Marvel Studios, ‘Lanterns’, ‘The Vampire Lestat’ and More Are Headed to SDCC

San Diego Comic-Con season is nearly upon us. The annual event is officially less than two weeks away… and the programming schedule is starting to take shape in a pretty major way.

Of course, Marvel Studios will be returning to Hall H on Saturday at 5:30pm, marking their first time at the event since the announcement of Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom in 2024. The official description for the panel teases that “special guests from across the Marvel Cinematic Universe” will be on hand to show “an exclusive look at what’s next,” which will presumably very heavily focus on this December’s Avengers: Doomsday.

Other Marvel panels will be the comic-focused Next Big Thing (Friday at 3:30pm in 6A), Marvel Fanfare (Saturday at 3pm in 6A), and specific panels for the upcoming Midnight Universe (Saturday at 1:45pm in 6A) and the Avengers: Armageddon event (Thursday at 1:45pm in 6A). There will also be panels for X-Men ’97 (Friday at 2:15pm in 6A), and video games Marvel Rivals (Thursday at 6pm in 6BCF and Friday at 10:15am in 6BCF), Marvel’s Wolverine (Thursday at 11:15 in Hall H) and MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls (Thursday at 12pm in Hall H).

In Brightest Day!

DC Studios’ Lanterns will also be heading to the convention, previewing the live-action series ahead of its premiere on HBO on August 16th. The show will have a Hall H panel on Friday at 1:30pm, which will feature an exclusive look at the show and appearances from stars Kyle Chandler, Aaron Pierre, Poorna Jagannathan, and Garret Dillahunt, as well as executive producers Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King. Thursday through Saturday, Lanterns will also have an offsite activation at the nearby Venue 808, where a select group of fans can go through a “Training Headquarters” filled with “target practice and trust exercises to maze navigation and escape room-style puzzles set inside locations from the series.” Fans who complete the training will receive their own custom Green Lantern ring, try out their powers using a Snapchat-powered interactive mirror, and have the opportunity to shop exclusive Lanterns merchandise from WB.

Outside of Lanterns, DC will also be holding panels for Season 2 of Batman: Caped Crusader (Thursday at 3:30pm in 6BCF), Season 3 of My Adventures with Superman (Friday at 2pm in the Indigo Ballroom), and the first chapter of the Batman: Knightfall animated movie (Saturday at 10am in 6A). Their publishing side will also have a number of comic-centric panels, beginning the weekend with the staple “Jim Lee & Friends” (Thursday at 11:30am in 6DE). There will also be panels for DC’s Next Level initiative (Friday at 12:30pm in 6DE) and Absolute Universe (Saturday at 12:30pm in 6DE), and more specific panels around the books set in Gotham (Friday at 11:15am in 6DE) and Metropolis (Saturday at 11:15am in 6DE).

The Vampire Lestat and More!

Beyond the Big Two, there continue to be a number of major announcements throughout the weekend. Apple TV will hold its first-ever Hall H panel on Saturday at 2pm, which will feature the recent smash hit Widow’s Bay, as well as Dark Matter, Silo, and the upcoming movies Matchbox The Movie and Mayday. A24’s Onslaught, the newest movie from Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire director Adam Wingard and starring Adria Arjona and Dan Stevens, will have a panel on Thursday at 5:30pm in Ballroom 20.

AMC is bringing a number of its shows to the convention, with The Vampire Lestat getting a Hall H panel on Friday at 12:30pm featuring stars Jacob Anderson, Assad Zaman, and Eric Bogosian, as well as creator and showrunner Rolin Jones and executive producers Mark Johnson and Hannah Moscovitch. Season 3 of The Walking Dead: Dead City is also getting a Hall H panel on Friday at 11:45am, followed by an exclusive advanced screening of the season premiere that evening at Petco Park.

The network will also be hosting a Bold Voice of Contemporary Horror 10th Anniversary Panel on Friday at 4:45pm in 6A, which will feature Deborah Ann Woll, Dan Stevens, and a number of other creatives from AMC and Shudder releases. And finally, new show YAGA will have a panel on Saturday at 12:30pm in the Indigo Ballroom, with appearances from stars Noah Reid, Clark Backo, and Carrie-Anne Moss and showrunner and executive producer Kate Sandler.

At the time of this writing, only the complete Thursday schedule has been posted on SDCC’s website, so there will surely be a slew of other announcements in the coming days.

(featured image: Sophie Giraud/AMC)

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