If you were on the ground at Comic-Con 2014 this year you probably had a blast. You hobnobbed with the stars, you saw exclusive footage of Avengers: Age of Ultron and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and you came home with a ton of geeky swag. It was a really great weekend.
But if you were amongst the billions of people who couldn’t make it this year, watching Comic-Con unfold from the sidelines via your computers or cell phones, eager for news about the most exciting projects, then there’s a really good chance you were disappointed, especially in the world of film, and especially compared to last year.
Related: Comic-Con 2014: ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ Cast Interviews
Last year Comic-Con made headlines around the world with exciting announcements, specifically of our aforementioned friends Avengers: Age of Ultron and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (before the latter had such a clunky name). This year we expected Warner Bros. and Marvel Studios to once again pull out the stops by revealing new films with new talent attached (Shazam for Warner Bros., any of the new “mystery movies” for Marvel Studios), or simply announcing the cast for films we already knew were in development (there was nary a Doctor Strange to be found).
There were a few big stories, as we will detail in our list of The Five Biggest Movie Announcements from Comic-Con 2014, but most of the bigger studios were simply there to promote their films, which is a little disappointing compared to the last year or two but in-keeping with the long history of the Con. That’s what movie studios used to do, after all: just show trailers and do Q&A’s with the cast. Last year was a pageant of elaborate stage presentations (Loki, anyone?) and earthshattering announcements. This year, we’ll admit it, the new footage of Mad Max: Fury Road looks amazing and obviously Avengers: Age of Ultron looks ridiculously cool, but if you weren’t there to see it, and if they don’t release it online (many of the studios simply won’t) it just doesn’t have the same impact.
Comic-Con 2014: Watch the Action-Packed ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Trailer
But there really were some big or at least fascinating movie news that came out of the convention, and with all the content filling the internet from Comic-Con 2014, it’s possible that some of it may get lost in the shuffle, or unfairly overshadowed. So here are CraveOnline’s picks for The Five Biggest Movie Announcements from Comic-Con 2014!
Slideshow: Top 5 Movie Announcements from Comic-Con 2014
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
The Top 5 Movie Announcements from Comic-Con 2014
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5. Ant-Man
The News: Evangeline Lilly is Hope Van Dyne.
Although we knew that Evangeline Lilly would co-star in the upcoming Ant-Man movie from Marvel Studios, we never knew who she was going to play. Safe money was on Janet Van Dyne, a.k.a. the superhero The Wasp, but we learned instead she would be playing Hope Van Dyne. Who is Hope Van Dyne? She’s the daughter of the original Ant-Man Hank Pym, as well as (obviously) Janet Van Dyne, who in the comics would become the supervillain The Red Queen in Marvel’s MC2 universe, which took place in the future and told the stories of the Marvel superheroes’ various children. Will she turn evil over the course of the film, or is this simply an offshoot of Marvel’s plan to turn Ant-Man into the studio’s first generational blockbuster, with an older hero teaching a new one to take over his mantle? And will we see footage of some Silver Age superhero action as well? We are certainly intrigued.
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4. Guardians of the Galaxy 2
The News: Marvel Studios announces the sequel to a film that hasn’t even proven itself yet.
The only movie announcement that came out of the Marvel Studios panel was that Guardians of the Galaxy 2 would be one of the “mystery movies” that the company announced earlier this week, and will premiere on July 28, 2017. That’s pretty cocky for a company that doesn’t even know if Guardians of the Galaxy will connect with audiences, since it opens in five days. Now, we personally happen to know that it’s a good idea – we saw the film already and we loved it – but it does imply that the studio has plans to commit to this franchise even if the first film doesn’t connect on the same level as some of their previous blockbusters, and that the sequel probably has a big part to play in Marvel’s Phase Three.
Read the Interview with Kevin Feige, the President of Marvel Studios.
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3. Painkiller Jane
The News: A female superhero is coming to the screen, from two female directors.
Painkiller Jane may not be a huge superhero property – it’s been adapted twice before, into a lame TV movie and an even lamer TV series – but it was the only major geek movie announced this year with a female in the lead (yet to be cast), and what’s more, it’s being directed by not one but two women: Jen & Sylvia Soska, aka “The Twisted Twins,” who broke some exclusive Painkiller Jane news at CraveOnline about the film’s action sequences and villain. The underrepresentation of women in front of and behind the cameras in genre cinema has been a serious point of contention in recent years, and Painkiller Jane could become the latest nail in the coffin of gender marginalization in action media, particularly after Lucy dominated the box office last weekend, perhaps proving that Scarlett Johansson is a bigger action star than Dwayne Johnson.
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2. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
The News: The first image of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman.
Although Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice showed a clip at Comic-Con 2014 – a teaser of Batman confronting Superman next to the Bat Signal – the real news outside Hall H was the official reveal of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. This image is the first time we’ve seen a live-action Wonder Woman from a feature film, and we have to admit it looks pretty great. Gal Gadot seems to have the physicality necessary to command the screen, and the costume appears to be a strong update of the classic design with an armored, Greco-Roman motif. She looks like a warrior. She looks like Wonder Woman. Well played, Warner Bros.
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1. Godzilla 2 and Skull Island
The News: Godzilla’s greatest adversaries will return in the sequel and King Kong gets a sequel, implying an eventual crossover.
We already knew that this summer’s smash hit reboot of Godzilla was getting a sequel, but Legendary Pictures announced that Godzilla 2 will boast three of the kaiju’s greatest enemies: Mothra, Rodan and King Ghidorah. The only heavy-hitter that didn’t make the list is Mechagodzilla, but they have to save something for the third film, right?
Then again, the third film might even be a crossover, since Legendary Pictures conspicuously announced a Skull Island movie at the same panel. “Skull Island” is the home of King Kong from the original fantasy classic and Peter Jackson’s 2005 successful remake, and if the rights to Kong are owned and currently being exploited by the same company that owns Godzilla, is their second showdown (after 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla) already a foregone conclusion?
