Derek’s SDCC 2022 Recap: Saturday
Take a look at my recap of Preview Night here, Thursday here, and Friday here.
When planning my SDCC schedule, I’m not sure if I knew that I’d be hitting my exhaustion limit by Saturday morning or if it ended up being pure luck, but my Saturday calendar looked decidedly lighter than the days the preceded it.
I slept in until about 7:30AM, showered up, and then took some time to finish up my Friday recap. I’d had a decent amount to drink the night before, but surprisingly woke up feeling okay, which I’m eternally grateful for (it must be because I’m drinking 40 bottles of water a minute).
Once I made it downstairs, it was finally time to walk a bit of the show floor. Aside from a few things (Mondo posters that I didn’t win any lotteries for, this Jurassic Park replica prop plate that I’ve been jumping back and forth on, a Hellfire Club shirt which thousands of people seem to be wearing but aren’t actually on sale anywhere), there wasn’t really anything else that I actually knew that I wanted to purchase, so my only intention was really just to soak it all in.
From giant Gundams, to Tamagotchi being incredibly popular again, to thousands of people lining up to maybe get a small prize from HBOMax, there’s really something for everyone at SDCC.
Yep, that’s a big Gundam.
Yep, that’s a big Tamagotchi.
When crossing the Mattel Fan Creations booth, an exclusive that I’d been unaware of caught my eye: a 19-inch tall Bad Robot plush figure for just $40USD. The Mattel line seemed super rough and was giving tickets to return at certain times to try your luck (and the multiple booth workers that I asked gave different information as to when new tickets would be distributed) — at this point I had a panel to get to, so I figured I’d head back to the Mattel booth later.
Yep, I need it.
The ’Storytellers of TV +’ panel featured Ronald D. Moore (For All Mankind) Simon Kinberg (Invasion) Jonathan Tropper (See), and Megan Ganz (Mythic Quest),Megan Ganz, talking all about developing their respective series’.
This time around, the panel room was far less full than the previous TV + panels that featured cast, but hearing the showrunners, writers, and creators of some of these fantastic shows may have been infinitely more interesting.
Ronald D. Moore noted that the creative team was surprised at just how positive the reaction to For All Mankind has been — he knew that they had crafted a good show, but the team didn’t expect the series to be just as beloved as it has become.
Ronald surprised attendees with a sneak peak at next week’s episode… but since I’ve been in California I’m two episodes behind so I instead kept my head down so I wouldn’t see anything. It was hard to escape the sound though, and it sounded damn tense.
Simon Kinberg talked about his excitement to return to television with Invasion, and how he approached season one like act one of a film — he notes that season two will act as act two, and that’s when “shit really goes crazy.”
He also noted that since he’s attached to a new Battlestar Galactica feature, how talking to Ron has been great since his Battlestar series is Kinberg’s favourite science fiction of all time.
I have to say, the first couple of episodes of Invasion didn’t grip me enough to continue it, but hearing Kinberg talk about the themes of the series, and what he’s excited for for season two definitely has me ready to revisit.
Kinberg also spoke about some of the negative reception that the series has received, noting that he does read Twitter, and particularly that there was a lot of ”Yo, this is an alien show, but there’s no aliens.” He notes that his goal is always to learn from any criticism, and that those looking for more aliens should be pleased with season two.
Season two of Invasion is just a few months into shooting, so they weren’t ready to show off any footage just yet — a few concept art photos of new aliens were shown, however, which were at a larger scale than what viewers have seen so far. He also notes that the new season kicks off much more actively, and that they looked to the opening of Tom Cruise’ War of the Worlds for inspiration for the opening.
Megan Ganz spoke to the creation of Mythic Quest, and the sort of ’guerilla marketing’ that the team utilized to promote the show since its first season was complete long before TV + was ready to go. Journalists were regularly invited to Rob’s house to watch the series, and Megan notes that they were simply lucky enough that those journalists then wanted to write about it.
She spoke to how the series was originally envisioned as a hard comedy, but that the creative team slowly realized that it may have had more legs than that, and began to introduce the heavy, dramatic, and heartfelt moments that the show has become known (and beloved) for. The crowd erupted when Ganz spoke of the pandemic episode of Mythic Quest, which was shot entirely from each cast member’s homes — this episode had some truly emotional moments in it, and absolutely echoed some of the heavy feelings that we all felt during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
David S. Goyer, showrunner of Foundation is currently shooting season two, so prepared a video for attendees which showed off some amazing sets, and detailed some of what the second season will focus on. They showed off a beautiful clip and a kind-of teaser trailer that won’t be released for general audiences.
Jonathan Tropper took over See for season two, and spoke to how difficult it is creating and maintaining a world where almost nobody has the ability to see.
He also spoke to the decision to end the series with season three, much of which came down to the fact that the pandemic shut down shooting for five months. Due to this, cast ended up being stuck to the series for far longer than anticipated (and had other commitments that couldn’t be moved), and because See is really a story about Baba Voss, the team decided that they’d rather close things off than change the priorities of the series and start from scratch.
Jonathan teased that much of season three deals with what happens when, after 500 years, bombs and explosives are reintroduced to society. The super-epic trailer for the third season of the show premiered during the panel, and was released online shortly afterwards. Season three of See begins on August 26th, and I certainly cannot wait to get my eyes on it.
After the panel, I thought I’d sneak a peek at Mattel one more time — and had no more success than I had previously.
After walking the floor for a bit longer, it was time to head over to the hotel for a small gathering hosted by National Geographic for the new documentary series Limitless with Chris Hemsworth.
I didn’t know much about the series going in, but it actually sounds rather intriguing. In the series, Chris Hemsworth is on a personal mission to learn how to stay young, healthy, strong, and resilient. Undergoing a series of epic trials and extraordinary challenges, he’ll learn firsthand how we can live better for longer by discovering ways to regenerate damage, maximize strength, build resilience, supercharge memory and confront mortality.
The event included an open bar (I had my first ever Pina Collada and I love them so much), a taco bar, some merch (I picked up a decent water bottle, which will be useful for the new water bottle filling stations around the convention center), and a couple of neat activations including some weird leg massage machine.
The AEW: Heroes and Villains panel was one of my most anticipated for the week, and I wanted to ensure that I got a great seat, so before long it was time to head to 6BCF. The panel was stacked, with announcer Excalibur moderating and athletes Orange Cassidy, Bryan Danielson, Darby Allin, CM Punk, Jade Cargill, Chris Jericho, and Dr. Britt Baker in attendance. The room (6BCF, so pretty large) was completely full and the energy was high (AEW chants definitely broke out before anyone was even on stage) — For AEW’s very first SDCC panel, it was clear the panel was going to be an excellent time.
The content itself started off fairly similar to the yearly WWE / Mattel panel, where panelists answer questions about which superhero they’d team up with, or who would win in a fight, etc. Bryan Danielson, who has been out with an injury for some time, confirmed that as of that morning he was cleared to wrestle (and would be returning to Dynamite this coming Wednesday). CM Punk confirmed that he has not been cleared and that fans will need to wait a bit longer for him to be back.
There were some fun tidbits throughout the panel, including Darby speaking about just how close he’s gotten with Sting (it truly sounds like they’re a duo inside and outside of the ring), Jericho confirming rumours that the company’s Canadian debut is being planned, and when a fan asked the completely original, never before asked ”Mt. Rushmore of wrestling” question, Punk spoke about how the mountain was originally known as the ’six grandfathers’ by the Lakota people before the area was taken from them in a land grab. This was fascinating to me — as a Canadian not versed in US history, I had no clue about the history of the mountain or the story behind it (you can learn more right here), and I certainly never would have expected this sort of education to be nonchalantly included in a wrestling panel.
Once the panel wrapped up, Darby Allin remained onstage, noting that he wanted to grab a selfie with the huge crowd behind him. In that moment, Brodie King and Malakai Black of the House of Black appeared — Brody began to choke Allin, while Black delivered a spinning heel kick. The duo then tossed Darby onto the table, sat down, and said ”Any questions?” into the microphone. What a way to end the company’s first showing at SDCC!
Following the panel (and a long-ish wait), Matt, Kaitlin and I grabbed a round of Spaghetti Factory, and Matt and I then returned to our hotel for a bit of an “early” night (it’s almost midnight as I write this).
Sundays at SDCC are typically pretty slow and uneventful, so this will be the last of my recaps for this year’s convention! We’ve still got photos, videos, and impressions of numerous offsite activations and other experiences to complete, so be sure to check back soon to see just how amazing SDCC 2022 really was.
As always, thanks for coming on this journey with me!
