Kingsman: The Golden Circle panel, Hall H, July 20. From left to right, Pedro Pascal, Screenwriter Jane Goldman, Moderator and British comedy legend Jonathan Ross, Jeff Bridges, Taron Egerton, Colin Firth and Channing Tatum. Photo by Sarah Mason.
What an incredible start to San Diego International Comic-Con! Beautiful weather in this wonderful city, Sunny skies, nice marine layer in the morning that clears off by noon. It's warm but not too hot. Perfect for standing in long lines with sweaty people!
Musical Anatomy of a Super Hero panel, SDCC 2017. Photo by Sarah Mason.
Day 1 started off with one of our favorite annual SDCC events, Musical Anatomy of a Super Hero panel. After an impressive montage of all the panelists works, Brian Tyler, Composer of AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON, THOR: THE DARK WORLD, THE MUMMY and many more took the stage with much enthusiasm and flair. He was joined by fellow composers, Mark Isham (Cloak & Dagger), David Russo (Gotham), Ludwig Göransson (Black Panther; Death Wish), and Lorne Balfe (The LEGO Batman Movie), moderated by Ray Costa and Marco Beltrami (Logan, The Wolverine), was supposed to be there but unfortunately had the flu. We were disappointed to miss him. If you haven't see SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY, Beltrami, is featured building a 175 foot-wired piano wind harp outdoors in Malibu in order to capture the sound the aura of insane 19th century women on the plains in Tommy Lee Jones’ new western THE HOUSEMAN.
Musical Anatomy of a Super Hero panel celebrates the artistry of these phenomenal composers Movies would never be the same without them.
One of the biggest challenges at Comic-Con, (especially when there are only two of you covering it), is getting from place to place in time. We had to bolt out the door of the Hilton Bayfront across the street to the Convention Center to get to Hall H in time for the first panel of SDCC, KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE. And it was worth the jog and the sweat.
KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE PANEL, the cast takes the stage on Hall H. Video by Sarah Mason.
British funny man Jonathan Ross was one of the most entertaining Hall Moderators we've seen at Comic-Con. The cast was equally entertaining and giving to the audience, Taron Egerton (Eggsy) in particular was animated and super excited to be there showing a lot of love to the fans.
Highlights of the panel: Jonathan Ross passed down a bottle of whiskey, they all poured shots but Channing Tatum poured Halle Berry a full pint and being the great sport and sassy woman that she is, she chugged that puppy.
We saw three never before scene clips of the film including the entire opening sequence -- thanks 20th Century Fox! The movie looks AMAZING! Just as good as if not better than the first.
Original Kingsman Harry (Colin Firth) and Eggsy (Taron Egerton) are joined this time around by their American counterparts, Agent Tequila (Channing Tatum), Agent Whiskey (Pedro Pascal), Ginger (Halle Berry) and Agent Champagne (Jeff Bridges). One of the clips we saw featured the new villain, Poppy (Julianne Moore) in an oh-so-Kingsman-gory scene.
We can't wait to see KINGSMAN: GOLDEN CIRCLE!
Halle Berry at KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE panel, SDCC 2017. Photo by Sarah Mason.
Next up for us, STAN AGAINST EVIL, panel. Writer/Co-Star and Show Creator, Dana Gould along with series stars John C McGinley and Janet Varney showed us some exclusive clips of the new season and talked about the intersection of horror and comedy.
"The original premise was, what if I made a movie, and put my Dad in it." joked Gould whose hilarious vision and brilliant writing make STAN AGAINST EVIL a must watch. John C McGinley's impressive resume filled with nefarious characters both comedic and horror/drama make him the perfect Stan are are why we love him so much, Scrubs, SURVIVING THE GAME, THE ROCK, PLATOON, THE BELKO EXPERIMENT, and so many more.
Stan Against Evil panel, SDCC, photo by Sarah Mason.
What would Comic-Con be without DC? And What would DC be without Geoff Johns?? The DC writer, president, and chief creative officer discussed his love for writing characters, the upcoming Doomsday Clock, Dr. Manhattan and how he might cross over with the Justice League showing us a very cool still of the Justice League with caption "Who Watches the Watchmen". He talked about DC Rebirth and admitted the only time he's ever been stuck writing was for Marvel which wasn't as much fun as writing for DC--which we appreciated as DC loyalists. He also treated fans to some never before seen stills of comics and we all walked with a Doomsday Clock pin.
Teaser artwork for Justice League/Watchmen crossover. Photo by Jake Essoe.
On to one of the funniest panels of the day, Ghosted, the upcoming new Fox show starring Craig Robinson (The Office) and Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation)
Craig and Adam came out, surprising the audience, to introduce the full premiere episode of Ghosted, which was hilarious. The series is about a discredited yet brilliant cop, LeRoy (Robinson) who is skeptical of all things alien and paranormal and ousted MIT professor, Max (Scott) who firmly believes his wife was abducted by aliens. The misfit duo are recruited by The Bureau of the Underground, a kind of secret X Files agency, to find one of their agents whose disappearance leads them into the relm of the paranormal. We will post a full review of the pilot episode which airs September on Fox.
Ghosted panel at SDCC 2017. Photo by Sarah Mason.
Moving on, cause we got no time to spare. We attempted to cruise through the Convention show floor, but it was mobbed with wall to wall people, Exhibit A, The Walking Dead booth. Fans can line up and wait for an hour t see images of their favorite cast members? I guess that's cool.
Nah just kidding there's much more to it than that. The outside of the booth is set up like Alexandria, seemingly safe but lurking inside are Walkers. They were pretty impressive too, no theme park zombie make up here, straight up Nicotero-style magic. If you make it through the Walkers you are taken through to the junkyard, Heapsters' community, remember Jadis the traitor? What's super cool about this was they had Resident Evil, spike Walker, the one that Rick fought. After fighting Resident Evil Walker you walking into Saviors compound and meet up with Negan and Lucille. There's a cool photo op with the oven Negan through the Doctor into. You can snap a pic of yourself getting baked. Nice. There are Walker sounds and creepy noises along the journey. It's pretty awesome, but the line, yikes. We recommend waiting for Halloween Horror Nights. It's longer, better and you can buy a jump the line pass.
Convention showfloor, SDCC 2017, The Walking Dead booth. Photo by Sarah Mason.
As far as Cosplay, well the real pros of the game don't really show up until Saturday for the Cosplay Masquerade ball, but we managed to find some friends along the way.
Harold & Maudecast host Jake Essoe at SDCC 2017. Photo by Sarah Mason.
Okay, enough of the Convention Center we've got to get to Conan! Conan O'Brien is back at Comic-Con for his third appearances, I think this is becoming a thing. This is our absolutely favorite thing to do at Comic-Con and definitely the most fun.
Conan O'Brien at Comic-Con, Conancon, photo by Sarah Mason.
On Thursday night's show, Conan welcomed the cast of the new LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE, Dave Franco, Olivia Munn, Justin Theroux, Zach Woods, Michael Pena, Kumail Nanjiani and Abbi Jacobson. What a fun show! Jimmy Vivino and The Basic Cable Band started the show off with and brought the crowd in Spreckles Theater to its feet. Then Andy came out and introduced the guests and Conan and when Conan took the stage, the crowd went wild giving him an extended standing ovation. They had to calm us down to start the show. It was pretty awesome.
There were some hilarious Comic-Con themed bits and clips including audition tapes for Teen Dumbledore, Nick Offerman, Patton Oswald, Thomas Middleditch, Tatiana Maslany, and Aubrey Plaza participated. One of the funniest moments of the show was a clip they produced about a new Con, LINE CON, come to LINE CON and wait in some of the longest lines you'll ever wait in! It was hilarious. Please find the clip of this online if you miss the show when it airs. It's brilliant, particularly those of us SDCC attendees who really get the joke.
After the show, class act that he is, Conan came round back of the theater and spent 30 minutes signing everyone's Funko Pop Conan The Flash, which everyone got.
It was an amazing Day 1 at Comic-Con! Follow our social feeds which you can access from our homepage for more of our SDCC coverage.
