Three years ago, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige laid out the future of the MCU with a news-packed panel at San Diego Comic-Con that ended with the surprise reveal that Mahershala Ali was attached to a Blade movie. Little did the screaming 6,500 fans in Hall H know, that would be the last Marvel Comic-Con panel for three years.
Now, the studio is ready to return, with Feige confirming Friday that Marvel will put on a Hall H panel this year, giving Comic-Con a boost as it seeks a return to normalcy in the age of COVID-19. It is a win for the convention, as Marvel does not attend every year and its panels are often among the most talked-about from the convention.
This year’s Comic-Con takes on a feeling of extra importance, as it will be the first time in three years that the convention will hold its annual summer gathering. The convention went virtual in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, with a pared-down convention taking place over Thanksgiving weekend in 2021. The convention also comes at a time in which it faces competition from homegrown events, such as DC FanDome, an online event for all things DC Comics, and Tudum, a Netflix online convention for its films and TV shows. Disney, which owns Marvel, has D23 in September, with the Anaheim convention also hosting a look at the future of Marvel.
Comic-Con grew from a niche gathering of geeks when it began in 1970 to the flagship convention known for attracting fans and A-list stars to San Diego annually. The 2019 edition drew an estimated 135,000 attendees.
The Comic-Con news comes as Marvel prepares to debut Thor: Love and Thunder in theaters. That project was first unveiled three years ago at the studio’s previous panel, with Natalie Portman surprising the crowd to reveal that she would be returning to the Marvel fold as Jane Foster.
