex-villian Loki will be starring in his own show Loki, as will Hawkeye in hawkeye, the Scarlette Witch and Vision in Wandavision and everyone’s favorite duo, Falcon and Bucky, in The Falcon and the Winter Solider. They also announced the tv series What If…? which explores what might have happened if certain things in the Marvel Universe had not gone according to plan.
Marvel announced a shocking number of films to come and what they may contain. They are creating their first movie with an all Asian cast with Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings and have teased that they will have their first LGBTQ+ character in one of the films. There will also be more films with female leads as Black Widow is getting her first solo movie and Natalie Portman will be returning to Marvel to weild the mighty hammer Mijolner as she assumes the role of Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder. Fans are excited as it has been revealed that new films will be made including the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Inhumans and the Eternals.
Outside of Marvel, other huge fandoms excited fans with their plans for the coming year. The hit series The Walking Dead announced the publication of their tenth and final season following the publication of the last comic book in the series. Game of Thrones revealed that there would be a new show on the air that is a prequel to the show, taking place 1,000 years before the original series while DC Comics said that this would be their “year of the superhero”.
San Diego Comic Con is a place of great importance for nerds and geeks alike and has rightly earned it’s title of the biggest pop culture event in the world. It is clear that the year to come will be exciting and rife with new things to come in movies, television and literature. Now, fans can sit back and start counting down the days until the new movies and series start up, finally able to see their favorite character once more!
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