San Diego Comic-Con 2018: all the trailers, updates, and pictures from fandom’s biggest event – The Verge

The secret weapon of San Diego Comic-Con: scooters

2018-07-26T14:58:32-04:00

When I flew out to San Diego Comic-Con last week, I noticed one big change to the scene from last year. It wasn't that Marvel and HBO weren't there, and there were still thousands of fans dressed up in their favorite T-shirts or costumes. But as I rode in from the airport, I noticed that there were hundreds of electric scooters and bikes strewn around the sidewalks from companies such as Lime, Bird, Ofo, and MoBike. It was a drastic change from 2017's convention, where I didn't see any, and it highlights a point where these mobility solutions are useful - most of the time.

On-demand electric scooters have become the next big thing when it c …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Star Wars author Timothy Zahn on Thrawn: Alliances and toxic fandom

2018-07-25T16:27:25-04:00

Earlier this week, Timothy Zahn published his latest Star Wars novel, Thrawn: Alliances. The book is the sequel to his 2016 novel Thrawn, a long-untold origin story for his fan-favorite character, Grand Admiral Thrawn. In the new novel, he brings together two of the franchise's greatest villains: Thrawn and Darth Vader.

Thrawn, originally introduced in Zahn's 1991 novel Heir to the Empire, is a master tactician who attempted to resurrect the Empire after Return of the Jedi. While that storyline was wiped out when Disney acquired LucasFilm and reset the franchise's canon, Thrawn was reintroduced in Star Wars Rebels, and Zahn wrote the defini …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The biggest news you might have missed from San Diego Comic-Con 2018

2018-07-23T15:48:19-04:00

Any given year at San Diego Comic-Con, there is - to put it lightly - a lot going on. There were lots of new movie and TV trailers to see and very special experiences for our Verge writers. But there was also no shortage of news for the worlds of film, television, and actual comic books. Here are some of the biggest announcements you might have missed over the weekend.

James Gunn Got Fired from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

After a right-wing troll and conspiracy theorist with a history of smearing progressive voices pointed out some offensive tweets made years ago by James Gunn, the Guardians of the Galaxy director was abruptly fired from …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Purge supplies, Clone Wars tears, and shrimp cocktail carousels: the best things we saw at San Diego Comic-Con 2018

2018-07-23T14:06:10-04:00

San Diego Comic-Con may have had a relatively light year this year since many of the con's usual major presenters - including Disney / Marvel, Netflix, and HBO - scaled back their presence, but even a reduced schedule at the second-largest fan convention in the world is overflowing with news and events. While many of those moments were easy enough to catch up on - new trailers for Aquaman and Glass, the lowdown on DC's new streaming platform DC Universe - the weekend contained some hidden gems that could only be highlighted if you were there when it happened. Below, we've rounded up some of our personal favorite moments of SDCC 2018, so if s …

Read the full story at The Verge.

We reported our UFO encounters to the government at San Diego Comic-Con

2018-07-22T22:27:50-04:00

By now, San Diego Comic-Con is far more than a series of reveals for high-profile film and television projects and a giant, geek flea market. Over the years, it's increasingly become home to immersive pop-up activations that bring to life a tiny sliver of a world for fans. This year, the History Channel brought with it a declassified bunker experience to promote its upcoming scripted UFO series Project Blue Book.

Some backstory: At the height of the Cold War, the United States Air Force began a project to document and investigate sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects in an effort to determine if said unexplained sightings posed any sort …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Comic-Con 2018 trailer round-up: Aquaman, Godzilla, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and more

2018-07-22T13:59:45-04:00

San Diego Comic-Con wraps up today, and it's been a busy week for pop culture news. While big names like Marvel and HBO skipped the show this year, it still nevertheless showcased a number of big trailers from the films and shows that are slated to premiere in the next year.

Warner Bros. stole the show this year with its massive, two-hour Saturday morning panel, during which the studio revealed its slate of upcoming films: Aquaman, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Shazam. The clips and trailers served as the weekend's high-profile reveals, but they also proved Warner Bros. is about to be more …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Ghostbusters World is basically Pokémon Go, but with proton packs

2018-07-21T18:04:36-04:00

Two years after Pokémon Go gave us the purest summer of our lives, comes the inevitable wave of copycat location-based AR games, one of which is Ghostbusters World. A collaborative effort between Sony Pictures and Korean mobile game studios 4:33 and Next Age, the game was made possible by Google opening up its Maps platform to developers. Thanks to this, and the rising functionalities of Apple's ARKit and Google's ARCore, AR-based games aren't just the territory of Pokémon Go developer Niantic anymore.

The demo version of Ghostbusters World, which I played at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend, felt a bit like playing an alternate reality ver …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The first trailer for DC’s Aquaman shows off a war between the surface and the sea

2018-07-21T15:28:45-04:00

This year's slate of Hall H panels at San Diego Comic-con have been relatively quiet, at least compared to prior years. We've seen new looks at what's to come from The Predator, Glass, Star Trek: Discovery, and The Walking Dead, but the biggest panel by far this year was the Warner Bros. panel, which just showed off the first look at James Wan's Aquaman.

While Jason Momoa's Aquaman, human name Arthur Curry, was a highlight of 2016's Justice League, this is the first time we've gotten to see him in action on his own. Highlights in the new trailer include a look at the Marine Marvel's straw-haired aquatic family, including Nicole Kidman as hi …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The first trailer for DC’s Shazam is like Big, but with superheroes

2018-07-21T15:09:06-04:00

At San Diego Comic-Con today, DC unveiled a surprise first look at another of its upcoming superhero films, Shazam!, which will star Zachary Levi as the film's titular superhero. It's a surprisingly funny-looking film, which feels like it's just what DC needs to get away from the dark and grim image that its franchise has been saddled with.

The trailer introduces us to Billy Batson, a kid who's introduced to a new foster family and school. After fighting off a couple of bullies, he's chosen by a wizard called Shazam, who tells him that if he utters his name, he'll gain superpowers. He does, and he abruptly turns into an adult hero. Think Bi …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Watch the first trailer for Godzilla: King of the Monsters

2018-07-21T14:39:15-04:00

At San Diego Comic-Con today, Warner Bros. used its Hall H panel to show off its work on not just three films, but the latest installments in three different major franchises: Fantastic Beasts, DC, and its monster films. Among them: the first trailer for its upcoming film Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the sequel to Gareth Edwards' 2014 film Godzilla.

The trailer kicks off with Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) fleeing a disaster as a scientist (Vera Farmiga) explains that we're experiencing a new threat - the "fever" sent to fight the "infection" that humanity has become - as monsters like Godzilla are returning to the Earth after rema …

Read the full story at The Verge.