While we’ve been stuck here in Chicago and New York, everyone else in the world seems to be at the San Diego Comic Con, including representatives from several major motion picture companies who were there to talk up their movies, show off footage, and drum up support and advanced buzz amongst the geek-heavy crowd that can control how the rest of the mainstream public sees their films through the Internet.
Scanning several reports, here’s what we think some of the best moments of the convention have been from those movie panels. It’s worth noting that the convention’s stance on filming exclusive preview reels and clips is that if the studio doesn’t want you to see them, they warn you several times and they have spotters whose job it is to note the people who are filming and kick them out of the convention.
Hugh Jackman Appears at 20th Century Fox Panel with X-Men Origins: Wolverine Footage in Tow
After the expected Q&A sessions on Thursday with cast members from The Day the Earth Stood Still and Max Payne, Fox pulled off a big upset by getting the Wolverine star directly from the airport to the convention. Jackman earned huge points with the crowd by thanking them for giving him a career and running down from the stage to thank Wolverine co-creator Len Wein for creating the character.
But of course, the biggest upset was having footage from the movie in hand, and the crowd went crazy upon catching their first glimpses of Deadpool and Gambit who will be making their first Marvel movie appearances.
Female Fans Flood Twilight, Summit Entertainment Panel with Estogen
As a female geek, I am always constantly annoyed when female fans aren’t seen as being a viable demographic with its own, different sense of power. When I was an editor for Sequential Tart, one of the things joked about was the fact that you could gauge how many women were at SDCC by how long the line was for the bathroom.
However, in the years since the first Lord of the Rings movie came out with its highly telegenic and swoon-worthy male cast, Internet-savvy female fans have become a growing demographic that mainstream Hollywood is finally starting to notice. The best indicator of this would have been Summit Entertainment’s Q&A session with the cast of Twilight where women asked all the questions and screamed the loudest. It may not be a step in the right direction towards equality amongst the genders, but at least it’s a step.
Samuel L. Jackson Encourages Young People to Follow their Dreams in an Unusual Way During Panel for The Spirit
When prompted by the audience shouting about a Nick Fury action figure at this timestamp referencing his special appearance in the coda to Iron Man, Jackson said, “When I was growing up, Nick Fury was a white man. He finally evolved into something that makes sense to me.” The entire crowd howled with laughter when he followed that up by saying, “But don’t worry, see? You, too, can grow up to be a black man.”