San Diego Comic-Con has returned in 2022, and for the first time since 2019 the biggest American comic con is hosting in-person attendees, panels, and celebrities. Will the frisson of SDCC’s historical role as the Room Where It Happens win out and bring all the trailers and updates a fan could ask for? Or will studios — rusty from two years without the convention, leery of announcing plans in a still COVID-unstable world, and maybe even accustomed to running their own bespoke news events — play it safe and quiet?
We won’t find out for sure until this weekend, but for now, here’s everything that Polygon is keeping our eyes peeled for. And when it happens, you’ll find all our coverage of San Diego Comic-Con 2022 right here.
Crunchyroll
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Crunchyroll has a lot to talk about going into its Industry Panel at Comic-Con this Thursday, what with the recent acquisition announcements of several new anime during Japan Expo 2022 in Paris earlier this week. What’s sure to be on most attendees’ minds, though, is the question of what Crunchyroll will reveal about the upcoming fall season — more specifically, the premiere date for Chainsaw Man, one of the most highly anticipated anime of 2022.
HBO: House of the Dragon
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HBO’s first spinoff from the era-defining Game of Thrones is primed and ready for its premiere on Aug. 21. But first, Warner Bros. will be giving House of the Dragon a whole Hall H panel to itself, and with the last trailer several months old at this point, you can bet that we’ll get another one with more footage and more of the story of the last great Targaryen king.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
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Amazon Prime will arrive in Hall H with one thing in mind: The studio’s billion-dollar bet on the pre-history of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Very little is known about the plot of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, but with the TV series’ premiere slated for Sept. 2, now is the time that Amazon will want to crank up the PR push.
Paramount: Star Trek and the D&D movie
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Paramount is headed to San Diego Comic-Con with two big Hall H panels to promote: one for everything Star Trek and one for Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, the upcoming live-action Dungeons & Dragons movie.
D&D: HAT stars Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, and Hugh Grant, wrapped filming last year, and is due in March 2023. Which means it’s about time for Paramount to show off a teaser or trailer.
As for the Star Trek Hall H panel, you can bet your bottom dollar that the studio will want to hype audiences up for the return of the Lower Decks animated series in August. With most of the rest of Paramount Plus’ Star Trek offerings slated to return in 2023, we can’t be sure of any teasers, trailers, or looks, but it’s safe to expect messages from the cast and crews about how they’re hard at work. And Paramount could always announce the next new Star Trek series it wants to set in its constellation of streaming originals — or give an update on one of its handful of theatrical Star Trek films currently in development.
The Marvel Cinematic Universe
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Rumors are already swirling about the potential revelations from Marvel Studios’ return to Hall H after three years away. The studio’s Saturday evening Hall H panel is traditionally the biggest hype moment of the convention, and the last time Marvel came to SDCC it was to reveal a torrent of news about its Phase 4 plans (all of which were pretty much immediately paused and reshuffled due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
There’s so much news Marvel could potentially reveal on Saturday that we broke it out into its own post. But the primary question is: Will Marvel drop the curtain on plans for Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Blade, and all the other projects on its calendar and beyond at SDCC? Or will Disney save the biggest news until September, when it hosts its own proprietary convention, D23, and just give Hall H a big look at Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and call it a night?
Warner Bros.’ DCEU
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Expectations for Warner Bros.’ Hall H panel are bounded by some of the same questions as Marvel’s. In the intervening two years of the pandemic, the company cooked up its own successful streaming “convention” for all DC Comics news, DC FanDome. And sure, Warner Bros. hasn’t announced a DC FanDome 2022 yet, but it’s only August. The studio might take SDCC as an opportunity to announce new casts, crews, directors, and projects on its calendar. Or it might decide to wait for its own news day later this year.
For what Warner Bros. is definitely bringing to SDCC this year, and the huge slate of developing projects that could feature in some big updates, check out our dedicated post.
Star Wars
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Between the Star Wars Celebration and D23 conventions, Star Wars has been sitting out SDCC for a while now, and 2022 should be no exception. By all accounts, Disney and Lucasfilm are saving all the news about Andor, The Mandalorian season 3, Taika Waititi’s untitled film, and any other updates about the franchise for a marathon panel at D23 on Saturday, Sept. 10.