San Diego’s lucrative fanboy convention will be missing some key players next month: Marvel Studios, home of the Avengers, won’t be dressing up for Comic-Con while Sony Pictures and Paramount Pictures have also decided to skip the Hall H presentations.
“It wasn’t a knock against Comic-Con,” one spokesperson explains, “the film cycles just didn’t allow it.”
Sony and Paramount just didn’t have the fanboy material to promote, said sources, while Marvel, which last missed the confab in 2011, already unveiled its new wave of Avengers at a special fan event in October.
Plus, cost of sending a number of movies to Comic-Con can also set back a studio a few hundred thousand dollars, so “why force the issue?,” one exec asks.
Disney is expected to showcase its upcoming slate, which includes sequels for “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Finding Nemo,” at the company’s D23 Expo later this summer.
But don’t expect Tony Stark or Jack Sparrow to ruin the party in Hall H: In addition to the new “Star Wars” and final “Hunger Games,” fans could see the rumored coming-out party for Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment’s Justice League, which features Batman, Superman, the Flash and Aquaman, among other surprises.
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Also expected are 20th Century Fox’s “Fantastic Four” and quite possibly a few “X-Men.”
The 46th edition of Comic-Con will be held July 9-12 at the San Diego Convention Center.
