San Diego Comic-Con, once exclusively the province of comic book announcements, cosplayers, and deep-cut panels, continues its new life as ground zero for some of the biggest annual news in pop culture. This year Disney used it to break the emergency glass and reveal Robert Downey Jr.’s return to the MCU as Dr. Doom, but SDCC 2024 wasn’t just about old dudes wearing new masks.
The event, which didn’t have any online component for those trying to follow along at home, also featured big news from across the rest of the superhero-augmented entertainment industrial complex. Hit Amazon satire The Boys is getting a prequel. Star Trek’s resurgence continues with a cool reveal trailer for Section 31, and step aside Joker, the Penguin is trying to have a moment.
Comic-Con kicked off July 24 and wrapped up on July 28, with most of the most anticipated teases and trailers held until the final moments. It wasn’t a big year for video game reveals, but we did get a little more info on the Like a Dragon TV adaptation. Here’s all of the biggest news you might have missed if you were busy with life or just chilling beneath the shade with the summer beverage of your choice this weekend.
Like A Dragon: Yakuza gets a release date and teaser
The Amazon Prime adaptation of Like a Dragon (formerly known in the West as Yakuza) starts streaming on October 24 and focuses on love and crime in the fictional Kamurochō entertainment district. The new trailer gives a brief glimpse of actor Ryoma Takeuchi as series protagonist Kiryu and lots of back tattoos. Here’s an interview with the director.
A new Doctor Who spin-off is coming
It’s called The War Between the Land and the Sea and features a high-stakes international crisis after powerful creatures from the oceans take to the surface and reveal themselves to humanity for the first time. The shadow military organization UNIT steps in to manage the ensuing war. It stars Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, with Jemma Redgrave and Alexander Devrient returning. It’ll be on Disney+.
The Boys gets a prequel spin-off about Soldier Boy
Amazon’s dark parody The Boys is getting an origin story spin-off called Vought Rising about the creation of the evil mega-corporation’s super freak legacy. It’ll feature Jensen Ackles returning as Soldier Boy and Aya Cash coming back as Stormfront. Set in the 1950s, it revolves around a murder mystery. It’ll no doubt also tie-in to the fifth and final season of The Boys in which Soldier Boy is likely to show up for one final showdown with Homelander.
Transformers One trailer shows Optimus Prime and Megatron’s teen friendship
It wasn’t always exploding trucks and Michael Bay crane shots. Transformers One, the first fully animated movie in the series in decade, shows what life for the Autobots and Decepticons was like back on Cybertron, and the newest trailer features Chris Hemsworth and Brian Tyree Henry trading laughs and betrayals as Optimus Prime and Megatron before they became sworn enemies.
The Rings of Power actually looks good again
Season 2 of Amazon’s Lord of the Rings prequel show is looking like what everyone was originally hoping for during the series’ expensive but often quite boring debut. The Rings of Power returns to streaming on August 29 and this time around a lot is happening, with giant spiders, Balrogs, and Tom Bombadill shouting at an amnesiac wizard. We are so back.
Conan the Barbarian is coming to Mortal Kombat 1
Everyone’s favorite licensed-character torture chamber is getting a bunch of new movie icons to brutalize. Mortal Kombat 1‘s year two DLC contains Cyrax, Sektor, Noob Saibot, Terminator 2‘s T-1000, Ghostface, and Conan the Barbarian. Who hasn’t wanted to watch Scorpion yell “get over here” at the masked killer from Scream? Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns arrives on September 24. Here’s the bloody trailer.
Star Trek: Section 31 looks like John Wick in space
Michelle Yeoh’s movie spin-off for Star Trek Discovery got a reveal trailer that shows a much more neon-infused, heist-fueled side of the Federation. Star Trek: Section 31 shows Yeoh’s alt-universe space warlord, Emperor Philippa Georgiou. It’s unclear exactly what she’ll be up to but the SDCC announcement panel pointed to Georgiou doing off-the-books spy stuff. The movie comes to Paramount Plus next year.
Fans don’t have to wait much longer for Silo season 2
Attendees at the SDCC panel got a first glimpse of season 2 of Apple TV’s post-apocalyptic sci-fi adaptation of Hugh Howey’s novels. All I can tell you is it’s coming November 15. Rebecca Ferguson plays a gritty engineer in a society of sub-surface dwelling humans who believe Earth remains uninhabitable. It’s one of the most slept-on shows of the streaming wars era. Fortunately you still have time to catch up before you’re spoiled on the twist-filled show this fall.
HBO Max’s The Penguin gets a trailer and is out this fall
Colin Farrell’s Penguin was an unexpected highlight of 2022’s reboot The Batman. It was so good that Warner Bros. decided to make an entire TV series featuring Oz Cobb’s rise to power as drug wars rip Gotham apart. Always more a criminal of opportunity than of the psychopathic kind Batman is known for, it’ll be interesting to see where the show lands in making Penguin a character fans root for.
Having recently finished Apple TV’s neo-noir series Sugar, I’m completely Farrell-pilled and ready for more. SDCC also confirmed he’ll be reprising his role in The Batman 2. The Penguin stars streaming September 19.
Harrison Ford does transform into the Red Hulk in Captain America: Brave New World
Fans have been speculating about it since the first Brave New World trailer teased Red Hulk, and new footage over the weekend confirmed the theory that Harrison Ford’s President Thunderbolt Ross will turn into the anti-hero. The panel also confirmed that Giancarlo Esposito is appearing as Sidewinder, the leader of the Serpent Society criminal organization with a cloak that allows him to teleport (at least in the comics anyway, who knows how the movie version will work?).
Robert Downey Jr. is back in the MCU for Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars
The biggest news out of SDCC 2024 was that Joe and Anthony Russo are returning to helm a rudderless MCU for its next phase. That chapter will kick off with Robert Downey Jr. returning, but as Dr. Doom this time around instead of Iron Man. It’s unclear if Tony Stark is back and hatching some secret plan or this is an alternate-universe version of one or both characters, since Stark died at the end of Avengers: Endgame.
Doomsday, which is essentially Avengers 5, is planned for 2026, followed by Secret Wars as early as 2027. The Fantastic Four, who have their own movie coming up, will also be featured in both. RDJ jumpstarted the most lucrative franchise in Hollywood history. We’ll see if he can bring it back to life after a series of misfires and duds, or if comic book superhero fatigue is terminal.
