From Spaceballs to Avengers – Comic-Con delivers a knockout punch

They came hoping to get a glimpse of the year’s big-ticket Marvel blockbuster, Avengers: Doomsday, but the more than 150,000 fans who came to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con left with a goodie bag of new trailers, A-list stars and already rare collectible toys.Robert Downey Jr, left, and Pedro Pascal attend a panel for Marvel Studios at Comic-Con.AP Photo/Richard ShotwellFirst, the big stuff. Marvel Studios stormed into the convention’s Hall H, giving fans their first taste of Avengers: Doomsday and a surprise appearance from the film’s A-list cast, assembling most of them on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans.In a presentation that was among the most complex at this year’s Comic-Con, Marvel set up a series of staggered reveals, featuring cast members from the various Marvel films, including Chris Evans, Rebecca Romijin, Paul Rudd and Anthony Mackie. And in a tease that implies the new film will upend the franchise’s ethical axis, star Robert Downey Jnr — who plays the film’s villain Dr Doom — said audiences would not “know what team to go for this time.”Fans also got a first look at HBO’s Lanterns, the new season trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power coupled with confirmation that actor Simon Pegg will voice the iconic Balrog, trailers for the new film Matchbox and the new TV series Blade Runner 2099, a surprise appearance by Johnny Depp to promote Ebenezer, and a convention-shaking debut for the long-awaited sequel Spaceballs: The New One.The last of those almost stole the show, with an audience of thousands packed into Hall H cheering and taking part in a shoutout of “May The Schwartz Be With You” – an iconic line from the film – which was filmed and sent to the legendary director of the original, Mel Brooks.So, what’s actually happening here? In real terms, Comic-Con is a four-day marketing machine, intended to join the dots between the multibillion-dollar movie and TV business, and then connect it to the fans. The take-out? The social media noise needed to successfully launch new movie and TV projects.In a sense, the proof is in the comic book pudding, so to speak. A month ago, films like Spaceballs: The New One and Ebenezer, and even a TV series like Lanterns or its HBO Max sitcom stablemate Stuart Fails To Save The Universe, were not quite on the radar.In the wake of Comic-Con, Spaceballs might be the most anticipated film of 2027 so far, and Ebenezer, while not quite the match of a Marvel-powered movie like Avengers: Doomsday, generated the kind of media noise in a single stunt that money can’t buy.Matchbox star John Cena told this masthead that San Diego’s “original” Comic-Con had an almost unique place at the intersection of marketing and audience engagement.“I geek out on geeks.” Australian actor Joel Edgerton among the stars at San Diego Comic-Con.AP Photo/Richard Shotwell“The passion and the fandom, this is the epicentre. San Diego Comic-Con was the first, and by far has the most gravity,” Cena said. Companies like Apple, Mattel, Marvel, they come here, this is the place to break the news. You walk the floor, and it’s still very much fans first.”Matchbox, directed by Sam Hargrave, hopes to do what Barbie did for toy company Mattel, and deliver a story-rich hit film that turns the iconic tiny toy cars into a high-octane action-comedy motion picture.Australian actor Joel Edgerton, who was at Comic-Con to promote his television series Dark Matter, knows the Comic-Con universe well. He first came to the annual fan-fest promoting Star Wars: Attack of the Clones – in which he played Luke Skywalker’s adopted father, Owen Lars – back in 2002.“I was very nervous [then], and now, someone asked me what I geek out about, and I geek out on geeks,” Edgerton told this masthead.Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day performs at San Diego Comic-Con to promote the film Nimrods.Todd Williamson/January Images, via Inaugural Entertainment“I love the obsession, I love the hours spent sewing a costume and dressing up, I love that the imagination of a child, that usually gets kicked out of us by the time we’re grown-ups, is still alive in most of the people that are here.”To some extent, the marketing machinery is already at work. Disney dropped the first trailer for Avengers: Doomsday last week, and it cracked more than 500 million plays in its first 24 hours. That made it the second-biggest trailer launch of all time. And if you didn’t realise trailers now have their own launches, the trailer for Tom Cruise’s Digger just had its own LA premiere.The stars of the current Star Trek flagship series Strange New Worlds came to play – actors Anson Mount, Rebecca Romijn, Ethan Peck, plus producer Alex Kurtzman and others. Marking the 60th anniversary of the Paramount-owned franchise, they were joined by stars from other Star Trek projects, including the legendary George Takei, and actors Michael Dorn, Michelle Hurd and Jerry O’Connell.Rick Moranis, Daphne Zuniga and Keke Palmer at the panel for Spaceballs: The New One at San Diego Comic-Con.AP Photo/Richard ShotwellElsewhere, Green Day hosted a surprise concert at Petco Park in San Diego to promote the upcoming film Nimrods. Billie Joe Armstrong performed from the roof of an ice-cream truck, while Tré Cool and Mike Dirnt from the band, writer/director Lee Kirk, and stars Mason Thames and Jenna Fischer passed out merchandise to fans.Named after the band’s 1997 album, the film is a punk rock comedy produced by Live Nation Studios in collaboration with Green Day, inspired by the band’s early days, about a band of young musicians who embark on a wild cross-country adventure, falsely believing they have been booked to open for Green Day.San Diego Comic-Con was launched in 1970, with just 300 people attending. This year, around 200,000 people are expected, either ticketed in the convention itself or visiting the city to attend the various studios “activations”. It is estimated that the event sinks as much as $US150 million into the San Diego economy.San Diego Comic-Con runs until Monday, Australian time.Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. 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