As Comic-Con International in San Diego heads into its final day, we’ve wrapped up some highlights from this year’s famous pop culture convention:
About 6,500 fans got a glimpse of the highly anticipated film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice on Saturday when director Zach Snyder unveiled the first footage, which was a shot of Batman pulling off a tarp and turning on the bat signal on a rooftop. He then looks up to see Superman in the light, looking down at him. That was all fans got of the film. But they were treated to an appearance by Batman actor Ben Affleck and Superman actor Henry Cavill. The actress who plays Wonder Woman in the film, Gal Gadot, also joined the superheroes on stage. The movie will be released May 6, 2016.
Daniel Radcliffe, of Harry Potter fame, was at Comic-Con promoting his new movie Horns. The premise of the movie: Radcliffe's character has invisible horns that inspire others to confess their darkest secrets to him. Radcliffe was also at Comic-Con as a fan of comics, not just to promote his film. He was dressed in a Spider-Man suit so he could walk around with unsuspecting fans on the showroom floor. He posed for pictures with many of them, though no one knew it was Radcliffe in the Spidey mask. This was Radcliffe's first time attending Comic-Con.
Thomas Tull, chief of Legendary Pictures, used Comic-Con as a stage to announce that there will indeed be a sequel to Godzilla. Fans got to see a bit of the footage, which revealed that the winged Mothra and Rodan and the three-headed Ghidorah will battle the radioactive lizard in the next instalment. The preview, which was filled with war images, ended with the words: Let them fight. Legendary Pictures also took a moment to share a clip of King Kong's return in Skull Island.
Comic-Con fans also had a chance to see the trailer for the next film in The Hunger Games series, with a minute-long teaser of the upcoming film. The trailer starts with a meeting between the leaders of the rebellion, where actors Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Julianne Moore discuss Katniss Everdeen's role. The trailer continues with President Snow (played by Donald Sutherland) announcing that the Mockingjay symbol is illegal. Katniss (played by Jennifer Lawrence) is then seen going into an underground bunker where Panem refugees are hiding. She agrees to take up their cause. The trailer was shown to fans on personal Samsung tablets in an all-white room, eating all-white candies and snacks. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, part 1 will be released in November.
The cast of the final film in The Hobbit trilogy was also on hand at this year's convention. Filmmaker Peter Jackson was there with cast members Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Elijah Wood, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans and Lee Pace. The trailer showed the dragon Smaug setting Lake-town on fire, Cate Blanchett's royal elf Galadriel kissing Gandalf's forehead, and elves and orcs racing into battle. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies will be released in December.
Several members of The Avengers were also at Comic-Con where producers showed the first footage of the upcoming sequel. Robert Downey, Jr, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Renner, Samuel L Jackson and Colbie Smolders were all there to promote The Avengers: Age of Ultron. The footage showed the team trying to lift Thor's hammer, followed by various action-packed shots (including Captain America's split shield). Then, while trying to lift Thor's Hammer, Tony Stark asks, "If I lift it, do I get to rule?" New cast members in the sequel include Elizabeth Olson, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Paul Bettany and James Spader. The movie is scheduled to be released May 1, 2015.