San Diego Comic-Con 2024 was largely a return to normal. With a few baffling caveats.
Studios brought big presentations to Hall H, the local night life was booming and fans packed the halls and rooms of the convention center day after day.
At the same time, what was supposed to be a post-strike SDCC serendipitously wasn’t, as SAG-AFTRA went on strike against major video game companies on the first day of the con. Meanwhile, some major studios still stayed away while Marvel, making an expected triumphant return, still managed to drop a huge unexpected shocker.
Read on to see who won and who lost during yet another wild week at San Diego Comic-Con.
Winner: Marvel
TheWrap
After a brutal 2023 that saw both “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Marvels” flop, not to mention some other, ahem, problems the studio has faced, Marvel Studios needed a big win coming into to SDCC. Mission accomplished.
Despite very mid critical reviews, “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which hit theaters just as Comic-Con began, shattered opening weekend box office records for R-rated movies.
Meanwhile, Marvel Studios hit up Hall H twice this week, first to celebrate the success of “Deadpool & Wolverine” on Thursday night, which was followed by a spectacular light show above downtown San Diego.
Two days later, Marvel’s traditional Saturday night Hall H panel earned goodwill with looks at “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Fantastic Four: First Steps” and “Thunderbolts.” Then came the expected announcement of the Russo Brothers’ MCU return to direct the next two “Avengers” movies, followed by the news that the new MCU main villain will be Doctor Doom.
But then the presentation ended with the shocking reveal that newly minted Oscar winner Robert Downy Jr. is also returning to the MCU — as Doom. The announcement earned booming cheers from the audience, but will it work long term? We don’t know but it’s all anyone’s been talking about ever since.
Loser (kinda): Marvel
Via Duncan Black on Bluesky
Ok, ok “loser” is overstating things, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t acknowledge that literally everyone understands the context in which RDJ is returning to the franchise he helped make into a billion-dollar business.
So it’s perhaps unsurprising that reactions on social media are, let’s say politely, filled with heavy skepticism and a ton of jokes. That said, yeah, fine, we still kind of can’t wait.
Winner: Star Trek
Photo by Ross Lincoln for TheWrap
Look, we admittedly bleed federation colors, so we’re biased, but nevertheless, “Star Trek” brought some of the best stuff we saw this year at Comic-Con.
The “Star Trek Universe” panel was, per usual, only topped by Marvel in terms of fan enthusiasm, and frankly it was a ton more fun since a big part of it involves the fans and the stars interacting. The panel showed off looks at the next seasons of “Strange New Worlds” and “Star Trek: Lower Decks” (which definitely deserves a 6th season) plus looks at “Starfleet Academy” and “Section 31” — and the first-ever live action “Star Trek” comedy being developed by Justin Simien and Tawny Newsome.
But the Paramount+ booth, where the “Star Trek Menagerie” lived, was our favorite. The fake zoo highlighted some of the weirdest creatures from the history of “Trek,” culiminating in the chance for fans to take a photo as part of the Humans exhibit. It was great. No notes.
Loser: Whoever pulled the fire alarm on Friday
It’s rare that a comic-con panel gets interrupted by anything other than a surprise appearance or a bit. But alas, it happened on Friday around 1:30pm when the entire convention center was briefly thrown into a state of confusion when the fire alarms inside went off.
Indeed, panels were cleared out, but quickly restarted when it became clear that there was no emergency, someone had just pulled the alarm. It was an uncool move that became even more uncool when, later that night at one of the activations downtown, a real fire broke out and, in part because of the earlier fakeout, few people believed it was real.
So, to whoever hit that fire alarm earlier in the day, we say this as somewhat kindly as we can: You’re a loser.
Winner: “The Penguin” Iceberg Lounge Experience
HBO
The Iceberg Lounge was among the better activations at the convention, bringing Oz Cobblepot’s secret nightclub and speakeasy to life.
Upon entering, fans were treated to a fake-but-felt-real elevator ride down a few floors, and welcomed into a typical nightclub. But, as you wandered around the area, there were a few side quests you could complete, which would earn you the password to a door guarded by a security guard. Behind that door was a quieter room, in which you could get an airbrushed tattoo, a hand-rolled cigar and/or some permanent jewelry.
All in all, it captured the criminal vibe of The Penguin’s operations in a pretty fun way (once you figured out that there were games to be played).
Loser: People who attended the press preview for “The Penguin” Iceberg Lounge activation
Ross A. Lincoln for TheWrap
That fire we mentioned above? That took place at a building on Fourth Street, just next door to where the Iceberg Lounge experience was held. As a result, those inside — largely members of the press, as it was a preview slot — were abruptly herded out midway through the activation.
The irony is, those in attendance largely thought the evacuation was part of the experience, as if The Penguin’s club was getting raided by the police or discovered by Batman. It wasn’t until roughly six firetrucks and four police cars rolled up that it became clear the emergency was real this time.
Not the ideal way to end the experience. Thankfully no one was hurt, and the Iceberg Lounge reopened after about two hours.
Winner: Lego
White Vader at the 2024 SDCC Lego BoothLife size R2D2 at the 2024 SDCC Lego booth
Lego’s booth this year was built around their current Space line, and what else is there to say except it was glorious to behold and and also fun. Fans could view displays of various new sets — and see huge “Star Wars” themed builds — or spend some time building their own rockets, which could then be displayed in the booth. We won’t lie, we love Lego regardless, but this was one of the company’s best SDCC showings.
Loser: Cosplayers
To be clear, at no point do we ever consider cosplayers losers for the quality of their work. The costumes seen on the show floor and around downtown San Diego each year are always incredible.
But this year, there were just…less to be seen. We might chalk that up to the horrendous humidity that plagued the city through most of the weekend. And as a result, those who did dress up this year were almost certainly miserable walking around town.
Cosplayers, we love you. You just lost the lottery of Mother Nature.
Winner: Local businesses
In 2023, perhaps as a side effect of studios largely staying away from San Diego thanks to the Hollywood strikes, nighttime activity in the downtown restaurants and bars closest to the convention center was vastly diminished. Not so in 2024. From our perspective, things in the Gaslamp District were as busy as ever, which surely must have been welcome news for local businesses.
Loser: Warner Bros. Discovery (for the second year in a row!)
Once again, for reasons we don’t understand, WBD chose not to promote any of its upcoming films at SDCC 2024.
Traditionally the studio’s big Comic-Con centerpiece is a huge Saturday morning Hall H panel showing off not just DC Comics-based films but other blockbusters too. Not this time.
No “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,” “Joker: Folie a Deux” or the animated “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.” Not even a look at “Superman,” which has been filming since February.
To be sure, WBD still staked out that time slot in Hall H, but all the company brought was a video presentation and Q&A with the cast of The CW’s “Superman & Lois,” which is headed into its final season.
“The Penguin” panel held later that day in Hall H was fun, and the studio also showed off “Harley Quinn” and “Kite Man: Hell Yeah” during the week. And we enjoyed the Icerberg Lounge activation a lot. But WBD’s film division just sitting SDCC out again feels weird.
By contrast, Marvel doesn’t even begin filming “Fantastic Four” until next week, and it still brought a 5 minute clip presenting the characters and world to Hall H.
Winner: FX/Abbott Elementary
Disney brought both “The Bear” and “Abbott Elementary” to comic-con this year, putting up activations for both that fans could experience.
For “The Bear,” naturally, the activation was a small restaurant, built to look like the place Carmy and his crew work. It was pretty cool, especially considering they gave away aprons. But it wasn’t cooler than A.V.A Fest.
In honor of “Abbott Elementary,” an entire carnival was set up, recreating “A Very Abbott Festival” from the show — complete with a swing ride and a slide that ended in a ball pit. It was incredible just to look at, let alone play around in.
A+ on this one guys.
Loser: Video Game Companies
Photo by Andi Ortiz for TheWrap
After 18 months of negotiations, talks between SAG-AFTRA and several of the biggest video game companies broke down and the guild declared a strike, coincidentally on the first day of Comic-Con. That made the panel SAG-AFTRA already organized for video game voice actors one of the must-see events of the week.
Because of the timing, the guild exempted SDCC from the strike, which means the participating actors were free to talk about both their video game performances and the issues that led them to go on strike. Win-win, really.
Winner: Video Game Voice Actors
See above.
Loser: Sony Pictures
WBD wasn’t the only major studio to opt out of bringing their end-of-year projects to comic-con. Sony Pictures has two superhero movies on the way this fall, with “Kraven the Hunter” and “Venom: The Last Dance.”
And yet, even with comic-con attendees being pretty much the exact target audience for those films, neither had any kind of panel or presentation. Why? That remains unclear.
And finally, Winner: Artists Alley
Last year, our Comic-Con postmortem examined the positive impact the Hollywood strike ended up having on the working classes of SDCC — the creators selling their creations in Artists Alley, who experienced a banner year as fans flocked to the floor since there were very few big movie and TV panels.
We’re happy to report that while this year wasn’t quite as big, every artist we spoke to reported helathy sales that while smaller than 2023 were still bigger than previous years. Good job, Comic-Con attendees.
Umberto Gonzalez contributed to this article.
Head here for all TheWrap’s coverage of San Diego Comic-Con 2024.