Unfortunately, San Diego Comic-Con 2020, the annual event celebrating everything heroic, fantastical, and more, was cancelled due to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. However, an all-digital version of the event was still held in the form of Comic-Con@Home, which featured livestreams, recorded interviews, trailers and more spread throughout the convention’s typical Thursday-Sunday period.
While there weren’t as many major announcements – as many movies and TV shows have had to pause or delay filming due to the risk of spreading COVID-19 – as in most years, fans still got treated to plenty of exciting news tidbits during the weekend. While many of the Comic-Con@Home virtual events can be watched on YouTube, here’s a quick summary of some of the biggest and most exciting announcements from the digital weekend of fun:
TV Show Renewals
Lots of your favorite fantasy, science fiction, horror and action TV shows are returning for another season despite filming delays. Among the titles confirmed during Comic-Con@Home were:
- Season 2 of Amazon’s gritty superhero show The Boys. (It’s been renewed for a third season, too!)
- Season 6 of the chilling Fear the Walking Dead
- The finale of Season 10 of Fear’s parent show, The Walking Dead, which was delayed due to COVID-19. The show’s tenth season has also been expanded, with six new episodes coming in early 2021
- The long-awaited Season 4 of Western-inspired thriller Wynonna Earp
- Season 2 of the fantasy adaptation His Dark Materials, coming to HBO
- Season 11 of the popular animated dark comedy Archer
- Season 5 of another animated fan favorite, Rick and Morty, which will reportedly introduce a new nemesis for Rick
- The impressive 19th season of adult animated series Family Guy, introduced via a sizzle real parodying the X-Men films
- A renewal of Netflix’s The Dragon Prince for four more seasons, which will reportedly be the final four seasons of the show
- Hints that Mystery Science Theater 3000-related projects are still in development, even though the revived show will not be receiving another season on Netflix
- A series of Adventure Time spinoffs, collectively entitled Distant Lands, coming to HBO Max. The first, entitled Obsidian, will star fan-favorite couple Princess Bubblegum and Marceline
New TV Shows
Here’s the new television shows coming to various networks in the next couple of months – and let’s just say, they all look pretty binge-worthy, so free up your schedule!
- Hulu’s Helstrom, a horror series inspired by characters from Marvel Comics: siblings Daimon and Ana Helstrom, the children of a serial killer
- Amazon’s Utopia, a thrilling story about hidden conspiracies, developed by Gone Girl and Sharp Objects author Gillian Flynn
- Disney+’s The Right Stuff, a documentary series co-created by National Geographic, which tells the story of NASA’s early days and America’s first astronauts, the “Mercury Seven”
- Netflix’s Valhalla, a sequel to the popular historical fantasy series Vikings (which originally aired on the History Channel)
- A second Walking Dead spinoff, entitled World Beyond, which follows a group of teenagers who decide to leave their refuge to explore the wider world
- A brand new Star Trek live-action series entitled Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which is reportedly still in early development
- An animated Star Trek series subtitled Prodigy, which will be aimed at children, star a mostly teen cast, and air on Nickelodeon
- Another animated series, Star Trek: Lower Decks, a CBS All Access exclusive with a more adult tone which will focus on the hapless crew of Starfleet’s “least important” ship
- Legendary comedic duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost are teaming up for Truth Seekers, an Amazon show which sees the two investigating paranormal weirdness
- HBO’s Lovecraft Country will combine the horrors of supernatural creatures and racism as a courageous Black family learns about their startling history
Film News and Updates
Things were fairly quiet on the film front, due to so many projects having to pause or cancel filming to avoid spreading COVID-19. However, Comic-Con@Home did still have a few exciting announcements in store.
- The comedic adventure Bill & Ted Face the Music will release via video-on-demand (and hopefully in theaters, should they re-open) on September 1st
- Fox showed off the entire first scene as well as a brand new trailer for their final planned X-Men film, The New Mutants. The horror-thriller film, which has been delayed multiple times, is now slated to release on August 28.
- A live-action film based on the Mega Man video game franchise is still in development, with “big news” anticipated to be revealed sometime soon
- Jurassic World: Dominion, the third movie in the rebooted dinosaur action-horror-survival series, will feature animatronic dinosaurs, in honor of the ones used to create the amazing special effects of the original Jurassic Park film
- A number of films were delayed until 2021 and even further, including A Quiet Place 2, Top Gun: Maverick, and the sequel to James Cameron’s Avatar
What’s New in Comics
The event is called COMIC-Con, so of course there was plenty of news from your favorite comic authors. There’s tons of exciting titles in development, including new twists on popular superheroes and spinoffs starring characters from popular franchises.
- DC Comics previewed the final five installments of the darkly thrilling Dark Nights: Death Metal, with will see Batman facing off against a mysterious new villain called the Robin King
- DC is also publishing a sequel to its iconic Watchmen comic. Titled Rorshach, it will take place 35 years after the end of the original comic and feature a new individual taking on the name and identity of Rorshach
- The upcoming new arc of Lucasfilm Publishing’s Darth Vader comic series will reportedly tie into the events of the film The Rise of Skywalker
- Another upcoming Star Wars title, Dark Legends, will finally reveal the ancient Sith secret of immortality
- An entire saga of Star Wars comics, collectively titled The High Republic, will take place 200 years before the era of the Skywalker family
- Image Comics teased an upcoming series, Crossover, which will feature the characters and events of Image’s comics spilling over into the real world
- Oscar Isaac, known for roles including Apocalypse in X-Men and Poe Dameron in Star Wars, is writing and publishing his own comic. Titled Head Wounds: Sparrow, it is described as a “supernatural noir” title starring a detective who is unable to feel empathy.
- Another celebrity, Keanu Reeves, is co-writing a limited series called BRZRKR, which will reportedly be a bloody, intense action story
Everything Else
Of course, there were a few panels which either didn’t feature major announcements or didn’t fall into the clearly defined categories of film, TV or comic-book related news. Here’s a quick roundup of these additional panels:
- Mark Gatiss presented a video message celebrating the tenth anniversary of the show Sherlock, featuring himself in character as Mycroft Holmes talking about how much he was enjoying quarantine and social distancing
- The team behind the cult classic Constantine discussed their initial plans for a sequel, which was never made due to both the first film’s poor performance and its planned “hard-R” rating
- The New Mutants director outlined his scrapped plans for a trilogy of films, which did not get made due to Disney re-acquiring the characters involved
- The 2020 Will Eisner Comic Industry awards honored Invisible Kingdom, They Called Us Enemy, Guts, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, and more, including inducting Bill Watterson, Alison Bechdel, Stan Sakai and others into the Eisner Hall of Fame
- A number of figurines, toys and other collectible swag was announced, including a The Mandalorian bust, a commemorative Stan Lee figure based on his appearance in Thor: Ragnarok, and an “Ikemen” themed statue of The Joker
What was your favorite announcement from Comic-Con@Home? Let us know!
