Comic Con: Day Two was jam-packed with great stuff. Let’s get right to it…
10:30AM-11:30AM – Meet The Guild Panel (Room 5AB)
The Guild is a very funny and highly inventive web series created by Dr. Horrible’s Felicia Day. The panel opened with a Guild music video directed by Jed Whedon. It was great; it actually made nerds (or people who play World of Warcraft) seems very, very cool. The music video will be available as a free download on Xbox Live in August. After the music video played, the entire Guild cast came onto the stage, that is, Felicia Day, Sandeep Parikh, Jeff Lewis, Amy Okuda, Robin Thorsen, and Vincent Caso. To everyone’s surprise, the cast came out wearing detailed costumes of the characters they play in the show. After a quick introduction, series director Sean Becker unveiled the first episode of Season 3 of The Guild. It was freaking hilarious! It’s great to see The Guild back in action. In the final scene, Star Trek: TNG actor Wil Weaton made a surprise cameo as the leader of a nemesis guild. After the episode, Wil Weaton joined the cast on stage. There was a breif Q&A and then the guild dispersed. Season 3 looks to be the best one yet. If you haven’t heard of The Guild, check out their website (www.watchtheguild.com) or download the first two seasons for free on Xbox Live. It’s great for WoW fans and non-fans alike.
11:45AM-12:45PM – FlashForward Panel (Room 6A)
One word: AMAZING. FlashForward, known to many as “the next Lost” is going to rock everyone’s world this September on ABC. The premise is simple yet compelling: The world wakes up to what seems like a totally normal day. While everyone is going about their business, something strange happens. Every single person on Earth falls unconscious and blacks out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. During this period of time, everyone sees a flash of their own personal futures, six months into the future to be precise. Some people’s future are dark and sad, some are happy and funny, and some people have no future at all. During this short period of blackout, something unknown attacks cities all around the world creating blazing fires and explosions all over the place. Many people are injured and killed during this time. At the panel we were shown three scenes from the premiere episode, as well as a trailer covering where the series plans to take us. This footage is Comic Con exclusive and has never been seen before. The main character of the show is played by Joseph Fiennes, an FBI agent who has the most interesting flash forward of them all: he sees clues (undefined and currently meaningless) as to what may have happened on that fateful day, thus leading me to believe that there is some sort of over-arching conspiracy theory to the cataclysmic turn of events. His partner is played by Star Trek’s (and yes, Harold and Kumar’s) John Cho. Also joining these two cast members on the panel were actors Christine Woods and Courtney B. Vance, and executive producers and writers Brannon Braga, Marc Guggenheim, and David S. Goyer. While they did not reveal any spoilers, they did give us some information to ponder. The writers already have an end game to the series; they know exactly where it is going and how it will finalize. They say it could take as short as three seasons or as long as five seasons to tell the entire story. Of course, all of this will depend on ratings and viewer reactions. It was revealed (after being long rumored) that Lost’s Dominic Monaghan (Charlie) will be joining fellow Lost alum (Sonya Walger, who played Penny) as an important character in the show. He turned out to be a surprise guest and he joined the panel with the others. From the three scenes I watched during the panel, I can tell you that this new show has major potential to be huge hit this fall. As sad and depressing it is that Lost will be airing its final season this year, it is equally uplifting and exciting that such a great new show will be taking its slot on ABC this television season. The season premiere airs on September 24; don’t miss it.
1:00PM-2:00PM – The Big Bang Theory Panel (Ballroom 20)
TBBT panel was exciting for all fans of the brilliantly humorous show made for geeks and non-geeks alike. The panel included executive producers Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, and all main cast members including Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons (Emmy-nominated), Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, and the beauiful Kaley Cuoco. After a comedic reel of season two highlights, the panel took questions for the audience. Not much was revealed about the current plot for the new season. It was confirmed that Jim’s Sheldon will not have a girlfriend in the foreseeable future. Very funny and entertaining panel.
2:15PM-3:00PM – 24 Panel (Ballroom 20)
Day 8 here we come. 24 has survived on air for a magnificent seven seasons, and season 8 looks to be yet another exciting and pulse-pounding adventure for Jack Bauer and company. The panel included Jack Bauer himself, Kiefer Sutherland, Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chole O’Brien), new cast members Freddie Prince Jr., Battlestar Galactica’s beautiful Kattie Sackoff, and Slumdog Millionaire’s Anil Kapoor, showrunner Howard Gordon, other executive producers, and composer Sean Callery. I watched an exclusive, never-before-scene clip of the first episode of season 8. Jack is back and better than ever. Season 8 starts off shortly after last season’s cliffhanger. Jack is healthy, thanks to his daughter Kim, and he is in a current state of restfulness (quite a change from last season). While not much was divulged about the upcoming season, some tidbits of information was leaked out. The over-arching theme of this season is “peace.” The season starts out with a peace-making event in the UN between the President of the U.S., (still Alison Taylor) and the leader of Iran. There will be an assassination attempt at this event, and that is where the action beings and when the blood starts pumping. There will be tons of crazy explosions and things blowing up (duh!). Elisha Cuthbert will return as Jack’s daughter, Freddie Prince Jr. will play Cole Ortiz, Kattie Sackoff will play Ortiz’s love interest, and Anil Kappor will play the representative from Iran. This season of 24 will take place in a new location–New York City. The main ensemble will be working in a brand new (and re-instituted) CTU, which by the way looks so awesome! Kiefer made it clear that this season will truly bring things full circle, back to season one. Everything that has happened in Jack’s life thus far will culminate in this season. He also mentioned that a 24 movie is something he and the staff have thought about as a future franchise for the 24 universe. Look forward to a reinvented 24, coming in January 2010.
4:00PM-5:00PM – Dollhouse Panel (Ballroom 20)
Creative genius Joss Whedon presented the unaired episode thirteen of Fox’s Dollhouse titled “Epitaph One.” It starred Felicia Day and show star Eliza Dushku. It was awesome. For those of you who have yet to see season one, do yourself a favor and purchase the season one DVD which includes the unaired episode. The panel included Joss Whedon, Eliza Dushku, and special guests (other cast members) Fran Kranz and Dichan Lachman. Joss is a very funny man and an ingenious visionary. His latest creation Dollhouse will enter its second season this fall, picking up right from where it left off in last season’s finale. On the brink of cancellation, Fox decided to keep Dollhouse and give it another shot for better rating with a second season. Thank goodness for that. He has many surprises and twists ahead hidden away in mind. He says the show will take a new direction in season two that will continue the same story from season one but will also shed new light on the characters and relationships. Let it be known: Eliza Dushku is smoking hot in person. Just take a look for yourself in the gallery below.
All in all, Day Two was a great one. So many new shows to look forward to, and so many classics making bold returns. Tomorrow: the final Lost panel, among others! Enjoy the image galleries here as you await my reporting from my final day at Comic Con. Cheers.