Every July the center of the entertainment industry slides about 120 miles south of Los Angeles, and for four days everything that matters seems to happen inside the San Diego Convention Center. Comic-Con 2026 officially opens this morning and runs through Sunday, July 26, with Preview Night already in the books from last night. I say this every year and I mean it every year: this is not just a fan event. It is the loudest focus group in Hollywood, and the studios know it.
This year feels bigger than usual. Marvel is back in Hall H. DC decided not to throw its own party. The streamers are showing up like they own the place, and honestly, on today one of them kind of will. Here is where my attention is going, day by day.
Thursday is usually the slow warmup day at Comic-Con. Not this one. Hall H opens at 10 this morning with Percy Jackson and the Olympians: A New Quest Awaits, and at 1 the room turns over to Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, with a fan screening of the movie set for today. Anyone who grew up on that series already knows what the energy in that room is going to feel like.
Animation basically owns the day. My Hero Academia celebrates its tenth anniversary in Ballroom 20 at 10, Batman: Caped Crusader brings season two to Room 6BCF at 3:30, and Studio Ghibli returns at 3 in Room 6DE, though nobody knows yet what they are actually presenting. I love that. In a weekend built on marketing, Ghibli showing up with a question mark might be the most on brand move in the whole building.
Two more for today. A24 brings its new science fiction film Onslaught to Ballroom 20 at 5:30. And at 3 in Hall H, the annual Directors on Directing conversation puts Weapons director Zach Cregger together with Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, the directing team behind Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. If you care about how movies actually get made, that is the ticket of the day.
Saturday Belongs to Marvel
Let’s be honest, the whole weekend bends toward Saturday evening. Marvel Studios returns to Hall H at 5:30 with Avengers: Doomsday arriving later this year, and as usual the panel sits near the very end of the convention calendar, the closing argument of the whole weekend. Kevin Feige is expected, and the guest list beyond that will stay a secret until the lights go down, because that is how Marvel plays it. Whatever gets shown in that room on Saturday will set the tone for entertainment coverage for the rest of the summer.
DC Is Playing It Quiet, and That Is Interesting
DC Studios chose not to host its own big standalone event this year, which surprised me at first. Instead the company is threading itself through the weekend. A Lanterns panel is confirmed with the timing still being finalized. Batman: Knightfall Part 1: Knightfall takes Room 6A on Saturday morning, and Caped Crusader holds down today. Sometimes the quieter strategy says more than the loud one. DC seems comfortable letting the work introduce itself, and I am genuinely curious whether that reads as confidence or caution by Sunday night.
Prime Video Came to Win Today
Friday morning belongs to Prime Video, which takes Hall H at 10 with a double feature of Blade Runner 2099 and The Rings of Power season three. Expect cast, expect creators, and probably expect trailers. Prime also has Carrie in Ballroom 20 on Saturday at 4:45. A few years ago the idea of a streamer anchoring a Hall H morning felt novel. Now it is just the shape of the industry, and Amazon clearly plans to spend the weekend acting like a major studio, because at this point it is one.
Also on Friday, My Adventures With Superman brings its cast and creative team to the Indigo Ballroom at 2 to talk season three.
The Room Still Matters
Here is the thing people outside the industry forget about Comic-Con: these panels are not streamed. You have to be in the room. In a moment when everything is available everywhere instantly, the biggest entertainment news of the weekend will come out of rooms with no cameras pointed at the stage, carried by the reporters and fans sitting inside them. There is something almost old fashioned about that, and I think it is a big part of why the con still matters.
It is also why I pay attention beyond the headline panels. Comic-Con has always been where future headliners show up on small stages first. Somewhere in a half full room this weekend, a creator most people have not heard of yet is going to say something that changes their career. That is the part of this event New Hollywood Magazine cares about most, the people behind the work, right before everyone learns their names.
If Comic-Con puts a new name on your radar this weekend, that is exactly the kind of person we love to spotlight. Keep it locked on NewHollywoodMagazine.com, and tell us who you are watching.
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