SDCC 2014: Hall H, Panels and Trailers

by Mary Anne Butler, Reporter/Photographer

Once again, it is that time of year when all good fanboys and girls converge on the five day city-state that appears in San Diego for Comic Con International, aka SDCC.  This was my fourth year attending, and I feel like I’ve finally, kind of sort of, got my methods and flow of the event down to a science.  This mostly happened because I was lucky enough to be working with THREE different websites (this one, Aggressive Comix, and Geek Magazine/Exchange) to get into rooms, and to generate exciting content for you, dear readers.

The Last Of Us:
The first up on my list of things was sitting my butt down in Hall H for a good four hours, to see/hear the presentation on the popular videogame currently being optioned for a movie, “The Last Of Us”.  The best bit of news out of this panel for any fans of the franchise is the writer of the game, Neil Drucimann, is also penning the script for the film!  The panel had both he and Sam Raimi talking about the various points of interest for the film adaptation, stating “It doesn’t need to be different, it just needs to capture the core of what made it special to fans, and to protect our relationship between Joel and Ellie from the producers,”  Drucimann said.  There was even mention of a possible casting choice of Maisie Williams to play main character Ellie in the film.  Raimi ALSO went on to say that he and his brother were getting ready to make their tv show version of cult classic film Evil Dead with one Mr. Bruce Campbell.

The Walking Dead:
Directly following “The Last of Us” was the AMC presentation for hit tv series The Walking Dead based on the comic series of the same name by Robert Kirkman.  Here is the official trailer for season 5 they showed us:

Game Of Thrones:
If you follow any of my writing on other sites, or even this one for that matter, you know that I am a HUGE Game Of Thrones fan.  I would say I’m more of a book fan than the HBO tv series, but it certainly has it’s moments of unharnessed joy.  The panel can be seen in it’s entirety here.  The Errie (cliffnotes) version of events for this hour long Westeros party is some of the casting for the Dornish characters has happened, with one big noteable exception of the Princess of Dorne, Arienne:

They also showed us this awesome blooper reel:

It ALSO appears that author George R. R. Martin will be stepping away from the show in season 5, FROM HIS OWN WORDS to finish the upcoming next book in the series, “The Winds Of Winter” as stated in this interview with Vulture.

V: Which shooting location are you going to choose to visit this season? Seems like a tough one since you’ve added another warm, exotic locale to the list, with Spain subbing in for Dorne.

GRRM:  I don’t know. I might make it over there early next year, but I’ve got to finish the book The Winds of Winter. So I’m making the trips I’m already obligated to make, but I’m not adding any new trips at this time. So I don’t think I’m going to do a set visit this year, sadly.

V:  Are you still going to write an episode?

GRRM:  Not this year, no — once again because I have this book to finish.

Mad Max: Fury Road:
It’s no surprise that this remake/reboot has been a huge deal for fans of the original iconic 80s film series from director/writer George Miller.  But, Miller is doing the same job for this new one!  Starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, we got to see the first clip/teaser:

The Hobbit: The Battle Of Five Armies:

I didn’t actually get to the in the Hall for this one, but here is the first trailer for the third and final installment of Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit film series:

Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice:
While there was a small snipit of footage screened during this panel, the BIG news to come out of SDCC for this Zack Snyder Man Of Steel sequel is this first official image of actress Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, and the newest photo of Batfleck *groan*.


Why Charlie Hunnam Wasn’t At SDCC:
We also got this video shown during the Sons of Anarchy panel appologizing for the absence of one of the stars, Charlie Hunnam:

Constantine:
There was also a showing of the edited pilot of the upcoming NBC series Constantine from David S. Goyer, and the announcement of Emmy winning composer Bear McCreary being responsible for the tunes.  Check out a short clip and the new trailer here, as well as the official theme (because harpsichords are cool):

There are a few other things still to be covered, Falling Skies, Defiance, Vikings, and the world premiere of Star Trek Axanar‘s Prelude to Axanar, I’ll have those up for you guys soon!

For more Mary Anne Butler, we encourage you to like and follow Aggressive Comix as well as keep up with everything #SDCC with ComicsOnline.com on Facebook, Twitter, Blip, Instagram, and iTunes for more event coverage and everything geek pop culture!