The 2017 Comic Con descended upon San Diego this weekend for 4 days of fandom and revelry. As usual, the heavy hitters pulled out the big guns, showcasing their most exciting upcoming projects for fans, both in attendance and around the world. This year featured a plethora of hot new trailers for both TV and film, giving us a small taste off what’s to come over the next year. Here are the hottest.
Justice League
The big news from Comic Con was the unveiling of a brand new, megasized preview for Justice League, which takes us deeper into the upcoming film than we’ve ever gone before. Clocking in at over four minutes, the trailer gives fans plenty to mull over between now and November. The trailer is decidedly hero-centric, giving us footage mostly of Wonder Woman, Batman, The Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman doing their things against an as-yet-unseen villain. Also hinted at but unseen is the return of Superman, whose supposed death at the end of last year’s Batman v Superman inspired the formation of the titular league of heroes. There will surely be more from both the villain and Supes in the coming months, so stay tuned. For now, enjoy. Justice League opens November 17.
Thor: Ragnarok
After breaking the internet and the minds of fans everywhere with the first trailer, Ragnarok pushed the boundaries even further with their second trailer, which leans heavily into the relationship between Thor and Hulk. Director Taika Waititi seems to have taken a page from Guardian of the Galaxy’s James Gunn, crafting a unique visual style and infused it with his own brand of humor. This trailer is even bigger and badder than the preceding trailer, and promises a full-on extravaganza of non-stop action and excitement. More (most?) importantly is the appearance of a talking Hulk. Previously, Hulk has only been good for the odd grunt or monosyllabic musing. Here we see some actual articulation from the beast, which will be interesting to see evolve as the MCU progress. Ragnarok opens November 3.
The Gifted
Outside of the MCU, Fox and Marvel offered up another trailer for their upcoming X-Men TV series, The Gifted. As hit or miss as the X-movies have been, Fox is currently batting a thousand with their X-TV series (of course, they’ve only done one, Legion, thus far) which may portend great things from their next outing. The new series follows the emergence of two new mutants who must go on the run from authorities as their powers develop. While we don’t know for sure yet, it seems as though the X-Men and their counterparts, The Brotherhood, have been disbanded or done away with, leaving them more or less alone, with only a ragtag group of mutants to help defend and hide them. This could be an interesting take on the series, though fans have been burned by Fox before so some skepticism is probably warranted. Here’s hoping it’s as brilliant as Legion. The Gifted premieres October 2.
The Inhumans
ABC unveiled a new trailer for their third MCU series, Inhumans, which shows us another side of the alien-human hybrid beings introduced on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. back in season two. This sort-of-spinoff introduces us to the Inhuman royal family who until now has apparently lived beneath the surface of the moon, undetected by humanity. Giving the brewing hostilities between humans and Inhumans back on earth (as seen on S.H.I.E.L.D.) their safety will no doubt be increasingly compromised—especially with the apparent civil war between Inhumans on the moon. Of course this civil war is instigated by none other than Ramsey fucking Bolton himself, Iwan Rheon. This looks to be an exciting addition to the MCU TV pantheon, which will hopefully deepen ABC’s corner of the universe. Inhumans premieres September 1 in a special IMAX engagement before hitting TV on September 29.
The Defenders
The second trailer for the Netflix/MCU crossover series, The Defenders, made its debut at Comic Con, giving us even more exciting action from the so-called street level superheroes of the MCU as they band together to fight a common enemy. Daredevil, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage unite against a particularly evil seeming Sigourney Weaver in this culmination of the Netflix series of Marvel TV shows. It’ll be interesting to see how they all interact and work together in this Avengers-style crossover, which will hopefully be another win for the streaming giant. The Defenders premieres August 18.
Stranger Things
Speaking of Netflix, the streaming service also unveiled a bigger trailer for the upcoming second season of their acclaimed horror series, Stranger Things, and they are decidedly not screwing around. It seems as though something apocalyptic is happening in the upside down, which is spreading into the real world. While light on plot specifics, we do get to see the gang all back together and even more nostalgia laced goodness from this series. Can lightning strike twice? Seems like it probably will, but we won’t know for sure until October 27.
Bright
Netflix also unveiled the first full trailer for David Ayer’s Bright, his modern take on the world of fantasy. The End of Watch director returns to police drama with the added twist that the cops in this world deal with elves, orcs, fairies, and all manner of traditionally fantasy beasts. Will Smith and Joel Edgerton star as a human and orc respectively, who both must overcome their biases against each other to form an effective partnership. All in all, this looks to be an exciting take on the ideas of fantasy, and definitely seems like Netflix’s biggest film to date. Bright premieres on December 22.
Ready Player One
Steven Spielberg premiered the first trailer for his latest epic, Ready Player One. Based on the novel by Ernest Cline, the film involves a young man’s journey into a virtual world as the real world descends into overpopulated chaos. Like the novel, the film is full of pop culture references, including a few blink-and-you’ll-miss-them cameos from some of the most well-known icons and images from the 80s and 90s. Freddy Krueger is there, as is the DeLorean from Back to the Future, and most exciting perhaps is the appearance of the Iron Giant from the 90s animated film of the same name. Hard to say right now, but from all appearances this is going to be Spielberg’s most fun film in years. Ready Player One hits theaters on March 30, 2018.
Star Trek: Discovery
The long delayed new entry into the official Star Trek canon got another trailer just for Comic Con, which gives us even more from the newly redesigned Klingons and showcases more of how this series will differentiate itself from its forebears. Visually speaking, this looks like the most stunning of all the Trek TV series, and they don’t seem to be holding anything back, infusing the new show with the same kind of aesthetic and tension as its cinematic counterparts. Purists will no doubt be upset by the changes in tone and direction, but this does seem like reason enough to break down and subscribe to the new CBS streaming service, All Access. Star Trek: Discovery premieres on September 24.
Westworld
While it’s not set to premiere until sometime next year, fans go a small taste of what to expect from the second season of HBO’s mind blowing sci-fi series, Westworld. Hard to make of what we’ve seen, but no doubt we’re in for more bold twists and head fakes when this series returns, and at least we know Ed Harris’s Man in Black will be making a return.
