Marvel's San Diego Comic-Con 2020 Panel Line-Up Finally Revealed
Coming soon to a living room near you: The Marvel Universe.
At long last, mighty Marvel has announced its lineup for San Diego Comic-Con 2020, which has been temporarily re-branded "Comic-Con@Home," as this year's event will be entirely virtual. The bad news: There have only been three panels announced, none of which have to do with Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the upcoming slate of Disney+ miniseries. The good news: True believers will find plenty into which to dig in terms of Marvel Comics' past, present, and future, and there will be a special panel just for younger fans.
This year's SDCC — or SDCC@H, as it were — will take place between July 23 and 26, and will feature literally hundreds of panels. The event and all of those panels will be free for all to attend, and while there will be plenty of interactive exhibits (including, of course, a virtual space in which for cosplayers to strut their stuff), most, if not all, of the panels will be pre-recorded. According to The Wrap, a spokesperson for Comic-Con International described the event as potentially having "Live elements to some programming," but also said that, generally speaking, organizers didn't "anticipate anything live" in terms of the actual panels.
This means that there isn't likely to be any Q&A action involved in any of those panels, although it would surprise us not at all if fans were invited to lob questions at presenters via social media. The whole enchilada appears to still be a bit of a work in progress, as should be expected from what must be one of the largest virtual events ever staged. As for Marvel, while MCU die-hards will have to wait for more details on those upcoming movies and shows, comic fans will be over the moon at what Comic-Con@Home has to offer.
Marvel's 616: A scintillating Disney+ docuseries
In April 2019, it was announced (via Deadline) that Disney had struck a deal with producers David Gelb, Brian McGinn, and Jason Sterman — the creative minds behind production house Supper Club — to produce a pair of documentary series for Disney+. Supper Club has been a non-fiction force in recent years, producing such acclaimed projects as Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Five Came Back, and Amanda Knox, and what it did for a master sushi chef, the legacy of Hollywood directors who fought in the Second World War, and an American student wrongly convicted of a terrible crime by the Italian courts, it will now do for Marvel.
Marvel's 616 will be an "anthology documentary series" with each installment helmed by a different director, exploring the legacy of Marvel comics and how its creators, contributors, and fandom have evolved over the years. The series' Comic-Con@Home panel will feature directors Gillian Jacobs (an accomplished actress and director of the 2015 short The Queen of Code) and Paul Scheer (star of The League and director of several episodes of Children's Hospital), as well as producers Sarah Amos and Sterman. Serving as moderator will be Angélique Roché, who has filled the same role for a slew of previous Marvel panels, red carpet events, and TV series such as Marvel: Earth's Mightiest Show. The panel is set to take place on Thursday, July 23, at 1:00 PM Pacific; Marvel's 616 is expected to debut on Disney+ at some point later this year.
Marvel HQ: A big party for younger fans
If you happen to have kids who love all things Marvel, or if you're just a kid at heart, then you'll definitely want to check out the Marvel HQ panel, which takes place on Thursday, July 23, at 4:00 PM Pacific. In case you're not in the know, Marvel HQ is a website just for kids that features all kinds of games, activities, videos, and free online comics. While this particular panel will be short on news and sneak peeks, it'll definitely go a long way toward keeping your little ones entertained.
In addition to being packed to the gills with info about all of your favorite Marvel heroes, the panel will also include a comic read-along and an "epic Lego battle" — and hey, who doesn't love those? Also, note that we didn't say there would be no sneak peeks, as the panel will also offer a look at Marvel's Spider-Man: Maximum Venom, the third, Venom-centric season of Disney XD's animated series. Kids can also learn to draw Spidey's symbiote frienemy, so if your fridge could use a little Marvel touch, you're in luck.
Next Big Thing: A sneak preview at what's coming in Marvel comics
The Next Big Thing panel will really hit the sweet spot for fans of Marvel Comics. Marvel Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski will preside over the festivities, and he'll be joined by a slew of the creative minds who will be bringing us some of the biggest one-shots and crossover events of the next year.
First, Cebulski will host Al Ewing (the current scribe behind Guardians of the Galaxy), Tom Brevoort (Marvel's Senior VP of Publishing), and Dan Slott (an absolute legend who currently pens Fantastic Four and Iron Man 2020), who will be discussing the six-issue limited series Empyre, set to run from July to September. The series will see the Fantastic Four and Avengers teaming up to thwart an alien invasion of Earth, and it will follow the events of the one-shot Incoming!, which was published in December of last year.
Next, Jordan White (editor of Marvel's Star Wars slate of comics), (writer of Thanos: Zero Sanctuary), and Gerry Duggan (a Marvel vet and current writer on Cable) will be previewing X of Swords, a huge X-Men crossover in which mutantdom must fight for the future of the living island of Krakoa. Finally, Nick Lowe (current editor of The Eternals), Nick Spencer (who most recently penned Doctor Strange: Damnation), and Mark Bagley (who has worked on such iconic Spidey sagas as Maximum Carnage and Clone Wars) will spill the beans on the upcoming Amazing Spider-Man #850, which will see the return of none other than the Green Goblin.
Comic-heads won't want to miss this panel, which goes down on Friday, July 24, at 11:00 AM Pacific. Of course, we'll be keeping both ears to the ground for any additional information about Comic-Con@Home, and we'll be sure to keep you up to speed.