San Diego Comic-Con 2017 Roundup

Over the past four days, there have been a bunch of new movie news and trailers hitting the internet. Of course, this is all because of San Diego Comic-Con 2017. The 47 year old media convention has grown in popularity and scope over the course of its history. Originally a comic book and science fiction convention, Comic-Con now boasts some of the biggest film and pop culture news around. It even holds several Guinness World Records including being the largest annual festival of its kind in the world.

Similar to the Electronic Entertainment Expo (AKA E3) for video games, thousands of fans pack into the San Diego Convention Center every year to see sneak peeks of upcoming films and television shows and listen to panels of cast and crew talking about their upcoming work. While we here at Cinema Smack usually do write-ups for new trailers and movie news, we figured one big roundup would be better for something of this magnitude. While we can’t cover everything coming out, these are just our highlights of the goings-on at San Diego Comic-Con 2017!


The Walking Dead Season 8 and Fear the Walking Dead Season 3

Ugh. So, if any of you follow us on Facebook, you may have seen that we already shared The Walking Dead Season 8 trailer. We said that we didn’t have the heart to write anything about it. While this is true, it can’t really be left out of our SDCC roundup. We’re also lumping Fear the Walking Dead into this since it’s a companion series. As per usual, the trailer for The Walking Dead Season 8 is more of the same. We get to see the main characters, trees, some action, and old man Rick. Wait… Old man Rick? While the last image of the trailer is intriguing, we all know how TWD likes to do stupid stuff. Let’s hope that there’s a good idea in place and it isn’t like Rick wakes up in the hospital having dreamt the entire zombie apocalypse.

The Walking Dead Season 8 premieres on AMC on October 22nd. Fear the Walking Dead returns for the second half of Season 3 on September 10th.


American Horror Story: Cult

Like with every season of the horror anthology series, American Horror Story, the title reveal always seems to be a big event. After months of speculation, the title of “Cult” was revealed at Comic-Con 2017. Back in February, co-creator Ryan Murphy stated that Season 7 would revolve around the most recent presidential election. While Cult seems like a departure from that idea, it has been said that the season will follow secret societies during the fallout of the election. In all honesty, this seems like a very bland idea. The teaser/title reveal doesn’t show much of anything about the season but let’s hope that American Horror Story can rise above a ho-hum idea.

American Horror Story: Cult premieres on FX on September 5th.


Vikings Season 5 and Westworld Season 2

Sadly, Vikings and Westworld are both shows that we haven’t followed here at Cinema Smack. Though, they’ve been on our list for quite some time. With new seasons on the horizon for both shows, that’s definitely going to change. Unfortunately, that’s about all we can say about these two.

Vikings Season 5 premieres on History on November 29th while Westworld premieres on HBO in 2018.


The Defenders Season 1

Getting to the Netflix portion of this write-up, up first is The Defenders. We’ve covered both Luke Cage and Iron Fist on Cinema Smack and both have their ups and downs. However, The Defenders is actually looking pretty good so far. The character of Iron Fist is easily the blandest of the group but, hopefully, he’ll be able to blend better with the other three heroes. On top of everything, it was announced that Iron Fist would be getting a second season and that The Punisher would make an appearance in The Defenders ahead of his own series.

The Defenders Season 1 premieres on Netflix on August 18th.


Stranger Things Season 2

Now, for one of our most anticipated shows of the year, we have Stranger Things Season 2. We loved the first season of this awesome Stephen King-esque throwback series and Season 2 is looking great as well. From the Comic-Con 2017 trailer, it looks as if we’re going to get much more insight into the alternate dimension of the “Upside Down” and we also get to see the return of Eleven. Last year, this show exploded onto the scene and there’s no doubt that there’s already tons of hype surrounding this new season.

Stranger Things Season 2 premieres on Netflix on October 27th.


Bright

We’re now onto the film portion of our Comic-Con 2017 roundup and this one is just bizarre. In Bright, a human cop, played by Will Smith, teams up with an orc to retrieve a magic wand. Just let that sink in. Apparently, humans and mystical creatures live side by side in this Netflix Original directed by David Ayer. We’re not entirely sure what to think about this one as it kind of looks really stupid. Yet, it’s oddly intriguing as well. Ayer also directed last year’s Suicide Squad that starred Will Smith. While this may seem slightly discouraging, Smith was by far one of the best parts about that film. The jury is currently out on this one.

Bright will be released on Netflix on December 22nd.


Ready Player One

Here’s another weird one. Steven Spielberg’s next film will be Ready Player One. The creator of an online MMO video game dies and he releases a video that challenges gamers to find his Easter Egg that will give the finder his fortune. It’s kind of like a video gamer’s version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The trailer stealthily includes a number of character cameos and Easter eggs of its own. If you look carefully, you can pick out characters like Harley Quinn, the Iron Giant, and Freddy Krueger along with the Delorean from Back to the Future, the motorcycle from Akira, and Mad Max’s car. Overall, this trailer was a lot to take in but it’s interesting if nothing else.

Ready Player One will be released in theaters on March 30th, 2018.


Thor: Ragnarok

What is it with all of the insane movie trailers at Comic-Con 2017? Seriously. The newest trailer for Thor: Ragnarok is just as wild as the two aforementioned film trailers. While the Thor movies have never really been anyone’s favorites from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it certainly seems like Marvel is trying to instill a Guardians of the Galaxy type of vibe into Ragnarok. There’s more comedy, wild action, and unlikely alliances being formed in this new trailer. It doesn’t look bad necessarily but it looks like there’s going to be a lot of “stuff” thrown into this film. Of course, this is Marvel that we’re talking about though and they tend to pull through regardless of doubt. If nothing else, Ragnarok looks like it’ll be more fun than a usual Thor movie. So, that’s something.

Thor: Ragnarok will be released in theaters on November 3rd.


Justice League

Wow. TOO. MUCH. CGI. In all seriousness, this four minute sneak peek of Justice League is absolutely atrocious. Everything about it looks completely fake. Cyborg looks like complete garbage and it’s chocked full of the usual Zack Snyder issues. For any goodwill that Wonder Woman may have inspired, Justice League looks like it’s going to flush it all right back down the drain. They even blatantly rip off Jurassic Park at one point which is cringeworthy. We get our first look (kind of) at the film’s villain, Steppenwolf, who *surprise, surprise* is full CGI. The only thing that can be said is “wow.” This film just doesn’t look good. AT. ALL.

Justice League will be released in theaters on November 17th.


That’s all for our San Diego Comic-Con 2017 roundup! Obviously, we didn’t include every single trailer released but we wanted to spotlight some of the bigger and/or highly anticipated properties on display over the four day convention. There were some trailers shown that have yet to be released online as well and we’ll cover those individually as they become available.

Is there anything that we missed that you’re looking forward to? Let us know in the comment section below!

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