Tens of thousands of cosplaying fans converged on San Diego Thursday for the
first full-scale Comic-Con in three years, where new "Lord of the Rings"
and "Game of Thrones" TV series will be unveiled at the world's most
famous pop culture gathering.
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After two online-only Comic-Cons due to
Covid-19, attendance is expected to
match pre-pandemic levels of around 130,000, with huge lines of fans dressed as
superheroes and space monsters wrapped around the convention center beneath a
blazing sun.
Some die-hards camped for 24 hours to be the first ones back inside the
giant Hall H, where Hollywood studio Paramount kicked off the four-day comic
book, fantasy and sci-fi extravaganza by presenting the first look at its
star-studded movie "Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves."
Chris Pine, Hugh Grant and Rege-Jean Page appeared on stage at the
6,000-capacity arena to discuss the movie's nostalgic and light-hearted take on
the world's most popular role-playing game.
"It's like a Spielbergian energy to it -- it's the films that I grew up
with in the 80s," said Pine, while Grant said the film's jokey script had
"a real Monty Python vibe."
Footage from the movie, out in March, showed a gang of wise-cracking thieves
raising corpses from the dead, and being forced to race through a deadly maze
pursued by monsters in front of a blood-thirsty arena crowd.
Former "Bridgerton" heartthrob Page described the rigorous stunt
training required for his action sequences.
Later in Paramount's presentation, former "Buffy the Vampire
Slayer" star and Comic-Con favorite Sarah Michelle Gellar made a surprise
appearance to promote new series "Wolf Pack," a spin-off from the
"Teen Wolf" series and movie.
- 'Three years' -
"It has been three years since we've been in this room together. How is
everyone doing?" asked Comic-Con programming chief Eddie Ibrahim, to
ecstatic cheers from fans wearing mandatory face masks over their hobbit,
dragon and princess costumes.
The event, which began as a humble comic book-themed gathering in a San
Diego hotel basement more than 50 years ago, today draws A-list stars and top
Hollywood studios including Disney and Warner Bros.
The Tinseltown giants have this week done nothing to quell frenzied rumors
of a first look at Marvel superhero sequel "Black Panther: Wakanda
Forever" and a new Superman movie announcement.
But headlines are likely to be dominated by two huge fantasy series coming
to television screens soon: Amazon Prime's "Lord of the Rings: The Rings
of Power" and HBO's "House of the Dragon."
"The Rings of Power" is Amazon's enormously ambitious saga taking
place in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's books, and set thousands of years before
the events of Peter Jackson's Oscar-winning trilogy of films.
The series -- playing out across five seasons, the first of which launches
September 2 -- is reported to have cost Amazon well over $1 billion, and will
be presented Friday.
- Rings v Thrones
-
The following day, "House of the Dragon" -- the first spin-off to
"Game of Thrones" set in George R.R. Martin's fictional world of
Westeros, out August 21 -- will be unveiled by HBO.
Martin has played down talk of a rivalry between the two mega-franchises,
writing in his blog, "I want both shows to find an appreciative
audience... the more fantasy hits we have, the more great fantasy we are likely
to get."
But HBO hopes its prequel can match the wild popularity of the original
"Thrones," which over eight seasons became must-see television,
spawned countless imitations and delivered a record 59 Emmys.
Starring Matt Smith, Rhys Ifans and Emma D'Arcy, "House of the
Dragon" tells the story of the murderous, dragon-breeding Targaryen
family, hundreds of years before the events of "Thrones."
Its stars will appear in Hall H immediately after a movie presentation from HBO's
sister company Warner Bros., which is set to feature Dwayne "The
Rock" Johnson, who is promoting his upcoming superhero flick "Black
Adam."
The week will also feature a send-off for AMC's "The Walking
Dead," as the juggernaut zombie TV series bows out with its final season
-- and launches a new spin-off, the anthology-style "Tales of the Walking
Dead."
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