For many, Marvel’s annual presentation at San Diego Comic-Con is the highlight of the entire week.
Past years have brought us such spectacle-worthy events like the announcement of RDJ as Iron Man, Tom Hiddleston in full Loki costume, every single member of the Avengers on-stage at the same time, test footage from Guardians of the Galaxy and Edgar Wright’s ill-fated Ant-Man, and last year, Josh Brolin showing up with his own Infinity Gauntlet.
So what’s this about Marvel not showing up?
Sadly, it looks like this is the year that Marvel’s streak ends. On Facebook this past weekend, Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn stated (pretty flatly) that Marvel will not be attending Comic-Con this year.
I’m crying.
That’s disappointing news, but it’s not entirely out of the blue. Marvel did hold a huge media event last October, which likely encompassed just about everything they could’ve announced at Comic-Con. Additionally, there is certainly some precedent for this decision. In 2011, Marvel opted not to have a Comic-Con Hall H panel, instead presenting the big announcements that year at D23 Expo (which coincidentally, is happening this year as well).
That being said, Gunn’s statement is likely referring to Marvel’s annual Hall H panel, and not the company’s showfloor presence. Marvel will almost certainly still have a booth set up, with all sorts of con-exclusive merch. They just probably won’t be debuting any killer footage at the event.
Any silver linings?
There is one possibility that we might still see something juicy though, and that’s if Marvel shows up at Sony’s panel. Sony’s presentation is usually a pretty small one compared to Marvel’s, but with the recent Spider-Man collaboration news… there is the remote chance that we’ll see something really cool.
