Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock (or are absolutely in no way a geek of any kind), you know that Comic Con, the annual enormous pop-and-geek culture festival is going on this weekend in San Diego. Sadly, we can’t be there, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t glued to our computers checking out news from the front — and news there is. For everyone else that couldn’t make the festival, we’ve collected some of the most exciting news and tidbits from this year’s Con — besides the fact that Neil Gaiman is writing a Sandman prequel, of course. You already knew that. Click through to see what we’re most excited about, and if we spaced on your favorite revelatory piece of info, let us know in the comments!
At last night’s panel, Marvel officially confirmed their next film: Guardians of the Galaxy, another ensemble adventure, based on the superhero team of the same name that first appeared in 1969 in an alternate time-line to the Marvel Universe, which will be released August 1, 2014. They also teased Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Iron Man 3 and Ant-Man at the event, which we are excited about to varying degrees. [via Huffington Post]
According to Joss Whedon, the long-awaited sequel to Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is really, truly coming! And soon, maybe! “It’s going to start happening sometime, possibly in the spring,” he said, teasing that he’d only recently hung out with the other writers to talk about it. “We’ve been working on it over the years….We’ve got a bunch of songs that we know exactly where they’re going,. I can’t wait to tell you about it, but I’m not going to do it now.” [via /Film]
We didn’t think we could get any more psyched for Quentin Tarantino’s awesome-sounding upcoming Western Django Unchained, but somehow the fact that Tarantino imagines Django and his wife, Broomhilda (Jamie Foxx and Kerry Washington) as the great-great-great-great grandparents of Shaft did the trick. [via MTV]
This recap of the Community panel went a long way towards convincing us that the show is not ruined with the departure of Dan Harmon. I mean, they’re going to go to an Inspector Spacetime convention. Six seasons and a movie!
Speaking of “Inspector Spacetime,” you can now (almost) buy a working (almost) replica of Doctor Who’s Sonic Screwdriver! Don’t worry, it has been “specially created for Earth use. It’s been simplified so as not to cause danger to human operators, while still being an extremely powerful tool in the wrangling of entertainment electronics. … Using simple and intuitive movements you will be able to use the Sonic Screwdriver to control your devices just like The Doctor. Rotate clockwise or counterclockwise to adjust the volume on your iPod dock; flick the Sonic Screwdriver up and down to change TV channels or navigate the program guide; and even open your DVD tray by pulling back on the Sonic Screwdriver.” [via USA Today h/t The Mary Sue]
Not only did the above four minute trailer for Season 3 of Walking Dead premiere at the show’s panel, but we got a few fun hints about the season to come, including the promise of Easter Eggs in the form of famous zombies! According to Greg Nicotero: “Being a fan of the genre, I put stuff on screen that I want to see. The episode that I just directed has some in-joke zombie cameos for the fans, which I’m not going to talk about. People who know the genre will go, ‘Holy shit, I know who that’s supposed to be!'” [via i09]
Many casting announcements were made at the Game of Thrones panel, but much more importantly: the show is officially set to return March 31, 2013. We’re just not sure we can wait that long.
This is a full video of the Firefly 10th Anniversary Panel. Yes, you’re welcome. [via Geekosystem]