The girls are taking over! Ananda and Scarlet talk about all the juicy news that came out of Comic-Con and talk about what it was like to be sitting in the middle of the biggest geek orgy in the world. Bernard makes a guest appearance to review Marvel’s Ant-Man, which is crawling into theaters as we speak. All that, plus our Indie Pick of the Week, on this week’s Way Too Indiecast!

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Topics

• Indie Pick of the Week (00:58)
• Comic-Con Coverage (7:26)
• Ant-Man Review (45:41)

WTI Articles Referenced in the Podcast

Star Wars: The Force Awakens panel
Warner Brothers panel
Ant-Man review

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Now those who couldn’t be at Comic-Con this past weekend get a taste of what Hall H-ers have already seen, a first look at the hotly anticipated Suicide Squad. The trailer was part of the explosive Warner Brothers panel this past weekend where almost the entire cast was brought out on stage including Will Smith and Margot Robbie as well as the film’s director David Ayer.

The trailer definitely gives us a sense of the Suicide Squad’s darker anti-heroics, finishing with a goosebump-inducing look at Jared Leto’s Joker. Along with the foul-mouthed Deadpool being a huge draw this past weekend at Comic-Con, it seems like the masses are getting a little bored with the straight-laced do-gooding superheroes that have saturated the movies so far. Time for a new form of justice.

Let us know what you think of the trailer in the comments and if you think the Suicide Squad casting is everything we hoped.

As the first panel on the third day of Comic-Con, Warner Brothers Productions had some big acts to follow – and try to overshadow, in a room full of 6500 zombie-like attendees just waiting to be impressed.

And overshadow they did.

In the war between DC and Marvel movies, Marvel has been the main act lately; churning out action packed superhero blockbusters like they were going out of style. And even amid talks that they may have been, Warner Brothers brought to the table a new set of heroes they’ve been holding in their back pockets. Waiting for when the time was right. And apparently the time is now.

They began the morning with some decent looking but not so heavy hitting upcoming films.

Guy Ritchie sent a video clip from a mystery film set to announce a new trailer for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. starring Armie Hammer and Henry Cavill as Cold War era special agents from opposite sides reluctantly teaming up to save the world. Though not as anticipated as some of the bigger films, we will see Hammer undertaking a heavy Russian accent for which he studied over many months with a dialect coach.

Director Joe Wright, Levi Miller, Garrett Hedland (Tron), and Hugh Jackman showed up for the Pan panel. It’s a reframing of the origin story of how Peter became Pan. Wright stated he wanted to make the film as dark as he could to show every kid that no matter how dark it got, they can overcome. And it certainly promises to be dark. Wright insisted the move back from green screen and CGI promising that every Neverland set was built, the biggest practical set being the forest, and with more than 150 extras on the set every day, we can expect more than an immersive experience.

Hugh Jackman declared, “This is one of the most fun movies I’ve ever made, by the way we had 4 pirate ships fully built.”

They shared exclusive new footage from the film of the introduction of Blackbeard, who is basically the original leader and recruiter of the Lost Boys. A Fagin type who brings down and out orphans to Neverland with promises of freedom and sweets, so long as they obey his every order with no hesitation. Joe Wright was mainly inspired by the sense of strangeness in the original J.M. Barrie book in which the children’s characters were never underestimated, and the  complexity of every single persona present was distinct, diverse, and equally duplicitous.

After these two stand-alone films, Warner Brothers brought out the big guns in machine style with a non-stop series of huge announcements.

Beginning with Suicide Squad, director David Ayer announced they would be all about canon and faithful to the source material proclaiming, “You are going to freaking get it with this show; it’s time for bad vs. evil. And who’s got the best bad guys ever? DC Comics.” Also showing up was the entire cast of Suicide Squad, minus Jared Leto (the Joker), including Margot Robbie and Will Smith.

Everyone showed up for Batman vs. Superman including Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot (the new Wonder Woman) and a morose looking Ben Affleck (no conjecture about the reason here). Though pitting heroes against heroes is all over comic culture, this particular clash is not in any current canon, especially to this extent. Director Zack Snyder declared there was one big rule bent in putting Gotham and Metropolis as sister cities geographically, sitting opposite from each other across a bay.

Ben Affleck shared a story of going to a costume store with his son who wanted a Batman costume for Halloween and happened to run into Christian Bale who was there for the same purpose. When seeking advice as to playing the Batman, Bale responded with “Make sure you can piss in that suit.” Noted.

Opening March 25th, 2016, here is the new trailer:

Comic-Con isn’t over yet, but if there was a winner of the convention, the trophy might have been handed out early to the Lucasfilm Star Wars: The Force Awakens panel.

Chris Hardwick moderated the panel to a packed Hall H in San Diego where some fans had camped for two days and waited all day for the 5:30 event. Star Wars was the first film to try out film previewing back in the late ’70s before the film’s release, setting a precedent that has all but taken over what was traditionally a convention for printed comics. So it was all too fitting to have J.J. Abrams present his new installment of the famous film franchise at Comic-Con.

Along with exec producer Kathleen Kennedy and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (and Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi) writer Lawrence Kasdan, Hardwick generally gushed with the trio for a while about how momentous this project is, the significance of the Star Wars legacy and the wonder of the people who are involved in this new round of Star Wars films.

Abrams expressed awe around having just worked on the film’s soundtrack with John Williams—they have a rough edit of the film at this point—and stated “There’s nothing normal about anything that’s happening.”

They showed the behind the scenes footage (above) and there were many wet eyes at the care Abrams is taking with this sacred franchise. Among the things revealed by the footage: Simon Pegg clearly plays a role in the film (the only Star Trek/Star Wars crossover?) and also emphasized just how NOT CG this film really is going to be. (Though we have a feeling Abrams won’t be able to resist a lens flare or two.)

Abrams, Kennedy and Kasdan were joined by the film’s stars: John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, and Oscar Isaac. Shortly after them, the bad guys showed up: Adam Driver, Domhnall Gleeson (who we hadn’t known previously was on the dark side), and Gwendoline Christie as Captain Phasma. One of the things they focused on in the Q&A was the importance to the filmmakers to keep up diversity in the cast, in The Force Awakens and all upcoming Star Wars saga and anthology films.

Not much was revealed, Adam Driver was especially loathe to reveal too much. Gleeson let slip that the base his character presides over is called “Starkiller”.

Then Hardwick sneakily brought out Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, and Harrison Ford, which rather brought the hall of 6500 to their knees. They bantered about their age and the weirdness of being called the Legacy cast, and Fisher joked about how Star Wars has become a right of passage in families, where parents now strategize when to introduce their kids to the series saying “If we don’t like the same character, I’m not going to like my kid.” Ford expressed gratitude for the franchise, as it kicked off his career. As far as their roles in the new film, Hamill just said he was glad he didn’t have to go to Tashi to pick up any power converters and Fisher lamented that this film wasn’t more girly, suggesting to Abrams there should have been a shopping planet.

As if the audience wasn’t riled up enough, they were walked to an outdoor symphony venue behind the convention center and treated to an exclusive music of Star Wars symphony immediately following the panel, a first in Comic-Con history. It was a true Disney/Star Wars event with everyone receiving a free light saber and ending with an impressive fireworks display. Those of us there won’t soon forget the spectacle and the momentous feeling of the start to a new era of our most beloved franchise.

Game of Thrones is a hot ticket at Comic-Con and usually one of the more exciting panels to get into—they certainly give the best swag—but this year, several weeks after that tense season finale, the cast and crew in attendance on this year’s panel were uncomfortably mute.

Moderated by Game of Thrones super fan, Seth Meyers, the panel started almost straight away with only a quick sizzle reel of Game of Thrones references in pop culture, including Meyer’s own Jon Snow at a Dinner party sketch and Sesame Street. Then Meyers asked a few fun but ultimately non-newsworthy type questions.

He goaded Gwendoline Christie about her character’s inability to do the one job set out for her, referencing Brienne of Tarth’s oath to save Sansa by waiting for her to light a candle in a tower. “You don’t have to take these oaths,” he teased. There was some banter from John Bradley and Hannah Murray about their characters, Gilly and Sam, finally getting together on the show. Everyone else generally joked about the miserable state of affairs for most of their characters and then they moved on to audience questions.

That’s when things started to feel especially awkward as panelists, clearly in terror of revealing secrets, gave one word answers or vague speculations about the fates of their characters. Meyers interceded a few times to establish that the panelists wouldn’t be able to say much.

What we did learn? That Obama’s favorite episode was “The Red Wedding” and he asked director David Nutter directly if Jon Snow was dead. Nutter holds the stance he’s had since the finale aired: “Jon Snow is deader than dead.” This speculator thinks his consistency of wording is more encouraging than not. “Dead” isn’t always dead in Westeros.

One confirmed dead person, however: Stannis Baratheon. Nutter made a comment about the character—considered unofficially dead only because his death wasn’t shown on screen—that closes the case on him.

Other things we know: That Conleth Hill (Lord Varys) is hilarious and needs his own comedy show, that Maisey Williams (Arya) thinks she’ll have a lot of action next season despite being blind, and that the fun audition reel (see video below) of the cast proves they all deserve to be cast.

Otherwise we remain like Jon Snow: we know nothing.

Game of Thrones audition reel

It’s common knowledge that AMC’s The Walking Dead spinoff, Fear the Walking Dead will be set in Los Angeles. The SDCC panel proved to be quite informative, however.

From the sounds of it, Fear the Walking Dead will be very distinctive show that should be set apart from the original. Even in the setting, a tropical former paradise, is as far removed from The Walking Dead’s rural Georgia as you can get. It is part of the same universe, so for those that know The Walking Dead we know all too well what’s in store—watching the characters come to understand what is happening, and how they will deal with it. And survive.

Here are a few things we learned at the panel:

It is covering the 4-5 weeks (loosely set during Rick Grimes’ coma) leading up to the apocalypse—when cell phones still work and people still show up to their jobs. Even by the end of this season we are not necessarily caught up to where The Walking Dead began.

It’s not a duplicated Walking Dead. It’s purposefully different. They don’t get to full on apocalypse mode until the end of the season, starting instead as a family drama and developing into gruesome chaos as everyone watches the fall of LA.

The blended family is highly dysfunctional, including new and ex-wives, children and step-children, all trying to keep it together when everything goes to hell. Who will survive? A random group of survivors ride out the peak of collision between the living the dead, and must figure out where they stand once the fires burn everything down.

There are no plans to conflate the two shows ever, though no one confirmed that it would never happen. There was confirmation, however, that the Staples Center remains untouched. At least for now.

According to writer and co-creator Dave Erickson, societal and gender norms will get turned on their heads right out of the gate. In such a multi-layered city the focus, for now, is mostly in East LA, and the responses of each diverse neighborhood in the city is vastly different.

“What’s great is they’re completely unprepared, he doesn’t have any specific set of skills to give them a boost, it’s not like he’s a cop. So there’s a humanity there.” -Cliff Curtis

Frank Dillane plays Nick, the eldest teenage son of Madison whose dad died a while ago, is dealing with his own monsters when he comes face to face with a new set of them. Named as a sort of prophet in this new world being the first to come face to face with a walker, the question is whether or not those issues will help or hinder his survival.

As far as the crafting of the new walkers, they will look vastly different than the fairly rotted living corpses in The Walking Dead. There will be less decomposition, so their humanity still appears to be there. There’s still a little light in their eyes that inspire some hesitation as to how one might react when approached by one.

We see exactly what each character, all along the age spectrum, loses when their entire lives unravel. Characters will start learning what to choose, prioritizing tragedies in a way that might cause people to question their potential overreaction to comparatively mundane heartaches.

The cast, including Grammy-winner Ruben Blades, only met each other on the day of the table read.

The differences from The Walking Dead don’t just come from a change in location, as this new batch of characters differ significantly from Rick and his group. It’s easy to envision Rick Grimes, former deputy, as a leader, but here we follow an English teacher and a guidance counselor barely hanging on in a fully functioning world, before they’re suddenly thrust into a world that’s dissipating rapidly.

As producer David Alpert so eloquently sums up, the question from all of us is, “Who from coal becomes a diamond and who crumples into dust.” And therein lies the common fascination for both The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead fans, as we question who we will identify with, good or bad.

The biggest question for all will be if Chris Hardwick ever cameos as a walker, which was neither confirmed nor denied during the panel, though Hardwick declared both his hesitation and his openness to the idea.

Fear the Walking Dead will premiering on August 23rd at 9pm (EST) internationally on AMC global at the exact same time. This will thankfully negate the need to avoid social media spoilers. And fans of Chris Hardwick will be happy to learn that he will cover the series on The Talking Dead.

The Walking Dead panel gave fans a good idea of what to expect for season 6, beginning almost immediately with a trailer for the upcoming season—premiering in a 90-minute episode on Sunday October 11 at 9pm—that opens with lead character Rick Grimes running, and running hard. Not a new sight after five seasons of the show.

Most notable from the trailer is Morgan (Lennie James) joining the clan at Alexandria after having trailed Rick throughout last season. The trailer alludes to some tension between Rick and Morgan but showrunner Scott Gimple, immediately after the trailer played, admitted to the show’s notorious tendency to spin previews into misleading audiences from clues to what is upcoming.

The most interesting part of the trailer, for fans, was at the very end, where fan-favorite Darryl (Norman Reedus) is seen bound with a gun to his head by the leader of the Wolves, the menacing group we’ve only begun to see introduced as a threat to Rick and co. Interesting to note, Ethan Embry was featured as a new cast member in the trailer and Gimple revealed Merritt Wever would also be joining the cast.

Panel moderator Chris Hardwick led most of the cast of the show, Gimple, and executive producers Gale Anne Hurd and Greg Nicotero through questions around upcoming story and character development.

Gimple did say there would be more flashbacks in the new season, saying a whole episode may be entirely in flashback and that they would “definitely be playing with time.”

He also said the Wolves will play a part in a way audiences won’t expect. Andrew Lincoln, who plays Sheriff leader Rick Grimes was asked about his characters’ final facial hair moment this past season. Does he miss the beard? He stated, “My wife doesn’t miss it” and joked about how co-star Steven Yeuen remarked after the shave that he looked like he had a shrunken head.

Hardwick asked Yeuen about Glenn—his character—and one of his storylines this past season: Glenn’s frustrating decision not to kill Nicholas. Yeuen spoke about Glenn’s desire for Nicholas’s redemption and his own need to save himself. But he did joke he wouldn’t trust Nicholas to push any revolving doors.

It was Lennie James’s (Morgan) first time on the panel. He spoke about Morgan and Rick’s “particular man-love” hinting that maybe things won’t be quite so tense between Morgan and Rick next season like the trailer insinuates.

Sonequa Martin-Green spoke passionately about the arc of her character Sasha, saying it was an honor to portray PTSD in honor of those who have suffered and that she thinks Sasha will find hope at the end of the tunnel.

Audience favorite Norman Reedus was initially given some rather bland questions including what he does to get into character—Motorhead and Candy Crush as it turns out—and for the record his favorite emoji is the red balloon. Eventually he was asked his predictions for Darryl next season. He commented that Darryl isn’t into suburbia so he’s likely to be getting restless.

As has become tradition they played a blooper reel and the cast showed their tightknit comradery and senses of humor. Andrew Lincoln admitted his mother would like Rick and Michonne to get together. Gimple says he’ll take note.

The 90-minute season premiere will preview at Madison Square Garden and fans can catch up on all the seasons as AMC shows an entire season every Sunday starting later in July.

Thursday’s Comic-Con panels in Hall H included sneak peeks of the final installment of the Hunger Games collective. Fans were chomping at the bit and several Katniss lookalikes were tightening their bows. Based on the initial cheers, a large portion of the audience likely waited all night on the cold sidewalk for any small taste of how the popular series would end.

The Lionsgate panel was preceded by a white-vested marching band. Because High School. And of course the battle drums leading to the final showdown. Next up: a video message straight from District 13.

The first teaser was an ROTC-style choreographed video of the soldiers of District 13 prepping for battle. #Unite

Then in walked Conan O’Brien—who has been filming his show from various parts of Comic-Con—as moderator of the panel. Just to clarify, he announced that he is NOT in the Hunger Games films but he IS Team Josh (Hutcherson that is, who plays Peeta for those not immersed in the Panem universe.)

Questions posed included one towards producer Nina Jacobson about how she came to her decisions in bringing this franchise to a close. She gave most of the credit to Suzanne Collins’ incredible ability to bring this epic commentary on our society and politics through her books. Emotions were high as the cast begins their final press engagements and saying their goodbyes to each other and their well beloved characters. Jacobson spoke of her desire to deliver to the fans, who have delivered so much back to them.

Director Francis Lawrence spoke on what we could expect, and though he slipped a little with Katniss’s final decisions in the movie’s end (not the least of a few accidental spoilers mentioned in the panel that book readers will be well aware of including the epilogue), he mentions Katniss will be brought out from the sidelines she resided in in the first installment of Mockingjay.

Then what the people came for: the first full trailer for the film. Where weapons are finally aimed on the Capitol, and on Snow. Ending to thunderous applause, those faithful to the book will see visual proof that there will be many, many scenes honored and uncut from the book, as is so often feared with adaptations. Later in the panel, Francis Lawrence shared that the ending will be just like the book.

Jennifer Lawrence was asked about her favorite Katniss moment from all of the movies. She stumbled with memory recall and overwhelmed by the broadness of the question (and amid shouts of “I love you Jennifer!”) but Willow Shields (Primrose Everdeen) bailed her out by declaring that of course it had to be when she volunteered as tribute. But Lawrence did say that her favorite moment will be in the last movie and she didn’t want to spoil it.

Joshua Hutcherson (Peeta Mellark) was asked about where we will pick up with Peeta after the traumatic place we left off with him (trying to choke the life out of Katniss). Just as well-spoken as his character, he shared that it’s a long road to recovery. And of course Jennifer Lawrence reminds him Peeta couldn’t stay away long, euphemisms intended.

For Gale’s part, Liam Hemsworth spoke about how the stakes are raised again for him in this last movie. The friendly dynamic between Hemsworth, Lawrence, and Hutcherson was by far the most amusing part of the panel.

Asked what they are most excited to see resolved in this final film, Francis Lawrence replied he is excited for everyone to finally have closure and to experience the way it ends.

When asked what they hope fans will take away from this last film, Jennifer Lawrence responded with, “the power of our future is in our own hands.” Recalling how at the beginning of the movies it is just one girl against everything and though the book condenses world issues into one continent, they are very real. Lawrence also appeared slightly emotional when asked how she bid goodbye to Katniss, declaring that it hasn’t happened yet and the changes made in her through the movies are so permanent they will never leave her.

Set to come to theaters November 20th, the new trailer features plenty of action and what looks to be a satisfying ending to what has been a true-to-the-books adapted series.

Open Road was by far the biggest wildcard of the day in Hall H as no one really knew which of the only handful of films announced by Open Road films was the most Comic-Con worthy. But by far the most Con-cloutiest of their upcoming stars is Bill Murray, who stars in the Barry Levinson helmed Rock the Kasbah. And he did not disappoint the fans, making his first Comic-Con appearance ever.

Murray entered from the back of Hall H to the tune of “Smoke on the Water.” At first he appeared as his character in the upcoming film, Richie Lanz, a music manager who manages a musician (played by Zooey Deschanel) and travels with her for a gig in Afghanistan.

Mitch Glazer, the film’s writer (who also wrote Scrooged starring Murray), joined him on the panel and spoke about Murray’s tendency to “re-write” when acting. He dispelled the rumor that Murray goes rogue stating the actor makes only smart changes when improvising.

The film also stars Kate Hudson and Bruce Willis. Murray told a story about Bruce Willis and an past SNL connection Willis recently informed him of. Willis was once a page on the show, and apparently Willis lamented that Murray and Gilda Radner were the only ones nice to him.

In true chaotic Murray-fashion he stopped the panel at one point to get everyone to sing the song of their choosing for 30 seconds. A hilarious and very Bill Murray sort of moment.

With Rock the Kasbah’s classic rock soundtrack there was much discussion around music. When asked about his favorites Murray surprised with old and new music recommendations. None so surprising though as Miley Cyrus, who Murray thinks “is really f***ing good.”

As for future projects for Murray? He did confirm he’s been working out, and is hopeful to be considered for the new Han Solo prequel role.

With the help of the Internet, missing Comic-Con no longer means you miss out on all the sneak peeks and fun videos shown.

We’ve put a few of the essentials up so you can catch up all in one sitting. Of course there’s a few things that you can only see if you are there (Marvel hasn’t released the Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer), but this should tide you over for now.

The Avengers assemble for Age of Ultron Panel

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Teaser

The film comes out Nov. 21, 2014

Horns Trailer with Daniel Radcliffe

Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For Red Band Trailer

Film comes out Aug. 22, 2014

Mad Max: Fury Road Comic-Con First Look

Film is coming out May 15, 2015

Kevin Smith’s Tusk Official Trailer

Movie releases September 19, 2014

Kevin Smith Describes Visiting the Star Wars Episode VII Set

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies Full Panel

The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies Teaser for Trailer

The film releases Dec. 17, 2014

The Walking Dead Season 5 Preview Trailer

Game of Thrones Blooper Reel

Warcraft Title Teaser

Saturday at Comic-Con is the closest thing to being in one of the many fictionalized dystopian futures of literature and film that keeps the fans coming out to the convention. Comic-Con-ers camped out the afternoon of Friday and over-night in order to finally gain access to Hall H at 9am Saturday morning. Some of them are “Hobbit Heads” — fans of Peter Jackson’s Tolkien franchise — and thus were anticipating the first panel of the day, but the majority of those sleep-deprived, un-showered fans were looking forward to an entire day of movie news and insider scoops, especially the end of the day’s Marvel panel.

And boy were they rewarded.

Warner Bros. Pictures

The first panel of the day was anything but subtle. Immediately beginning with what fans would most want to hear about: Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Director Zak Snyder brought in Batfleck himself, Ben Affleck, along with Superman, Henry Cavill, and the film’s third superhero, Wonder Woman, played by Gal Gadot, though why she has a sword and not a whip is beyond us. Curtains on either side of the hall revealed extra screens, the better to provide a sensory immersive experience for Snyder’s Batman v. Superman teaser.

The very short teaser showed Batman on a rooftop on a dark night, his eyes glowing through the mask of his Batsuit. He turns on his Batsignal, illuminating the sky and revealing Superman floating in the air, red eyes fixed on Batman. The two stare each other down a moment and it’s over. Hardly anything at all, but it was more than enough to excite the crowd of over 6,000.

Along with character shots, including a look at Wonder Woman’s outfit, Snyder showed off the film’s logo and assured the crowd filming is going “amazingly well”. Plan is to release the film May of 2016.

Next up, they jump straight into the Wachowskis’ Jupiter Ascending. No Wachowskis in the house but out comes Channing Tatum to say hello and show some footage. Tatum’s eye-makeup-ed Caine, talking to Mila Kunis’s Jupiter Jones about her role as monarchy in the universe. Lots of cool visual elements, great fight scene between Tatum and a winged-monster. It looks like the sort of visual fare we love from the Wachowskis, let’s hope the story doesn’t get in the way too much. They move quite quickly into the next big project for WB, Mad Max: Fury Road. Charlize Theron says hello in a video and then they show a video recap of the previous Mad Max films… which transitions into footage from the new film. A canyon and lots of post-apocalyptic vehicles. Director of all the Mad Max movies, George Miller, comes to stage and tells us that he considers chase scenes to be the purest form of cinema, and so he wanted to make a film that was one long chase scene. No Tom Hardy, but Miller reveals their won’t be a lot of dialogue in the film. They close this portion with more footage, a chase involving lots of tornado dodging.

And then, with still an hour to go in the panel, they move on to what people most wanted to hear about: The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. And that’s when Stephen Colbert takes over the panel as moderator, dressed in head to toe Hobbit-wear. First some funny video, mostly a gag reel from all of the movies. Then a huge chunk of the cast takes the stage along with Peter Jackson: Andy Serkis, Elijah Wood, Evangeline Lilly, Benedict Cumberbatch, writer Philippa Boyens, Luke Evans, Lee Pace, Orland Bloom, and Cate Blanchett. They joke about each LOTR movie deserving two more films with Colbert saying “You owe me 6 more Lord of the Rings films,” “If Warner can find a way to do that” Jackson pokes. After some discussion they finally play the trailer for the new film which features a decimated Laketown as Smaug blows fire all over it. Lots of soldiers and armies assembling. The song Billy Boyd sang during Return of the King plays in the background as we see a chase scene on ice, a flash of Sauron, and Bard asks Thorin “Will you have peace or war?” to which Thorin responds “I will have war!” The panel ends with an announcement for TheHobbitFanContest.com, a chance to go to New Zealand to see the latest film before it’s released.

Legendary Pictures

After two hours of WB, the crowd is obviously not as enthralled for Legendary picture’s announcements, but there is plenty to be excited about. Thomas Tull, CEO of Legendary comes out. A video from Godzilla director Gareth Edwards where he says once he’s finished with “a little sci-fi film” (the Star Wars spinoff) he’ll return to Godzilla with the second film. They tease us with a little video that reveals the potential new monsters Godzilla will fight: Mothra, Rodan, and Ghidorah. “Let them fight” it says. Crowd likes that.

They show an extended preview of As Above, So Below, the new horror film in the catacombs of Paris. You can see the trailer here. Moving on, Michael Mann makes his first Comic-Con appearance to discuss Blackhat, a cyber hacker thriller. The footage they show is interesting but a bit generic. Chris Hemsworth, star of the film, comes out to chat but mostly just proves he doesn’t know much about coding and computers. Wrong audience dude.

Finally someone we can get behind, Guillermo del Toro (who we saw in Thursday’s Book of Life panel) comes out to talk about Crimson Peak. Apparently excited not to be discussing a children’s film, del Toro takes the opportunity to make use of colorful language. He gives us a brief first look, though the film is a year and a half away, so not much. The logo covered in blood, Tom Hiddleston’s voice, “Houses as old as this one become, in time, a living thing. They may have timber for bones and windows for eyes, and sitting here all alone, it can go slowly bad. It starts holding onto things. Keeping them alive when they shouldn’t be. Some of them good. Some bad. Some should never be spoken about again.” It’s satisfyingly creepy, along the Pan’s Labyrinth route. Even more satisfying is del Toro’s use of a female lead, Mia Wasikowska, and his comment that he wants a story about a woman that shows their life beyond getting the man, that there is more to a female then her love interests. We can’t wait. He teases about Hellboy 3 (which gets a huge audience reaction) and At the Mountains of Madness (which gets decent applause).

Next up is Warcraft. Director Duncan Jones explains they wanted a LOTR style set with Avatar-level CG. They show some brief footage that does show some decent CG art. Thomas Tull ends the panel telling Guillermo to finish Pacific Rim 2 and then they can discuss his other projects. Then he shows a brief clip of King Kong and the title “Skull Island.” Looks like we have a prequel or sequel on our hands?

The Boxtrolls

All day people were joking that Boxtrolls got both a great spot and bad spot for their slot at Comic-Con. For one, they were guaranteed an audience as no one would leave Hall H before Marvel, and yet all those fans would be extra tired by the time Boxtrolls was up. And sure enough, plenty of sleeping people in the audience during this panel. But they did show an adorable clip of the Boxtrolls digging through garbage and playing with a ragged teddy bear. Cuteness overload and the stop-motion animation looks absolutely flawless. A short panel with Elle Fanning, Sir Ben Kingsley, and Isaac Hempstead along with creators Travis Knight, Anthony Stacchi, and Graham Annable allowed them to describe in greater detail just how long (8 years) and strenuous it is to make films like this.

Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

A strange follow-up to so cutesy a film, next up is the gritty sequel to Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City. A bit strange to see a sequel 10 years after the original, but when you’ve got all the original creators and actors working on it, no one is complaining. Rodriguez and Frank Miller were both on hand to discuss the film along with cast members Rosario Dawson, Jessica Alba, and Josh Brolin. The extended preview they gave us looks just as cool as the original, which really hasn’t yet been recreated successfully in other films. All the skin, guns, cars, and well placed color you’d expect. It looks incredible, but we’re still a bit dubious Miller and Rodriguez are going to get the reception they hope for. Let’s hope 10 years is enough time to build up some good nostalgia.

Marvel Studios

After what was almost exactly 24 hours of waiting for many in Hall H, the fans finally got what they were waiting (and chanting) for.

The panel began with a reel of all the Marvel films, edited together to effectively show the many ways they have all crossed paths and fit together. In it was a little bit of footage from Age of Ultron, teasing the audience for what they most wanted info on. The reel morphed into a Guardians of the Galaxy trailer which ends with Thanos floating through space on a throne. Kevin Feige, President of Marvel, came out and told audiences we’d be talking about 2015. And he meant it. Not much beyond next year was covered.

First up was Ant-Man, and he brought out Peyton Reed, the film’s new director (after Edgar Wright’s drama-filled exit). Determined to assure audiences he was the right man for the job, moderator Chris Hardwick asked about Reed’s past with Ant-Man, and he showed the audience a drawing he once did, where he turned himself into Ant-Man for a band picture. Reed also admitted this was his 20th time at Comic-Con. Clearly they are out to prove Ant-Man is in good hands. Out comes Paul Rudd who will star as Ant-Man, along with Evangeline Lilly, who they’ve just revealed will play Hope Pym, Corey Stoll (who they revealed will be Yellowjacket), as well as Michael Douglas as Hank Pym. After a few comments from the actors — Lilly knows almost nothing about her character as she’s not yet seen a script, Stoll alludes to his character being the scientist bad-guy, and Rudd prepares for superhero stardom — they played a video made just for Comic-Con, as the film hasn’t started any filming.

In it they pan around a laboratory while Michael Douglas’s holds a conversation with Rudd as Scott Lang, Ant-Man’s alter ego, asking Lang to do a “small” job for him (Lang is a thief). They jump to a costumed Lang running through a room, then a hallway, a man holds a gun up to him and he morphs into the tiny version of himself landing on top of the gun. Then more footage of him riding the back of a flying ant. The perspective is great, and even if this is conceptual footage, it looks really good.

Moving on to what fans most wanted Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” plays as the cast of Avengers: Age of Ultron take the stage. Robert Downey Jr. charms the entire audience with flowers (which he handed out to his female co-stars as well). Most exciting was the newest Avengers, Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Quicksilver, Paul Bettany as Vision, James Spader as Ultron, and Elizabeth Olsen as the Scarlet Witch. The only notable missing persons were Scarlett Johansson and director Joss Whedon who just had knee surgery and couldn’t attend. After some fun banter with the entire panel — Hemsworth joked about the new sex-change of his character being his chance at an Oscar, Elizabeth Olsen says she’s been practicing staring at pencils for months willing them to move, and Robert Downey Jr. asks that she soon release him from the spell she cast on hims as “it burns” — we finally get a trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron.

It begins with a dinner party with all the Avengers playing a party game where each tries to pick up Thor’s hammer. Tony Stark jokes that if he can do it, he gets to rule Asgard, right? It doesn’t budge, he tries again with the Iron Man glove, no dice. Not with the help of Cheadle’s War Machine hand either. No luck from Bruce Banner, but he wasn’t in Hulk mode, so… Hawkeye is a no go. Black Widow says that’s not a question she needs answered and Captain America gets the hammer to budge slightly which causes Thor obvious alarm. He picks it back up himself, satisfied, when suddenly a voice booms out at them. James Spader’s mechanized voice of Ultron, telling them that the only path to peace, is their extinction. As the hyper aware robot, built by Stark, Ultron plans to wipe them all out as the only way to solve their war problems. Cut to devastation, battle sequences and a creepy rendition of the Disney Pinocchio song “I’ve Got No Strings” sung behind the footage. Ending with a shiny new Ultron saying “I’ve got not strings on me.” The puppet has become the puppet-master. It looks awesome.

There’s nothing else to say. And that’s the end of the panel, except, a quick appearance by Josh Brolin donning Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet. Which the audience loves. Especially when Downey Jr. offers him a flower, and Brolin commences to tear it up in his mouth and chew on the petals. Oh yeah, he should do nicely for ultra-villain Thanos. You can watch the panel (minus footage) here.

That’s Saturday at the con folks. Crazy long and so much happening. That pretty much concludes the film events of Comic-Con so it’s time this girl went and caught up on a heck of a lot of sleep.

Friday at Comic-Con in Hall H was primarily focused on two of television’s hottest shows, The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. We won’t bore you with television news, but… oh, who are we kidding? If you love good films, chances are you watch both of these amazing shows and therefore should know you can check out the new preview of The Walking Dead Season 5 here, and be sure to catch the gag reel from Game of Thrones here.

Alright, on to movie news.

RADiUS-TWC Preview Horns and Everly

The first film-related panel of the day showcased two of RADiUS-TWC’s upcoming films, Everly and Horns. To speak on Everly was the film’s lead, Salma Hayek, and director Joe Lynch. The film is the story of a woman whose mob boss ex-boyfriend decides he wants her killed. She holes up in her apartment and defends herself agains the would-be assassins one by one. Lynch talked about his excitement to make a film starring a badass woman and “strong female character” which he said shouldn’t even be a term any more as a female ought just to be allowed to be a “strong character.” No argument here.

Salma talked about the difficulty of making a film shot entirely in one small location, as well as Lynch’s decision to shoot chronologically. For good measure she also mentioned that she “barely wear[s] anything at all through the whole film.”

The real meat of this panel was when director Alexandre Aja, writer Joe Hill, and star Daniel Radcliffe (and let’s be honest, mostly Radcliffe) made their entrance to show off Horns. Based on Hill’s novel, the film stars Radcliffe as Ig Perrish, a young man who wakes up one morning to discover he’s growing horns. His new accessories are fitting as he’s been demonized in his hometown for a year since his girlfriend Merrin (Juno Temple) was murdered and the finger of blame was pointed at Ig. With his horns comes the disturbing gift of getting anyone near him to reveal their darkest secrets and innermost evil desires. At first alarming Ig soon realizes he can use his new gift to track down who really killed Merrin and force them to confess to it.

After a full-audience rendition of “Happy Birthday” for Radcliffe, who just turned 25, Hill, who looks plenty like his father Stephen King and has his voice, remarked on the splendor of Hall H saying “Joss Whedon’s butt sweat once graced this chair. I can almost feel his essence wafting up to me.”

After that weirdness they showed an especially fun clip from the film where Ig convinces some reporters hounding him that they ought to fight each other before doing some investigating at a local bar. The bartender ends up starting the place on fire, and Ig walks coolly out the front door with smoking billowing around him, horns protruding, with a red shirt, yellow hoodie and great brown leather jacket. (Any similarities to Gryffindor colors were exclaimed to be purely coincidental — “I’m too young to be referencing my own past work in my new films” joked Radcliffe.)

Of course the audience got a bit swoony, unable to keep from asking Radcliffe questions that related this role to Harry Potter. He very eloquently spoke highly of his experience with the franchise and explained how much he loved the script for Horns immediately, finding himself quite drawn to the dark anti-hero Ig. Aja chimed in saying “Potter was only the beginning of something great.”

Based on what we saw the film has a bit of ridiculousness (how could it not with that premise?) but looks thoroughly enjoyable.

20th Century FOX Presentation

Next up was the two hour jam-packed presentation from 20th Century Fox. First on their slate, The Maze Runner, which they teased by immediately showing an extended look at one of the opening scenes in which teenager Thomas (Dylan O’Brien) finds himself in a fast-moving elevator which opens into a grassy glade surrounding by tall stone walls and filled with many other boys his own age and he himself can’t remember his own name.

Then out came director Wes Ball along with the author of the novel, James Dashner, followed by cast members Will Poulter, Kaya Scodelario, and Dylan O’Brien. They answered a few questions around the film, while audience questions focused mainly on the book series and Ball revealed they are hoping to complete the entire series, even showing a conceptual poster for The Scorch Trials, the title of the second book. Another long clip was shown of the bug-like creatures that terrorize the boys as they run through the maze. Things got slightly awkward when O’Brien accidentally let slip a spoiler that really wouldn’t surprise readers of the book, but was a bit of a giveaway for those who will just be seeing the film.

Next up was Jorge Gutierrez‘s colorfully vibrant cartoon, Book of Life. Showing a longer trailer for the film, it really does look impressively creative with breathtaking animation. (Here’s the first trailer.) Championing on behalf of the film was Gutierrez, producer Guillermo del Toro, Channing Tatum, Rob Perlman, and Christina Applegate. Always a fan favorite at Comic-Con, del Toro received the biggest welcome and was eloquent with his responses to questions regarding the film. The man has always been good in deciphering the difference between being a film’s director, and thus owner, and a film’s producer, which is when he plays advocate.

While del Toro is always geeky charming, and there were plenty of questions for Channing Tatum, especially one alluding to his best asset being his “visual” ones and not necessarily his voice, the real charmer was director Gutierrez who spoke with childlike enthusiasm about his childhood in Mexico and his deep connection with Dia De Los Muertos, a day when the dead are honored and believed to commune with the living.

The panelists left with the audience chanting “Hellboy 3” and del Toro smiling ear to ear.

Next up was Hitman: Agent 47, based on the video game. The film stars Rupert Friend, who sent in a short video hello introducing the first trailer. Clearly his work on Homeland has prepped him well to be a calm collected super-human assassin. The film looks ho-hum and the brief panel with Hannah Ware and Zachary Quinto didn’t inspire much enthusiasm for the film, just a few thank yous from fans to Quinto for his Star Trek work.

Next was a hilarious preview of New Girl co-stars Jake Johnson and Damon Wayans Jr.‘s film Let’s Be Cops. The extended trailer does indeed look hilarious, albeit completely ridiculous. Jake Johnson sent in a video as he’s currently filming Jurassic World (I mean honestly, what is that movie even going to be like with all these comedians?!) that showed him in a hotel with a long-haired, thong clad man. Weird. Funny. Everyone involved, including Nina Dobrev, Rob Riggle, and Keegan-Michael Key, all sounded like they had a lot of fun filming it.

Last in this jam-packed panel was more on Kingsman: The Secret Service. First a video with Mark Hamill, who has a role in the film, introduced an extended scene from the film. In the scene Colin Firth‘s secret agent character smoothly takes out some local thugs who give main character Eggsy (Taron Egerton) a hard time. The film looks action-packed and surprisingly clean for a comic-book adaptation. Perhaps because the main villain, played by Samuel L. Jackson hates the sight of blood?

At any rate it certainly looks like an interesting addition to the action-packed films on the roster this weekend and seeing Colin Firth and Samuel L. Jackson in the same panel was not something I’d have imagined every seeing.

The Musk of Tusk: An Evening with Kevin Smith

After a jam-packed day an hour and a half listening to Kevin Smith babble on was almost soothing. Known as a yearly frequenter and panel giver at Comic-Con, this year Kevin Smith started by giving Comic-Conners exactly what they’d want to hear: insider info on the new Star Wars film. Smith is one of the privelaged few who had the chance to visit the film’s set in London by invitation of JJ Abrams. Smith, while careful not to break his NDA, told an extended story (is anything LESS than extended with him?) about walking onto set and going aboard the Millennium Falcon.  He then segued strangely well into a sex-story concerning his wife. And that’s Kevin Smith for you. He got surprisingly more audience questions in than you’d think, considering how long-winded he is. Two of those questions were from children and it was hilarious to watch him try to keep his swearing at a minimum (as if they hadn’t JUST heard the sex story).

Eventually Smith revealed that Tusk is what he considers to be his best film to date, and he’s also working on a film he hopes children, especially girls will love, called Yoga Hosers. Finally Smith gave us the first trailer for Tusk, which he elaborately explained came from an idea developed during one of his podcasts, called Smodcast, where he discussed an ad someone in real-life posted about wanting someone to come stay with them and agree to dress in a walrus suit. Smith began to speculate this would make a great horror film, where the man actually wanted to turn his house guest INTO a walrus. After spitballing the premise, Smith got Twitter to affirm his decision to make the film with the hashtag #WalrusYes, and here we are a year later and his film is coming out in September.

The trailer is fantastic. In it, Justin Long plays a podcaster who travels to Canada to interview his latest subjective for his podcast and discovers the old man (Michael Parks) actually wants to keep him hostage and turn him into a walrus. It’s completely bizarre and looks delightfully creepy AND very Kevin Smith-ish, with Justin Long cracking a joke at the end of the trailer that he “doesn’t want to die in Canada.” It looks great, and you can check out the trailer here. After the trailer, actors Genesis Rodriguez and Haley Joel Osment came out to about their roles in the film.

In closing Kevin Smith assures us that though the trailer doesn’t explicitly show it, “We do turn him into a f***ing walrus. And it is f***ed up.”

It looks fantastic and it would be wonderful to see a Kevin Smith film we can get behind after all these years.

Day 1 of Comic-Con was everything you’d expect. Crowds, cosplay, and curveballs galore. Thursday’s Hall H presentations began a bit later than they will the rest of the weekend, but the movie surprises were rapid-fire with plenty of juicy tidbits to make each of the presentations quite exciting. The day was fun-filled enough that not even the cancellation of the Goonies Never Say Die panel could ruin it.

Here’s a recap of the day, and be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for details as they come throughout the day, @WayTooIndie.

Dreamworks Animation

While not initially on our most anticipated list of Comic-Con, the first panel of the day ended up being rather delightful. Moderated by Craig Ferguson, who started with especially funny jabs at Jeffrey Katzenberg and his own inability to land coveted voice-acting gigs, he welcomed in Tim Johnson and Jim Parsons of the new animated feature Home. Johnson directs this fun little alien film around a quirky, minion-like alien society that colonize Earth. Among these aliens is Oh (Parsons), whose outsider tendencies make him a pariah among his people. When he meets Tip (Rihanna), an unlikely friendship emerges and the two have to work together to save earth. Dreamworks gave us plenty of footage, including a long action sequence that shows off some of the film’s animation. It doesn’t look especially enlightened, and is even slightly reminiscent of Monsters vs. Aliens, which wasn’t exceptional. Home should be coming out in March.

A title card was presented for B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations, an animated film about a ghost sent back to haunting school voiced by Seth Rogan with Melissa McCarthy and Bill Murray. Should be out next summer.

The real fun began when they finally moved on to the Penguins of Madagascar, which will be released this November. A definite oddity in the world of both animation and sequels, especially animated sequels, the Madagascar series has only grown in its cleverness and acclaim with Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted scoring higher than the earlier two on Rotten Tomatoes. Now this spinoff, which already has its own TV series, gets its own feature film. What began as A LOT of footage and a conversation with directors Simon J. Smith and Eric Darnell, and voice actor Tom McGrath, quickly escalated as the panel welcomed first John Malkovich, who plays evil octopus villain Dave, and then soon after, the one and only Benedict Cumberbatch who plays Classified, a Bond-like wolf.

Of course fans were hard pressed to keep their questions limited to the movie at hand, Ferguson joking that “Any questions about Sherlock and Comic-Con is cancelled”, but a clever fan was able to pose a question to Malkovich and Cumberbatch about what super hero they would most like to play. Malkovich gave a very Malkovichian answer and replied after some thought, “Lois Lane”, Cumberbatch was clearly being goaded for info on his talks to play Doctor Strange, and while he hemmed and hawed initially he did make a non-commital Doctor Strange comment before saying “I don’t know, Batman” which alludes that conversations are definitely ongoing. We’ll see if we see him at Marvel’s panel Saturday.

The Giver Panel

Up next was a straightforward panel about The Weinstein Company’s upcoming film The Giver. Lois Lowry, author of the now 21-year-old young adult novel, was on hand and sharper than any of the younger panelists. Her wicked wit and astute observations providing plenty of explanation for her inciting and thoughtful dystopian drama. An extended trailer (showing what felt practically like the entire film) was revealed and it looks not only true to the adaptation, but like an exceptionally well done film. Director Phillip Noyce couldn’t be at the panel, but sent a filmed intro explaining his passion for the project. But none spoke more passionately than Jeff Bridges, who plays The Giver, the one who enlightens the young protagonist to the evil and suppression of their supposedly perfect society. Bridges has been lobbying to get the film made for years, initially hoping to direct it himself and cast his father in the role of The Giver.

He’s not the only one who seems to have grown into his role for the film. Lowry admitted she had hoped the script would allow for one of the more controversial scenes of the book, when teenage Jonas bathes an elderly woman, so that she herself might play the woman. Sadly the film didn’t make it into the script. Lowry also praised the missing Meryl Streep’s performance (and from the extended trailer it does look quite impressive), she even went so far as to say seeing Streep’s performance made her want to go back and “rewrite the character to be more like her portrayal.” High praise indeed from such an acclaimed writer.

Sony Pictures Panel

Pretty much everything we expected. A brief video from director Chris Columbus promoting his film Pixels and a gag video of sorts. Mostly they want fans to participate in their live experience at the Hard Rock Hotel, which includes an arcade. It fits, as the film, which stars Adam Sandler and Peter Dinklage is about aliens who attack earth when they think our old arcade style video games are an actual attempt at intergalactic warfare.

The majority of the panel was about the upcoming Goosebumps film, introduced with a video featuring writer R.L. Stine. Mostly Jack Black, who plays Stine in the film, was on hand to be goofy, present clips, and banter with Slappy the Dummy, one of the scarier and more memorable of Stine’s evil characters. Slappy was shortly joined by a bevy of other Stine-imagined monsters and eventually they all drag Black off stage.  Our nostalgia is adequately piqued.

Paramount Pictures Panel

Rounding out the day was the panel we were less sure of and that most definitely packed the biggest punch. They were always going to push Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on us, and they did, almost immediately following a sneak peek at the trailer for the new SpongeBob Square Pants film, The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. Then a bass-thumping intro for TMNT came on, exploring the evolution of the Turtles as told by co-creator Kevin Eastman and ending with footage from the film, marking this new rendition/era of the Turtles. It adequately raised expectations in the room and hearing Eastman discuss the Turtles and his excitement for the film along with director Jonathan Liebseman and eventually co-stars of the film Megan Fox and Will Arnett had even this skeptic thinking this film may not be so bad. Then they showed us a solid ten minute clip of an action sequence down a snow-covered mountain in a semi-truck. And it was ridiculous, but the good news is that despite all the spectacle, the Turtles themselves are quite funny and the film should be entertaining.

An especially interesting moment was when a fan turned interrogative and asked Eastman why there were implications in the trailer that the Turtles are aliens. Eastman recovered well saying they had always intended that the ‘ooze’ from whence the Turtles comes is an alien substance. Those unwilling to see the franchise stray from its roots may have a hard time swallowing that.

TMNT was plowed through rather fast and then we got a quick look at Dean Israelite’s new Michael Bay produced Project Almanac film. It looks a little too shaky footage-y for my liking, but interested fans were given the chance to attend a preview Thursday evening on a first come, first served basis.

And speaking of sneak previews, next up was an especially fun visit from Dwayne Johnson, who walked out into the crowd and then on to the stage to encourage Comic-Con-ers to check out his film Hercules, opening Friday. And as a special promotion, The Rock rented out three Gaslamp area theaters for the audience to show up to (at a time of his tweeting) for a special advanced screening.

The Rock seemed like a high note to end on, but the hits just kept on coming and out walks Clark Duke with two hot chicks on his arms. I didn’t think they’d talk about it, nor did I think I wanted to hear about it, but there it was: Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (watch the newly released trailer). While obviously lacking in the first film’s leading man, John Cusack, the film, which has the guys traveling into the future, looks surprisingly hilarious for a sequel, not to mention a film about time travel via jacuzzi.

That would have pretty much ended things nicely, except this is Comic-Con, and the name of the game is shock and awe. When the recognizable footage from the Interstellar trailer starts to play the crowd goes nuts. And when the trailer ends and Matthew McConaughey is brought onto the stage for his first ever appearance at the con, the audience is on its feet. McConaughey gives us a few ‘alright’s, to satisfy the crowd, and then starts giving us vague insight into Christopher Nolan‘s mysterious new film. Sure it’s about space travel. Sure it’s about a family man who has to make a hard choice. McConaughey finally starts getting into it describing Nolan as a director who needs to be original and who “works by his instincts.” McConaughey describes the filmmaking process with Nolan, that it “felt like an independent film — 2, 3 takes and we’d move on.” He claims this is his most ambitious film to date, and then decides he’s not sure he can really tell anymore, so perhaps he should let the man speak for himself. And out comes Nolan, also a Comic-Con first-timer. Finally, a real conversation around the film and then what we’re all waiting for: an honest to goodness trailer that gives us an idea about what happens in this film.

The trailer won’t be up for a while, but I can say it certainly gets into more detail about the space travel aspect of the film. There’s more Anne Hathaway. More Michael Caine. A little Wes Bentley and Jessica Chastain. And we can finally see that the film seems to focus on astronauts (space travelers? pilots?) who travel to space to find some place else where Earth’s inhabitants can survive. McConaughey’s Cooper is a conflicted man, at odds against his love for his own family and his desire to contribute to the greater good. There are some impressive space shots of fictional galaxies and the planet they seem to want to try and make habitable. It’s got the same vagueness Inception’s trailer had, which only makes us want to see it more.

All in all an exhausting but eventful first day. Stay tuned, we’ll be here all weekend!

So Way Too Indie is about to become Way Too Geeky for a few days next week as we cover the annual Comic-Con International in San Diego.

While we both decry and yet embrace the infiltration of Hollywood at a convention created for devoted comic fans, we revel in the chance to get our movie news AND pop-culture fix all at the same time. I, Ananda, have painstakingly gone through the schedule of events (and OMG there are a lot) to find all those movie-related panels to (try to) attend so that WTI readers get all the juicy pop-culturey news they deserve.

Here are the Top 10 things Way Too Indie can’t wait to see and hear about at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con:

10 – Sony Pictures Panel

(Thursday, 12:30, Indigo Ballroom)

Feeding into our nostalgia is a first look at Goosebumps starring Jack Black and directed by Rob Letterman. Jack and Rob will both be on hand to talk about the film and discuss Black’s turn as the legendary author himself, R.L. Stine. The film is slated for August 7, 2015. Director Chris Columbus will also attend, showing audiences a sneak peek at upcoming Adam Sandler film Pixels also set to début next year.

9 – Radius-TWC Previews Horns and Everly

(Friday, 3pm, Hall H)

Daniel Radcliffe will be on-hand along with co-star Juno Temple to chat about Horns and début the film’s movie trailer. Directed by Alexandre Aja and based on Joe Hill’s dark novel, the film already looks like Radcliffe is tapping into the Voldemort spectrum of evil for his tortured protagonist. Additionally, Salma Hayek will introduce footage from Everly where she plays a woman protecting her family from assassins sent by her ex, a mob boss. We’ve also been promised other news on upcoming Radius titles.

8 – 20th Century Fox Presentation

(Friday, 4:20, Hall H)

While there is no formal description of what Fox will be covering they did release to press that talent will be on hand for The Maze Runner, Book of Life, Hitman: Agent 47, Let’s Be Cops, and Kingsman: The Secret Service. So we can expect to hear about all of those, but not a peep about next June’s new Fantastic Four reboot. Maybe because they know die-hard comic audiences at this convention are not entirely thrilled with director Josh Trank’s casting choices and avant-garde vision for the film, namely his suggestion that his cast not bother even reading the comics. At any rate YA fav The Maze Runner should draw a crowd, and Channing Tatum, a voice in Book of Life, will likely cause swooning. Personally Colin Firth, from Kingsman: The Secret Service, is the more likely candidate to cause this girl to swoon.

7 – Warner Bros. Pictures Panel

(Saturday, 10am, Hall H)

Saturday starts off with a bang, getting one of the most anticipated panels out of the way first thing. Always big presenters at the convention, Warner Bros. will provide a look at three major upcoming films: Jupiter Ascending, Mad Max: Fury Road (we’d better see Tom Hardy), and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. After its pushed back release date the latest Wachowski sibling film is what we most want to hear about, though the Mad Max reboot may also be worth a look. However, The Hobbit exhausted us two years ago. Yawn.

6 – The Giver

(Thursday, 1:30, Hall H)

A novel with a huge fan base, especially those of us forced to read Lois Lowry’s The Giver in school as children, the film adaptation has generated huge amounts of buzz. With a fantastic cast (oh, please show up Meryl Streep) we can’t wait to see exclusive footage from the film which premieres in August. The trailer has already shown it looks pretty fantastic.

5 – Paramount Panel

(Thursday, 3pm, Hall H)

No news on what they will discuss but we’re hoping there is something on Interstellar, Chris Nolan’s new film to be released in November. Also likely are plugs for Hercules (which comes out the very next day) and the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We hope they know their audience and don’t bother with Hot Tub Time Machine 2. And if we’re really lucky there might be some small clues about next summer’s Terminator: Genesis.

4 – Goonies Never Say Die

(Thursday, 6pm, Indigo Ballroom)

Goonies cast members will be on hand to discuss the newly announced Goonies sequel. Surprise guests are guaranteed and plenty of discussion on how this cult-favorite film has stood the test of time. The child in us is literally jumping up and down in anticipation.

3 – The Musk of Tusk – An Evening with Kevin Smith

(Friday, 6:35pm, Hall H)

We’ll definitely be getting a trailer for Kevin Smith’s new monster horror film Tusk, his first film in three years. It was announced yesterday the film will be released September 19. Also guaranteed is hilarious discussion as anyone who listens to Smith’s SModcast podcast already knows. Speaking of the podcast, Tusk was first envisioned in an episode of the show and follows a journalist who encounters a worldwide adventurer and becomes the plaything of a deranged killer. The film stars Justin Long, Michael Parks, Genesis Rodriguez and Haley Joel Osment and we know Rodriguez and Osment will be at the panel.

2 – Legendary Pictures Panel

(Saturday, 12:25pm, Hall H)

Guaranteed are a look at Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming horror gothic-romance Crimson Peak as well as a look at new found-footage horror-thriller As Above/So Below. The latter is already rather uninspiring after releasing a ho-hum trailer but we wouldn’t mind if Guillermo del Toro took up all the time. Crimson Peak sounds quite promising, with del Toro saying his intentions were to make a film in the vein of the horror greats, The Exorcist, The Shining, and The Omen. A classic ghost story sounds like exactly what we need in the sea of found-footage out there in Horror-land. And if he wanted to go on to talk about Pacific Rim 2, we’d be more than happy to hear all about it! No clue if there will be enough info yet to discuss Godzilla 2, we completely understand director Gareth Edwards might be a little overwhelmed with that little Star Wars spinoff film he’s prepping for.

1 – Marvel Studios Panel

(Saturday, 5:30pm, Hall H)

Always the benchmark of Comic-Con we expect plenty from Marvel’s presentation. For starters they are likely to give us some special guest appearances and footage from Guardians of the Galaxy as a last push before it’s August 1 release. Also pretty much guaranteed is info on Avengers: Age of Ultron including some cast members and hopefully a sneak peek or two at footage. Marvel’s had a busy week with announcements about their universe, especially major changes for The Avengers as Thor is now a woman, Captain America is getting a comic reboot in “The All-New Captain America” where the Falcon takes over as the Captain, and then Iron Man gets back to his darker Tony Stark roots in “Superior Iron Man”. No clue how this will effect the film franchise, but I’m sure we can expect a reboot in a few years depending on how audiences take to the new personalities/sexes/identities. Otherwise, announcements around Ant Man, due for a release next summer, are also likely despite Edgar Wright’s abandonment of the project. Peyton Reed (who is also signed on to direct the screen version of comic book The Fifth Beatle) is now set to direct and the film just might have a chance of keeping up its momentum.

Notable Absences

Where the heck is Disney, Lucasfilm, and Lionsgate? Apparently Lionsgate thinks The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 doesn’t need the added publicity, because they are blowing off Comic-Con this year. They are probably right. Obviously Lucasfilm doesn’t think it has enough to talk about yet in regards to Star Wars Episode VII. And apparently Disney didn’t feel like coming out to promote their first Disney-Marvel animated collaboration Big Hero 6 (which just debuted a trailer). Also no George Clooney to chat about Tomorrowland, the film based on the area of Disney’s theme park, and no Pixar which means nothing on Inside Out. Maybe Disney is skipping out in an attempt to push people to D23, their exclusive Disney convention?

At any rate, be sure to stay tuned to Way Too Indie for up to the minute coverage throughout Comic-Con as we battle the lines and cosplayers to get all the juicy tidbits.