The 10 Biggest Reveals at SDCC 2024

San Diego Comic Con is the event for fans of sci-fi, superheroes, and all things “nerdy.” After a few quiet years at the box office and on the small screen due to COVID and an actor’s strike, there are plenty of fans who are ready to see their favorite franchises get back in the saddle. Here are the ten biggest announcements from SDCC 2024 this year.

The Rings of Power Season 2

Amazon Prime Video reportedly poured so much money into the first season of The Rings of Power that it’s the most expensive TV show ever created. That’s a disappointment, given how boring and bland the end product is. The second season promises to “go nuclear,” though, and Amazon is trying to hype fans up to give the dull fantasy series another shot.

The Penguin

The Penguin is a sequel series to the excellent 2022 film The Batman. It will, of course, star Colin Ferrell as the titular crime lord and will see him ascendant in Gotham following the death of mob boss Carmine Falcone. No word yet on whether Robert Pattinson will appear as the Batman himself, but Warner Brothers would need to hate money to leave him out of the proceedings.

Vought Rising

You like The Boys? Well, here comes more. That’s right, on top of the mainline show and Gen V, Amazon Prime Video is pumping out a prequel series called Vought Rising. This one will focus on returning characters Soldier Boy and Stormfront in the 1950s.

Creature Commandos

Oddly enough, James Gunn’s retooled DC Universe will get its start with an animated Creature Commandos series, of all things. The Zack Snyder faithful have really angled themselves in opposition to Gunn’s new direction for the company, so the reception of this opening salvo will be pretty pivotal for the future of the studio.

Doctor Who Spinoff: The War Between the Land and the Sea

Now that Disney has the international rights to Doctor Who, the series has a huge injection of cash and will begin pumping out its first new spinoffs since Class was canceled in 2017. The first of these will be The War Between the Land and the Sea, (what a terrible name for a TV show) which will take place in the 1970s and will focus on the Sea Devils race.

Like a Dragon: Yakuza

Popular Sega video game franchise Yakuza will finally be adapted to the small screen with the upcoming Amazon Prime Video series. After its success with Fallout, it seems Prime is eager to adapt more video games and tap into their pre-established fan bases. Time will tell how the notoriously tonal whiplash of the games will translate to live-action storytelling.

RDJ is Doom

Robert Downey Jr.’s charismatic take on Tony Stark helped catapult the MCU to the stratosphere in Iron Man and The Avengers. Now, he’s back to help reignite the franchise’s missing spark as Doctor Doom, the villain of the Fantastic Four and the star of the recently-renamed Avengers: Doomsday.

Avengers: Secret Wars

With RDJ stepping in to play Doom, the sixth Avengers film, subtitled Secret Wars, will likely take a very different track now that Jonathan Majors is facing legal troubles. Majors was playing Kang the Conqueror, but recent allegations of domestic violence have sidelined the actor from his MCU projects and led to most of his agencies and employers distancing themselves from him.

Fantastic Four Movie, Finally

Marvel is finally starting production on the long-awaited Fantastic Four movie, now subtitled First Steps. The casting is excellent—Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards is a particular stroke of genius. However, the name “First Steps” is a terrible moniker for anything that isn’t directly related to babies learning to walk and gives the whole thing a very uncool Fischer-Price energy.

Thunderbolts*

The upcoming MCU flick Thunderbolts* (yes, there’s an asterisk in the title) will finally see a number of plot threads from Phase 4 and Phase 5 get paid off. Characters introduced in projects like Black Widow and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier will team up to create the Suicide Squad-like villain team, the titular Thunderbolts.