[NYCC 2019] Panels and Screenings

With the 2019 New York Comic Con in the books it’s time to get to all the great things that happened over the course of the four day pop-culture celebration. Bringing hundreds of thousands of fans to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan NYCC is a celebration of all things pop culture from comics, video games, TV, movies, collectibles, posters, and artists. There is always a tremendous amount to do throughout the weekend including panels, exhibit floor, artist alley, and offsite activations

New York Comic Con brings in a few hundred panels throughout the four days with a tremendous amount of content and discussions for a wide range of topics. TV shows, movies, comics, cos-play and everything in between is fair game for a panel. NYCC continued to utilize all of the smaller rooms, the 2,500 seat Main Stage room, the Hudson Mercantile, the Hammerstein Ballroom, and the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden to showcase all of this content.

This year I was a bit more reserved with panels and didn’t quite hit as many as normal, however I do feel the panels I attended were worthy of discussion.  As always the panelists are enthusiastic to talk about new and upcoming seasons, banter with the moderator, and answer fan questions.

That said look for a  more in-depth discussion around Hulu’s Castle Rock in the near future

HBO Watchmen Screening and Panel
Panelists Damon Lindelof, Nicole Kassell, Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Jean Smart, Tim Blake Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Hong Chau, Dave Gibbons

One of the most anticipated shows this fall Watchmen follows the events of original 12-Issue graphic novel. As explained by producer Damon Lindelof everything that happened in the original graphic novel is canon and the series takes place years after the events. At NYCC we were shown the full first episode. Though we were asked not to post full reviews of the episode I will say it does have a very gritty feel to it. Set in Oklahoma the 7th Cavalry, a right-wing domestic terrorist group, runs around wearing Rorschach masks and the police are forced to hide their identities in order to protect themselves and their families. The show has allusions to the original series but really seems to be focusing on the present and not the past, though I am sure we will get snippets as the season progresses.

On top of the panel HBO had a cast signing which included everyone from the panel. While the signing was part of a pre-show lottery, which I didn’t win, I was able to use my con skills and got into it. Most of these signings are usually super-exclusive and only about 100 fans throughout the whole convention get that experience. It was really nice to be able to chat with the cast even for just a few seconds and sneak a selfie or two with your favorite actor.

If all that was not enough HBO held an afterparty at the end of the night which had some nice snacks, an open bar, cool music, and a little bit of cool swag!

For updates and news regarding Watchmen you can follow along on Twitter: @Watchmen, Instagram: @watchmen, Facebook: @WatchmenHBO and use #WatchmenHBO.

20th Century Fox: An Insider’s Look at “The King’s Man” and “Free Guy”
20th Century Fox came on board with a look at two new movies.

The King’s Man
Host: Terri Schwartz; Panelists: Matthew Vaughn, Ralph Fiennes, Harris Dickinson, and Djimon Hounsou
First we got a look at The King’s Man Matthew Vaughn’s origin story of Britain’s very first independent intelligence agency hitting theaters. The panel gave us a view of the prequel to the Kingsman movies. The movie which comes out on February 14, 2020 is set around World War I and follows a man and his man protégé as they race to stop a collection of criminals and tyrants. I unfortunately got into the panel a bit late but it was fun to see Ralph Fiennes excited about coming on board.

For updates and news regarding The King’s Man you can follow along on Twitter: @KingsmanMovie,   Instagram: @ kingsmanmovie, Facebook: @KingsmanMovie and use #TheKingsMan.

Free Guy
Host: Terri Schwartz; Panelists: Ryan Reynolds, Shawn Levy, Jodie Comer, Joe Keery, Lil Rel Howery, Utkarsh Ambudkar
The other movie showcased at NYCC this year has a huge surprise when Ryan Reynolds decided to come out and promote this new movie that follows Guy (Ryan Reynolds), a mild-mannered bank teller, who figures out he’s really a minor character in a open world video game titled Free City. The film oscillates between the real world where players who created AI code are discovering their stolen code in Guy and the video game where as the movie progress Guy starts gaining fame within the game as he discovers the boundaries he can cross. There was only about six weeks of shooting so there wasn’t a lot to see or a trailer but it certainly looks like a fun movie from the clips we did see.

Batman Beyond 20th Anniversary
Moderator: Gary Miereanu; Panelists: Kevin Conroy, Will Friedle, Lauren Tom, James Tucker, Alan Burnett, Andrea Romano
For those not aware 2019 marks the 20th anniversary of the Batman Beyond series. The series is set in 2039 in Neo-Gotham where an aging Batman was forced to put down the cowl. Terry McGinnis, a troubled youth, discovers the batcave and takes up the mantle as the new Batman. Terry gets his own rogues gallery throughout the series, though some old enemies do pop up. For the 20th anniversary DC was promoting the remastered series which drops on digital on October 15 and blu-ray on October 29; we saw side-by-side comparisons of the updated version as well as some of the special features included in the box set. The panel really went into some details of the show including the casting of Will Friedle as Terry; the pitch for the show and how it was meant for a younger crowd but ended up being much more adult and grittier; the creators favorite episodes, and Alan Burnett’s negative feeling towards the reveal of Terry being Bruce Wayne’s son.

“Evil” Exclusive Screening and Panel Discussion
Panelists: Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, Michael Emerson, Kurt Fuller, Aasif Mandvi, Kurt Fuller, Michelle King, and Robert KingEvil is a new CBS procedural drama thatexamines the origins of evil along the dividing line between science and religion. The new series which premiered its second episode “177 minutes” at NYCC series focuses on David Acosta (Colter) a priest-in-training who joins Dr. Kristen Bouchard  (Herbers) as they investigate the Church’s backlog of unexplained mysteries, including supposed miracles, demonic possessions and hauntings. Their job is to find out if a miracle is truly taking place or if there is a logical explanation to each case. In the second episode they are tasked at finding out if it was a miracle after a girl wakes up 177 minutes after being declared. I really enjoyed how the show mixes the supernatural elements along with the scientific explanation. While this episode debunked the supernatural element of the coming back to life of the girl (sorry for the minor spoiler) the manner which the episode goes about explaining it is fun to watch. That’s not to say there isn’t a supernatural element Bouchard seems to be dealing with an Evil entity which while she does try to logically explain away I am sure will turn out to have more substance. Episodes air on Thursday nights on CBS.

StarTalk Live at New York Comic Con, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Panelists: Chuck Nice, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Charles Liu
Chuck Nice, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Charles Liu separated their discussion into three areas but basically discussed all things nerd culture from the technology used in Star Trek such as how communication works given their use of warp speed and how you would otherwise arrive before your message, to the weight of Thor’s hammer, Elements used in superheroes armor such as Adamantium and Vibranium

About the author

Media Journalist | Michael loves all things pop culture and has an opinion about everything whether you ask for it or not. Michael collects steelbooks, posters, convention exclusives, LEGO, Transformers, and everything in between.