SAN DIEGO -- Warner Bros. blew up Hall H early on Saturday, wrapping the venue in giant surround screens and showing a teaser for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice before bringing director Zack Snyder and stars Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot onstage for a wave.
The teaser -- all of 20 seconds or so -- showed Affleck in a bulky, armored batsuit with glowing blue eyes, standing on a Gotham rooftop in the rain. He lights a bat signal, whose beam illuminates a hovering, angry-looking Superman, whose own eyes then glow red. "Man, Superman looks pissed," said moderator Chris Hardwicke, who wasn't kidding.
Batman and Superman to the stage ... #SDCC https://t.co/9BBrh78pNa— Josh Lincoln Dickey (@NotoriousJLD) July 26, 2014
Having Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman together onstage was one of those moments people camp out for, but it didn't last: The three stars got in a wave, saying nothing to the screaming crowd, before heading off. "We've got go get back to making the movie," Snyder said.
And now Wonder Woman to the stage ... #SDCC https://t.co/HztxrjkzcO— Josh Lincoln Dickey (@NotoriousJLD) July 26, 2014
At some point during the presentation, the studio released a concept-art image of Gadot as Wonder Woman:
Warner Bros.' giant surround screens, which stretched all the way to the back of the cavernous Hall H for the first time (they'd done something like this before, but I don't remember them going back that far), were put to great effect for their presentation of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies:
A quick look at the giant surround screens during the HOBBIT panel in Hall H at #SDCC https://t.co/Iw3scS2CKi— Josh Lincoln Dickey (@NotoriousJLD) July 26, 2014
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies panel brought a major group of the film's stars to the Hall H stage: Peter Jackson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Orlando Bloom, Cate Blanchett, Lee Pace, Evangeline Lily, Elijah Wood, Luke Evans and Andy Serkis (but no Ian McKellen, the star of a long, hilarious Hobbit blooper reel that WB showed mid-panel) sat shoulder-to-shoulder in the big room for an extended chat.
Stephen Colbert, reprising his Easter-Egg role as "the spy of Lake Town," moderated the Hobbit panel in costume:
Colbert -- as the "Lake Town Spy -- to the stage for THE HOBBIT panel. #SDCC https://t.co/TgpuWtH4ut— Josh Lincoln Dickey (@NotoriousJLD) July 26, 2014
Warner Bros. also showed extensive footage of Jupiter Ascending, bringing star Channing Tatum to the stage for a chat, showing extensive footage of the Wachowskis' latest sci-fi epic. And it looks pretty great: It turns out that the human race was seeded 100,000 years ago by a powerful corporation, and Mila Kunis is a threat to its power; enter Tatum, who must save her from intergalactic assassins. The ideas are big, the action looks great and the special effects were colorful and creative.
But it was Mad Max: Fury Road that turned out to be the pleasant surprise. George Miller, the original and only Mad Max director, is reprising his vision in a way that sent wave after wave of tingles through Hall H. Brutal, dusty, and terrifyingly apocalyptic, the extended reel showed Max's escape from captivity and first meeting with Charleze Theron, who leads a small band of women through the desolation. It looks like Warner Bros. has a winner here.
As Hall H panels go, it was a whopper -- anything less than a Batman v Superman teaser would've disappointed the nerd herd, and Warner Bros. doesn't want to do that. The extended Hobbit panel, complete with an all-new trailer they showed twice, was an appropriate send-off for the megafranchise
And that Mad Max footage, well ... looks like we've got something special to look forward to in 2015 after all.