Comic-Con 2026: The Reaction (recorded in San Diego)

26:33Chris Hewitt:We should have been up to our balls in Dungeons & Dragons sequels by now. We should have been up to our balls in Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings sequels by now as well, which is a lovely way of segwaying into the Marvel panel. Dan, because you're a professional, you weren't able to get into Hall H or any of the other rooms to see stuff. Yeah, they don't let professionals in there. They don't let professionals. Well, no, you'd have to queue with riffraff. Yes. Yes. Whereas, you know, I'm very, very lucky. I realized this and I was able to be whisked in through a special side entrance and then taken to reserve seating near the stage, but not, not, you know, not right by the stage.

27:07Chris Hewitt:How was it? How was it, Chris? It was the energy in the room. The energy. I mean, I always like the Beatlemania, that energy, and I'm not always in that room and certainly haven't been in there for nine years because of pandemics and other things. But on the few occasions when I have been there, because most of the time I'm over here at the Hilton Bay front at the press line waiting for the press line to begin. And then over the years, I realized, well, the press line can't begin until the panel is over because everyone's there. I mean, how did you figure that out? I know. Honestly, sitting there sometimes waiting for like an hour, hour and a half.

27:39Chris Hewitt:And you go, well, of course they can't be here because they're there. Anyway, so I have seen amazing things at Hall H. I wasn't there obviously for Downey being revealed as Doctor Doom two years ago. But I have felt sometimes just the hair standing up in the back of my neck, goosebumps breaking out of my flesh whenever they've announced something incredible or they've dropped footage from something like, oh, I don't know, Age of Ultron or things like that. Or when Tom Hiddleston appeared as Loki, little things like that. Today I think was pretty much up there, which is interesting because, you know, Obviously, Doomsday is a bit more of an unknown quantity than I'd say Infinity War or Endgame were.

28:19Chris Hewitt:It doesn't have the same benefit of a smash hit run up. Marvel have faltered a little bit over the last few years. Not everything is a$800 million grossing behemoth anymore. Last year, they released three films, one of which in particular, Thunderbolts was excellent. I love that. Fantastic Four was solid to very good. I love that too. And I enjoy Brave New World. I realize now, in hindsight, I'm the only one who did. But it's fine. But none of those ripped up the joint in terms of the box office. And so they're not coming into this with a position of strength or a position of infallibility that I think they maybe once had.

29:06it doesn't feel like it has the same momentum behind it that infinity war did yeah um which is i mean i'm still excited about it i mean like i'm hugely excited about it and most people i know who are into the mcu are also it's not like we're not excited yeah just in terms of that kind of that bigger broader audience is there the same anticipation i don't know that yeah i don't think

29:31Chris Hewitt:there is well something like a deadpool and wolverine because we were saying the same things You know, people were beginning to sound almost a death knell that the good ship Marvel had taken on some water below the water line. It was beginning to begin to sink a little bit. It would never sink, but certainly would, you know, maybe engage a couple of the lifeboats. And, you know, I just feel like that, that, you know, the kind of death knell we were sounding or some people were sounding was maybe a little bit premature. You know, Deadpool and Wolverine made 1.4 billion, something like that, coming off a pretty bad year in 2023.

30:12Chris Hewitt:Yeah. You know, with the Marvels not doing well and Quantumania not doing well. So you know, I think that the appetite is still there. The excitement is still there. The trailer, from what I understand, you know, how much of this you take with a pinch of salt, I don't know. But the trailer, from what I understand, did record breaking numbers. That's true. So there might be still the excitement for this movie and also the fact that, you know, brand new days dropping in a few days time. Spider-Man brand new days dropping in a few days time. Maybe once again, maybe the the opposite is true of of what happened with Infinity War and Endgame, which was able to ride that wave and the the the rising tide lifted all boats.

30:52Chris Hewitt:So it was able to the momentum of Infinity War and Endgame was able to get things like Captain Marvel to a billion, was able to get things like Ant-Man and the Wasp to whatever did 600 million was able to get Thor Ragnarok to 800 million all that sort of stuff so people were just like we want more of this we're excited we're on we're rolling on a wave here this is the opposite tact this is uh you're getting very little mcu you're getting three films we're introducing the fantastic four but we're not we're not aligning about dr doom the footage made clear that the fantastic four pedro pascal and finessa kirby sue storm no dr doom yeah they're old friends with dr doom yeah i wouldn't have minded that being established in that movie but hey that's okay uh and now you're only getting one marvel movie before before doomsday and maybe they're creating that appetite through withholding i I think that's maybe something that's happening.

31:52I don't know. Treat him mean to keep him keen. You could say that. You could say that. I'm not sure I would. I could see that. That's that's kind of the stress on the wall in the Marvel marketing strategy.

32:05Chris Hewitt:It might be part of Dr. Doom's ethos is what I can say. But I'll go talk you through real quick. There were other panels to talk about. And I was at a few other panels this year, but I was very much a one man band this year at Comic Con. So I was pretty much stretched from pillar to post. so I wasn't able to I wasn't doing as much filming as I would like normally when we did the 50 bloggers with Sam Toy that's all I would be doing pretty much going from place to place, doing interviews doing comedy bits well, so called comedy bits 50 bloggers man 50 bloggers man, RIP the 50 bloggers man cinematic universe has not yet been announced is he in Doomsday?

32:42Chris Hewitt:he is in Doomsday, yes, we just see him right behind the back going, oh excuse me Dr Doom him what was 50 blogging so his man voice was more like that but I'm bad Barry yeah yeah it was very Matt yeah very Matt Barry anyway um uh alarmingly so Matt Barry in fact in fact at the time I was going not many people know Matt Barry so I can do his voice and get away with it now I'd be like why are you doing a shit Matt Barry anyway uh and then obviously there were other people coming out to Comic-Con and doing other things and going to panels and doing all sorts of stuff over the years when we had a bigger presence at Comic-Con last year became was 2017 where we had our own studio, we had our own suite and we did photo shoots and video interviews and all sorts of stuff.

33:20Chris Hewitt:It was amazing. And then the pandemic happened and some various other reasons and we didn't come back since then. Except for this year when it was a fairly late decision to send me out here, which is why I was one man banding it. So thank you for helping me out with the Doomsday Marvel press line, by the way. Very, very much appreciate you. You're a very capable one man band. Well, thank you. But I'm do the moniker and the and the ankle symbols but not at the same time that's the problem uh and i i'm really really really fucking exhausted which is why i'm rambling and just saying nonsense but i went to a lot of other panels and i went to a lot of stuff and i was on the floor and i spoke to really really cool people and i had a really really great time yeah but if i'm completely honest the only reason i was here was for the marvel panel and was surprised for avengers doomsday well not just not just me being a mcu fan and not just me being you know um you know uh kevin flanke's brother from another mother or whatever it is uh i was sent to do this essentially as well and it's important to empire as a brand that i that we we covered this panel and we were actually there in the room and got to experience and i think if i could have gone to one yeah if i could have gone to one panel that's the one i would have gone to yeah like you know and most people would say that i mean that's today that's tech today for example so i was in hall h most of the day and i had a decent time i had a nice time but nothing made the hairs in the back of my neck stand up until marvel so i was at a star trek okay let me walk that back a second because there was something really really lovely in the star trek at 60 panel so it was a started off the star trek universe panel which was split into two parts one was a celebration star trek at 60 that had a representative from pretty much every televisual iteration of Star Trek on this panel.

35:08Chris Hewitt:So George Takei was there, which was amazing. Michael Dorn was there, Robert Picardo was there, Michelle Hurd was there, Christina Chong was there, you know, pretty much Anson Mount, no, Anson Mount wasn't on that one. And then they had a Strange New Worlds panel as well. And seeing George Takei being brought out on the stage in a wheelchair because he's now, you know, obviously quite old but his mind is still so sharp and his voice is still so powerful genuinely i got really emotional about it uh there was a big standing innovation for him the second one i saw at this year's comic-con because rick moranis was part of the space balls panel oh yeah yeah yeah yeah friday and that was wonderful as well because he hasn't done anything in years he's been essentially retired 30 years 30 years yeah he's done some life uh some voice over stuff and the odd cameo in some tv movies and a ryan reynolds mid mobile i think or ryan reynolds advert certainly a couple of years ago but otherwise he hadn't done anything and then he was there for the space balls the new one panel by the way that looks really genuinely funny and quite cinematic as well so i'm i'm i'm excited and they were combing the crowd they got a big comb didn't they they were doing the big comb they were looking for rick moranis because the guy was he was still reclusive they'd lost him on the way to the stage and then of course there he was sitting and the audience's dark helmet.

36:28Chris Hewitt:And then he comes to the stage and it's just this grand standing ofvation for this comedy legend. And the Space Boss panel was great. I really enjoyed being there. And it was a lovely panel as well for Pan's Labyrinth at 20 with Guillermo del Toro, Guillermo del Faro and Ivana Becquero, who is the young actress from it now. She's now 32, I think. Oh, man. Doug Jones, of course, played the Pale Man and the Faun. Who is also now 32. He is now also 32 years old. He was on the Star Trek at 60 panel as well, by the way, because he's in Star Trek Discovery. Yeah. And it was a lovely moment just when George Takei came out.

37:02Chris Hewitt:It was another standing ovation. And Michelle Hurd kind of became emotional as well, talking about how much it meant to her, you know, watching the original series and watching the Shell Nichols as Uhura and then being sat next to Sulu. And she began to break down in, you know, a little bit, not like full-blown, and squirting a few Millers Crossing tears, but certainly she was emotional about it. And that made me emotional as well. So that was a lovely panel as well. Then the Apple TV panel was fine. Matchbox the movie, which seems to have more of a reason for existing than I had assumed. So you were telling me earlier, I was disappointed to hear that's not John Cena being turned into a micro-Cena and driving around in toy cars.

37:49No. That's not that.

37:50Chris Hewitt:I thought that's what it was going to be, but it's not it appears to be some sort of fast and furious-y thing like a caper thing with these five childhood friends who grew up playing matchbox toys that's the conceit that's the way into it I otherwise I don't think that there's a really great connection between matchbox and what happens in the movie I actually quite like that it's quite elegant as kids we loved playing with matchbox toys then we grew up a bit like it we all kind of we some of us stayed in touch but this guy john cena went off became a spy and now he's come back into our lives and we get caught up in his spy shenanigans and there's lots of car chases and motorbike chases and vehicle chases and because we were able to play with matchbox toys as kids we're able to kind of go not like superpowers but we're going hey we're driving just you know we're just going to do a stunt with this car just like we did with matchbox toys when we were kids i mean now it's a tank it's that kind thing so it seemed to have a nice knowing quality to it i'm you know i i'm i'm as skeptical about this movie as you are dan but the the footage was funny okay the panel was very funny okay john cena was on good form he drank a entire bottle of water in one gulp why because he was just on it man he came in hot what can i say he came in hot but it was it was it a dare did someone say i bet you can't no he just one no he just went he was talking because he was on very very performing he was he was he was really performing he was playing to the crowd and he went now i'm going to drink this water in one go and he just did it and everyone was like oh my god that's the greatest thing i've ever seen i mean i'm a big john cena fan yeah um but i'm not sure that would impress me yeah it did yeah that don't impress me much all right shania uh uh anyway so that looked fine uh john francis daly and jonathan goldstein came out and they brought a big fan of those guys uh mayday i um my understanding is it's very good and uh i'm very much looking forward to it and certainly the clip which had ryan reynolds and kenneth browner trying to get out of a gnarly situation was very very funny and inventive and cinematic all the things you expect from these guys more of a game night five than a dungeons and dragons Oh, well, I mean, I love Game Night.

40:02Chris Hewitt:I mean, Game Night, in my opinion, the greatest comedy of the last two. I'm going to backdate this so I don't include Anchorman last 20 years. Yeah, I don't think you're wrong. Unless although we did have we had this discussion recently, unless you count Dungeons and Dragons as a comedy like I do. It's more than it is a comedy, but it's more than a comedy. Whereas I suppose Game Night is just operating almost purely within that genre. No, I think that I accept that Dungeons and Dragons is a comedy. I think Game Night is a superior comedy. Ooh, okay. Okay. Fight? Want to fight? Yeah, no, no, no, no.

40:40I'm considering it. Okay. I'm not, I think, I think, I will accept. This isn't fighting music, by the way.

40:46Chris Hewitt:No, this is loving music. This is definitely. We'll get to that. We'll get to that. Anyway, so that panel was okay. and it had like it had like there was more stuff for apple tv shows like dark matter and silo and and widows bay which i thought might have been a season two kind of tease but was actually kind of a victory lap for for where's the way yeah because so those days out there and silos like what four episodes in now precisely so to be honest yeah i kind of had a sophie's choice today actually i'd say worse than the choice she was presented within that film yeah because i had a choice between going to the Apple TV panel or the Reacher panel.

41:21Chris Hewitt:And I thought that Apple TV might be more salient for our listeners and for our readers. And so I went to that and I kind of, it was a bit of a busted flush just from my point of view in terms of like, is there much here for people to glom onto? Because people want to go to these things to come out with great big chunks of news. And I didn't go to the Reacher panel and I had great big chunks of news. So they announced that the fifth season of Reacher is going to be based on Make Me, which is book 20, and is one of my favorite books. They're kind of, weirdly enough, the last three seasons of Reacher have been hitting my favorite Reacher books.

41:56Chris Hewitt:So Persuader, and then Gone Tomorrow, which is a new season that's about to start, and now Make Me, which is effectively, I think, one of the last lead child solo books, and I'm very, very excited about that. But they also announced there's going to be a Negley book, which is the kind of his, not sidekick, but his loyal friend, played by Maria Sten in those shows. Alan Richland, of course. Sorry, Jack Reacher is Alan Richland. And she's now getting her own book, her first book, which will be co-written by Lee Child and another author as well. Okay. Yeah. Anyway, so I probably would rather go into that panel.

42:33Chris Hewitt:But anyway... I would have made the same choice. Yeah, that's what I tell myself. That's what keeps me sleeping at night. But the whole H, Marvel Studios panel, was not going to miss for the world and I'm so so glad I did so I'm going to run through very quickly the highlights so it started off with uh Kevin Feige it started off with this incredible recap reel of the MCU I was again genuinely goosebumps inducing um and featuring not just MCU characters but the x-men you know from the fox movies and whatnot which was great Feige comes out on stage and then does a bit of business announcing the Ghost Rider movie in 2028.

43:17Chris Hewitt:Yeah. Which seemed to be willed into being over the years by Ryan Gosling, who has been talking about this. Now, the interesting thing about this - So he drove it. Do you drive a bike? He rode it. The interesting thing about this, because people I know will immediately be going, yeah hang on Chris but didn't Feige stand on that stage what eight nine years ago and announce Inhumans as part of phase three or four and that never got made and didn't he stand on that stage about four years ago maybe five years ago with Mahershala Ali and announced Blade yeah and we're still waiting for that movie to be made yeah uh yes is the answer to both of those but this ghost writer has a release date so it's coming in 2028 and it has a director sean levy which is not the blade movie had directors but never really got to that point okay so that was exciting so he announced that um he talked about what else did you talk about at that point then it was very much i think on to doomsday pretty much i don't think they meant i don't think they talked about anything else uh yes they did what do they do what black panther that's at the end though oh okay okay so then they he talked about Doomsday and he brought on the Russos, Joe Anthony Russo, the directors of that movie.

44:41Chris Hewitt:And then they did something that I believe has never been done before. They did a little bit of business going, oh, I can't see anyone at the back. Oh my God, what's it like being in the back? And you can't see us, we're just ants here. Well, what if we turned the back of the arena into the front of the arena? And then they went, ah, the curtains came back and suddenly there were two massive stages at the back of the arena containing the X-Men, the new Avengers and Sam Wilson's Avengers from this movie at least the ones who were here because some people like Chris Hemsworth he's down in Australia filming Extraction 3 so he wasn't here but it was still an amazing couldn't be bothered couldn't be arsed mate couldn't be bothered nor did Sam Hargrave who was directing it so he couldn't be here for the Matchbox panel so honestly I mean really yeah what the fuck are you doing just just just get on the Bifrost just because you made ham down yeah he'll swear to that i know he's dead oh dear uh anyway uh so then they all came on stage and down he was there and down he gave people a little taste of his doom accent there were loads of people dressed in the audience dressed as doom in the audience but that's not really why we were here we were here to see some footage from avengers doomsday and we got it we got some footage from avengers doomsday and dan i have to say um you know listen Christ, I could not be more in the tank for this movie.

46:00Chris Hewitt:I realize that. I accept that. But it did look really fucking good. Okay. And it has, I mean, I've got notes written down somewhere. I can't look at them right now because we're doing this. But it has a voiceover from Vanessa Kirby, Sue Storm, describing to people what the Victor Von Doom she knew was like. Right. And over it you see footage of a lot of the characters in this movie looking quite distraught and quite distressed. And she was saying, you know, the Victor Von Dumain knew was kind, the Victor Von Dumain knew was wise. But then he trundled the trolley past and made some noise. But then he lost everything, his wife and kid.

46:54Chris Hewitt:and and and then i knew he was hurting but i didn't know he was broken and then so we get them some shots of of doom in um you know down in his doom get up which which looks incredible and we have a there's a couple of shots in there of some sort of desolation like some somewhere has been utterly destroyed and pedro pascal as reed richards is grabbing doom and going did you do this victor did you do this uh and then we get a little bit more of a shot of you know what i'm going to take a look at this is really oh there's a really nice line of dialogue i want to take a look at my notes okay real quick here okay um that's all right we've got we've got whole music going on in the background anyway so you know don't talk while i'm i'm getting my laptop out okay okay well i don't want to jump the gummies but one of the things that's excited me that i i mean and whether this is a a revelation that i'm late to or whether this is a new one is that they've connected doom with the sentinels yes which you know uh from the fanboy perspective is kind of like okay oh that that that that that works i've written this down yeah i've written this so i wondered why there's a big sentinel down on the on the on the floor yes in the main bit and i kind of thought oh okay why you know because there's a display an avengers doomsday display on the main floor that i went and checked out there is and uh i thought why is there a sentinel and that's quite surprising and then i learned you learned the doom's doom's made the sentinels no he doesn't he doesn't make all he's he's connected in they connected him too okay yeah if you let me explain well you asked me to finish you asked me finished you i was just jesus christ well you got your thing out and looked at the stuff all right so i'm doom uh the footage starts Doom is sitting on a throne.

48:48Chris Hewitt:Vanessa Kirby says he was always the smartest guy in the room. He used to be different. He used to be kind. He used to be caring. Then I've written Magneto and Gambit and Cap. I don't think she says that. I don't think she says Magneto and Gambit and Cap. So what happened with Doom then? He basically didn't get radicalized by social media. Was that it? Did he spend too long on X? Is that what happened? He did. And then everything he loved was taken from him as Twitter was taken from me. Yeah. Yeah. And then he was lost. and I did not realize that he was broken. And then we have a shot of doom looking menacing and then Pedro Pascal going, Victor, did you do this?

49:21Chris Hewitt:And then we hear Downey as Doom going, all of you have lived stolen lives. Now you must give them back. And then there's another bit where Pedro Pascal is going, answer me, Victor, did you do this? And the answer clearly is yes, that this doom is very, very powerful. He's into magic, he's into science, he's a formidable foe, and he's done something horrible to some place. What that place is, I do not know. What that horrible thing is, I do not know. But maybe the Sentinels were involved. Dan, I'm getting to the fucking Sentinels. Jesus. Then we have an extended look at the Thor versus Doom face-off from the trailer, which has a great line from Chris Hemsworth's thor before he goes to attack uh doom he says uh in uh that kind of mostly english but slightly australian uh thor that he's becoming more and more as hemsworth plays the role he goes i swear you will beg for hell long before i grant it and he swings a stormbreaker and then doom stops him with just two fingers and then thor's like oh fuck and he gets propelled back with an energy being by the way if you don't want to know what's happening in this in this footage stop listening um and then uh and then doom rises up after having smited or smoked thor smitten smitten uh and he says hell answers to me oh and then dan that's when he does some magical conjuring and and raises from behind him an army of sentinels.

51:08Chris Hewitt:Of sentinels? Yes. Awesome. And I'm beginning to see why in the trailer, Thor is a little bit like, yeah, this guy's quite powerful and we may be fucked. It's a paraphrase. But that was the footage. And then that's all they showed from Doomsday. It was short, but it was sweet. And it gives you a real idea of Downey. And there is not, for me anyway, an iota of Tony Stark in this performance. It's not in the voice, not in the mannerisms, not in the way he carries himself. And we've had this discussion on the podcast, and I'm probably going to be proven wrong on December 18th. But I don't think it's going to be revealed that he's Tony Stark gone wrong.

51:45Chris Hewitt:I don't think that's going to happen. It just seems too obvious. It just seems like, yeah, it seems like, OK, there is an element of like, why cast him as this role? There's many other people that probably be very good at it, what have you. So there must be a reason for it. But also at the same time, okay, there must be a reason for it, but you've seeded something really obvious there in terms of audience expectation. It's just too in front of you. It's too right there in front of you to think that they would do that. And also they've double-casted people in the MCU before. They have. I mean, Gemma Chan's played two people.

52:25Yeah, Laura Haddock.

52:27Chris Hewitt:Yeah. Um, Marshall Ali would have been, I mean, he may still well be. Uh, technically he has been in the MCU as Blade. So yeah, there's, there's another one. And also kind of not really, but all kind of Josh Brolin, but not really, if you see what I mean, because he's, he's Cable and Thanos. Yeah. I know obviously he was an MCU at that time. And Ryan Reynolds. Of course. Yeah. And Chris Evans. And you know, if you're counting things that have been now been brought into the MCU multiversally, then yeah a lot of people yeah have played more than one role within this so why why shouldn't i just don't see it um the the real test for me will be whether we see his face and you know and what that face will look like because doom obviously traditionally doesn't reveal his face doesn't take the the helmet off doesn't take the mask off you would argue that you know you're paying robert downey jr quite a lot of money we'd like to see the uh the old money maker at some point but i think he's committed to this role yeah i think it might be like a carl urban and dread type thing where he's just like you know what i'm not going to do that and then if he does take the mask off does he look like tony stark and if he looks like tony stark does he look like tony stark enough that it means something to the people in the movie to whom tony stark meant something yeah because the movie is not liberally festooned with people who worked closely with tony stark There is, I mean, obviously Tony Stark was a very famous guy in this world, but Anthony Mackie, Paul Rudd, maybe, Chris Evans, obviously, and Hemsworth, obviously.

54:07Chris Hewitt:But by and large, these are new characters who would not have interacted with Tony Stark and who would not have had the emotional impact. Like if Doom takes off his mask and looks like Tony Stark, I don't think it means a lot to Shang-Chi. I don't think it means a lot to Gambit. It doesn't mean a lot to Gambit. It doesn't mean a lot to Pedro Pascal because Tony Stark wouldn't even have been born in his world had there been a Tony Stark in his reality. So I don't think they're going to go down that route. I really don't. I think you're right. I think that's really interesting. You know, the idea he's just going to work with the mask in this case, that's what it's going to be.

54:45You know, but then again,

54:50Chris Hewitt:But then again, it's still there, isn't it? But then, you know, maybe it's like a mask beneath a mask. Maybe there's prosthetics or they've done something that's going to so change his appearance. Yeah. The voice is different. The mannerisms are different. The one thing I'm slightly concerned about with Doom, and we'll wrap up in a second. The one thing I'm concerned about boot doom is that tony stark was so winning and it's such a forceful personality that you know pretty soon he you know he obviously started the mcu but you know he was to all intents and purposes the anchor being of the mcu yeah uh when he died his loss was keenly felt and a lot of that was Downey, you know, that line between Downey and Stark is indistinguishable at times.

55:40Chris Hewitt:And. Is Von Doom going to have the same impact? Is he going to have the same killer dialogue? Is he going to have the same charisma that Tony Stark had? Maybe it's a different type of charisma. I think it'll be different. I think it will be different. I mean, OK, so I would say if you wanted to feel a bit, you know, uh reassured about that i mean think about what downey was like in oppenheimer for example for which he won an academy award which he won an academy award which was very different performance from him very different style sort of very different kind of a presence yeah but really impactful yeah you know and and and really you know i mean obviously killian murphy held that film together but you know he was the perfect nemesis uh for for killian murphy's uh oppenheimer and i just think he's got that in him to do that and i think yeah sure i think we can have a kind of like oppenheimer slash tony stark kind of combo going on with uh with with von doom um so yeah all right yeah um so that was the footage then all the cast left then feige came back on stage and said one more thing we've got one more movie to announce and flashed up a screen he said you know we'll be working with a lot of great filmmakers some of them go off and they win Oscars but then they want to come back and they want to make another movie so Ryan Coogler and they announced Black Panther 3 and they gave it a release date of December 15th 2028 and this Coogler seemed to intimate that it's gonna be shot in IMAX oh wow which is which is great and then they when they have more bit of casting to announce.

57:21Chris Hewitt:They brought out Letitia Wright and Winston Duke, who had been on stage for the big Doomsday thing as well. Letitia Wright, of course, plays Shuri and Winston Duke is in Baku. New King of Wakanda. Shuri, of course, the current Black Panther. We know there's going to be a lot of upheaval in Doomsday and Secret Wars. There's going to be lots of that the universe is going to be made anew again in the wake of that. So it's interesting that they announced and this is Ryan Coogler's actual actual words, the new Black Panther so at the end of Black Panther, Picanto Forever, T 'Challa's son was introduced, but a young kid and now in this movie, he's all grown up now, and he's going to be played by, you'll know if you've been listening to this if you've been keeping your ear to the ground the wonderful David Johnson, and I was so, so happy to see that he came out on the stage and he was very, very humble and and decent, I think, in that David Johnson way that I think is so recognizable.

58:22Chris Hewitt:There's something innately, I think, kind about David Johnson, which is not to say he can't play dickheads. He can, and he has. But in my dealings with him, and certainly my relationship with the characters he's played on screen, there's a decency and a warmth in him, which is very Chadwick Boseman, and I think makes him a great, great choice for this. And also, quite frankly, he's a phenomenal fucking actor. He's brilliant. As Bozeman was. As Bozeman was. I'm so, so happy about this. There's so much to get into with the release schedules and what they're doing. Ghost Rider, which is brand new.

59:04Chris Hewitt:The Black Panther, but there's a grown-up new Black Panther. so what does that mean for shuri where is that was that going to leave her at the end of secret wars is there going to be some timey-wimey are we pulling people from different multiverses together and to form a new mcu you know it's interesting that they haven't announced feige hinted in my interview with them that there's going to be more things announced for 2028 but you know where are we with things like spider-man at the end of secret wars when all when the dust is settled where are we is downy for example a a two and done as doom yeah is he going to do doomsday and secret wars and then that's him is he done or is doom going to stick around in the mcu you know where's spider-man where's thor where's where what's going to happen to chris evans cap now that he's back anthony mackie what you know the new avengers shang chi all these characters are they going to be left on the board you know it's it's an exciting time dan yeah it's an exciting time i know and you didn't even mention loki yeah he was on the footage he was in the footage hiddleston wasn't there i thought hiddleston was going to be there i'll be honest um but he was not there i'm fascinated to see how looking fits into because where he ended up at the end of loki seemed pretty much definitive like okay that's that's loki done with they're finished with that character interestingly you just reminded me of something in its footage.

1:00:27Chris Hewitt:That line that Doom said about, you are living stolen lives. Yeah. There was a shot of Loki over that. And this Loki is living a stolen life. Indeed. Yeah, he's the variant. Yeah. So is Doom coming to different planets, to different realities, to different universes? There's some sort of incursion business going on. i'm pretty sure that's that's the case i don't know anyway i think he's yeah is his mission to tidy up the timelines in a kind of the way the tva was supposed to possibly didn't or something i don't know i think there's something more to it as well but you know we'll we'll find out what he's up to soon enough december 18th um i'm excited yeah i'm genuinely excited it looks epic and uh yeah it looks great and also just quite simply dr doom was always one of the coolest villains in the comic books and yeah and and the movies never got him right up until this point no they never did julian mcmahon uh r.i.p and toby kebbel yeah he just wasn't given a chance in that movie and and i can see why they didn't do dr doom and the uh fantastic four first steps because they've done that and they are they always want to avoid stuff then again they did galactic galactus and Silver Surfer again, but with different tweaks, I guess.

1:01:49Chris Hewitt:But better. And better, in fairness. Yeah. But I still would have liked to have seen a downy thing, but I guess, you know, you're not going to be able to do that because that's another 30 million on the budget or something. You know, so who knows? Going around this up very, very quickly. I want to talk about very, very quickly. One last panel I went to, which was for Adam Wingard's Onslaught, which is not the guest to, but also is not not the guest to. because it's also about mad, unkillable super soldiers. It takes place in the same town as The Guest, and the soldiers seem to come from the same program that Dan Stevens' David did in The Guest, which is, if you've never seen The Guest, 2014, Adam Wingard, incredible black comic, blackly comedic action horror thriller.

1:02:39Chris Hewitt:It turned Dan Stevens into the Empire podcast's spirit animal for quite some time. He had to beat off a lot of American men for that role. He had to beat off a lot of American men. And for this, he's in this movie. And when he was announced as being in this movie, that's what made me think it's the guest too. But he's not. He's playing a completely different character. He's playing some sort of wizened, maniacal old Nazi who's responsible for the program and who likes to lick feet. But it looks absolutely insane. The panel was so much fun. host by Kevin Smith who is able to give people on panels shit and get away with it in a way that nobody else can because he ribs him very very affectionately.

1:03:23Chris Hewitt:Wingard was great value. Adria Arjona who's the leader of this movie looks incredible and was very very much you know a lot of fun. Dan Stevens was having a lot of fun. Rebecca Hall, Drew Starkey. Film looks fucking amazing. It's out on September 5th in the US. It doesn't have a release date over here yet dan i say over here we're in the states now but you know what i mean i know what you mean that's concerning it's downright annoying is what it is yeah so basically it hasn't been no one's picked it up for this no it's been picked up they just haven't they haven't um they just haven't given that release date yet and i i want my onslaught and i want it now okay oh well you just have to uh do some dodgy stuff with a vpn no no uh don't do that and winners don't use drugs um finally how was your comic-con did you walk the floor did you enjoy the floor yeah and what are you you know this is your first time being here uh it was my first time in nine years uh i i genuinely get such a kick out of being here and it's not just the fact that we get to see these incredible panels we get to talk to these people for sometimes three minutes which is incredible But I genuinely love that everyone here is here for the same reason.

1:04:40Chris Hewitt:And they're here to celebrate geek culture and they're here to celebrate, no matter what it is, you know, board games in your case, tabletop gaming, just art in general, comic books, films, television, manga games whatever whatever your your choice of poison i can count on maybe the fingers of two fingers over the years the times i've had aggro with someone here the times where i've maybe had a you know run into a dickhead yeah tell them your burger story then my what sorry tell me the burger story because i think i think it illustrates just what an amazing place comic-con is and what the and the the um the people who come to comic-con are just wonderful wonderful people yeah yeah so so we were getting a quick burger here at the hilton and uh i got to the front and my credit card you know i had to it wasn't accepted with a quick swipe and i had to do the thing where you insert it and do the the pin code and i was just basically having a a craft moment as they say a what moment craft can't remember a thing i've never heard that before yeah um cool so i was having my craft moment and i like i just i forgot the pin number but you know and i'm just like what is it what is what is it and then this this just this lady just this nice person just behind she just leaned in and went don't worry i got this babe and then tapped her card yeah on the thing yeah and i was so flabbergasted by this random act of kindness yeah from a stranger but i don't think i even said thank you i i just went oh what are you sure what hey and then she was gone she was then she was she was gone she was just like my work here is done yeah and wafted down she yelled back over her shoulder because neither of us were quite sure what had happened yeah um because the lady behind the desk thought your card is just always gone through and i'm like that wasn't me but she had paid for it she shouted over her shoulder don't worry about it just do a squiggle for the signature because in the states it's so backward here they actually still get you to sign stuff yeah just so weird yeah uh and uh and and at a five dollar tip she said that did you hear that and i bet you didn't i didn't no there you go i didn't because at a five dollar tip and just sign just do a squiggle i didn't even hear that because i was just like you were so i was just in this moment of like you know you were genuinely beating yourself up about not having said i was i i felt really bad about not saying thank you opus day in your hotel room later on that i really hope that person if she's listening to this thank you from the bottom of my heart that was that was a random act of of kindness and i intend to pay it forward in some way yes if you were the red-headed lady who paid for a random stranger's burger because he was flapping around with the and called me about ankle be bay and called you baby feel good about myself she was with a man no she It wasn't a sexual component here.

1:07:45Chris Hewitt:It was just a nice thing. If you were that lady and you disappeared in the distance in the Hilton Bayfront, by the way, those$13 burgers have kept me going in the last couple of days. Oh my God, I eat so badly out here. It's not just that I don't eat. And when I do eat, it's terrible. Except it's not terrible because those burgers are really nice. The Hilton Bayfront does burgers. I had the Impossible Burger, by the way, which was actually very nice. I've never had one. I reject their existence anyway but yeah it was amazing and I just think that that shows what people are like at Comic Con there's such a wellspring of kindness here everyone's in the same boat I love the people who come out here and they are utterly themselves there are things about Comic Con I'm not great on there are things I don't like I think there's an over-officiousness it's overly regimented and regulated but when you get past that the people are just terrific and I felt this since day one you know I the sense of belonging that people feel when it's a tribe who may yeah but people who just you know maybe don't belong in their everyday lives or they struggle in their everyday lives and they can come here and they can dress up as their favorite character and they put such heart and soul into this stuff and they look incredible and everyone is just so warm and friendly and i love this place i don't want it to be nine years before i come back yeah i find this i do a lot of board game conventions you know the uk games expo nerd and it's the same vibe you know it's it's it's it's it's it's the the nerd tribe coming together and and just like loving you know doing this thing they love together and it's it's always really uplifting it's a genuinely uplifting experience and yeah i just kind of like i was walking the hall to the other halls today and getting that same and actually i found the board game area oh no great because i thought that was my mission i set myself uh i had to find the board game area it's on the mezzanine i don't know what the mezzanine is most people don't know what or where that is so i thought i'm gonna find the damn mezzanine and I found it and I found the rooms and it's just like it's just a tiny little almost like a little boutique area of the con uh where the where the board game loving people are and I went in there and I found it and I met some guys who had were there with their little independent card game called uh herdvana um about about creating little herds of animals and I sat down with them for 30 minutes and I played a little card game with them and I just saw it for it just felt for a few moments like i was at a board game convention and then i went back into the you know the big madness of everything else but um but yeah yeah so so just to say just for anyone who's into board games come to comic-con 2 there is an area for you as well um but yeah yeah yeah it's it's it's been really cool but you know obviously the best thing was being here uh as talent and being on a panel and yeah getting to look down on you Chris Hewitt from a stage from a stage at Comic-Con looking down at you was the the best moment they wouldn't let me ask a question no but I did wave to you you did I did wave I did I I was very supportive I was very supportive you were you were you uh you you sort of you were there cheering I was cheering leading the cheers I am I'm I'm a good hype man.

1:11:21What can I say?

1:11:22Chris Hewitt:Yeah. All right. That's pretty much it. This has been just a wonderful, wonderful experience to be back at Comic-Con. I've loved pretty much every second of it, with the possible exception of the Apple TV panel. Oh, man. That's neither here nor there. And, you know, it was just, it's just great to be back. And, you know, I don't want it to be nine years before the next one. And, in fact, next year I'd love to come back. If anyone from Comic-Con is listening to this, if anyone knows how to make this happen, it's the 15th anniversary of the podcast next year I am the 50th feels like 50th you cloth-eared lunk

1:12:02Chris Hewitt:lunk that's my dog and I would love to come back here and do a live do a panel slash live show with James and Helen next year so if anyone from Comic Con is listening to this podcasts are now a big thing out here as well let us know if there's a way we can make that happen speaking of podcasts I bumped into Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson from the House of R oh cool and they were lovely and so shout out to them as well bumped into Anthony Bresnikan bumped into Josh Horowitz yeah some lovely lovely people and so it's good to be back it's great to be the king it's good to be back and we'd love to come back next year and do something bigger with the Empire podcast to celebrate our 15th anniversary because we're doing a kind of tour which I haven't fully announced yet because not all the pieces are in place but that is what is going to happen next year Dan amazing maybe you can come on one of the shows maybe I can we'll have to just discuss my my rider but yeah your ghost rider yeah 2028 Sean Levy Brian Gosling Marvel Cinematic Universe nick cage yeah well maybe in the multiverse yeah maybe in the multiverse anyway on that note that is definitely it uh dan and i've got to go get some food and maybe a traditional gr delis ice cream if we have enough time yeah i don't think we do we'll see maybe we shall see you got well you got something to do i've got something to do i've got to speak to a good man the day is far from over from you day is far from me over me and in fact it starts again at 6 a.m with another interview so that's that's a lot of fun and i've got to get up to go kayaking you do you genuinely what you're doing uh so live long and prosper dan live long and prosper uh and thank you so much for listening to this uh this comic-con uh podcast how long is it me it's an hour long anyway oh there we are there was that was the just a half an hour chris says just half an hour yeah yeah whatever chris says double it whenever yeah whenever i say tight 20 triple it triple it thanks Dan cheers Chris and thank you for listening see you next time and in fact the regular podcast is out next week and thank you for subscribing on Empire Plus and keep it peeled because there's more shit coming your way over the next few weeks and months in the build up of course to Avengers Doomsday on December 18th oh my god it's going to be so fucking amazing hell belongs to me thanks for listening see you next time bye bye