Is San Diego Comic-Con heading to its worst year in recent memory? In the last few years, the once-illustrious event has begun to lose that luster; the pandemic handicapped it for years, while studios also began hosting their own fan events outside of Comic-Con. That has led us to this point, where major studios are now just sitting out of the 2023 edition.
Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, Netflix, Universal Pictures, and Sony Pictures are all reportedly not appearing at this year’s Comic-Con. As the event begins in less than a month, scheduled to start July 19, the event is scrambling to make something work.
One of the looming factors is reported that if SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP cannot come to terms by the June 30 contract deadline and the guild goes on strike, actors will most likely join writers and showrunners in the ongoing Hollywood labor issues.
With no writers and potentially no actors, the studios felt it was best not to plan a significant presence at the event just in case they have no one to feature.
For a studio like Disney and its subsidiaries Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm, this removes any chances to really showcase upcoming projects like The Marvels, Loki Season 2, Ahsoka, and Haunted Mansion…some of which desperately need any positive fan hype. Disney has also moved into its own fan event space with D23, so it could wait until then to excite some more anticipated projects.
Netflix also has its event, TUDUM, which had its festival a few weeks back. The streamer unleashed plenty of material there and will likely wait till they have more fan-focused content like the Stranger Things final season before heading back to Comic-Con.
One of the studios currently doing the “wait and see” approach is Warner Bros. Discovery. With two superhero films left to promote (Blue Beetle & Aquaman 2and the Lost Kingdom) and the rumored launch of James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy castings, the studio desperately needs any positive fan hype.
Things could still change at the last minute. According to sources close to Deadline, “If things change on the labor front, there is still the chance of plans changing and making a last-minute appearance.”
