The San Diego Comic-Con is considered to be the mecca for all things pop-culture every year, but the event has had a couple of rough years lately with COVID-19 and major studios holding their own “mini comic-cons”. Everyone always expects the next one to do better, but it seems that SDCC could be lacking some big panels this year.
According to Variety, the impending strikes from SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP has led to studios pulling out of major events; particularly Comic-Con. The assumption is, if the actors decide to join the writers on strike, then there will be no one to come to the huge panels to discuss all of the incoming content that’s coming from studios like Marvel, Disney, Lucasfilm, HBO, and Universal.
This year, fans have been looking for updates on Marvel projects like Loki 2 and The Marvels with other studios also expected to make reveals like HBO with the next season of House of the Dragon and Universal with their Dracula spinoff The Last Voyage of the Demeter. Even Sony was expected to hold a panel for their upcoming Kraven the Hunter and Gran Turismo directed by Neill Blomkamp.
With huge studios pulling out, a lot of fans are wondering just what SDCC is planning to do for their event. If you ask me, I think it’s still very possible for nerds to have fun just by being around fellow nerds; though there isn’t a huge panel from a big studio, I can imagine a lot of people would want to get to the event just for the exclusive merch and interesting cosplay.
Then again, I’m just speculating.
This year’s San Diego Comic-Con is expected to run from July 20–July 23.
