1. Jason Momoa is king of the oceans – and of Hall H
The clear highlight of DC’s big Hall H presentation was the unveiling of a full trailer for their upcoming Aquaman solo film. A longtime Comic-Con favorite from his Game of Thrones days, star Jason Momoa got a hero’s welcome when he took the stage to promote the comics giant’s most CGI-heavy adventure yet. Momoa’s Aquaman rules the underwater kingdom of Atlantis with a certain unease, feeling self-conscious about his heritage as half-human and half-Atlantean, but he’ll have to find himself in time to broker a peace between his war hawk half-brother and the surface world. The trailer promised a pre-viz extravaganza of zero-gravity camerawork and seafaring fauna, from steed-sized seahorses to massive claw-clacking crab-monsters. Vibrant, odd and rowdy as its trucker-turned-god protagonist, Aquaman looks like a refreshing change of pace for a DC universe that’s been mired in the dour as of late.
2. Shazam will bring some levity to the DC Universe
Speaking of DC moving in new directions: the often po-faced studio commits fully to funny with this resurrection of a second-stringer superhero created as a goofier alternative to Superman. DC’s presentation also included a first look at the action tentpole in which Disney Channel grad Asher Angel plays Billy Batson, a 14-year-old foster kid trying to adjust to his latest home and family. On an ordinary subway ride, he’s imbued with the power to transform into a strapping, cape-clad crimefighter (with the chiseled face of former Chuck star Zachary Levi) simply by uttering “Shazam!” The new trailer plays up a lighter tone and treats the premise as something closer to a body-swap comedy à la Freaky Friday, complete with Billy using his grownup good looks to impress the ladies. It’s safe to laugh again!
3. Godzilla’s got company for King of the Monsters
The final scene of 2014’s Godzilla reboot heralded the impending arrival of the mega-lizard’s kaiju brethren, but the public got their first eyeful of the complete cast of characters with the trailer for this hotly anticipated sequel. Roll call: Godzilla’s back, as is his winged foe Mothra, while new on the scene are the pterrible pterodactyl Rodan and the three-headed behemoth known as King Ghidorah. Even more beasts will be up and about during this cataclysmic clash for the fate of the planet, as the “Titans” emerge from an ancient slumber to purge the world of the humans poisoning it. (It’s hard not to root for the giant airborne reptile torching the US Capitol building.) The puny humans scurry to avoid getting crushed underfoot as elemental forces eons old draw on the power of Mother Earth’s volcanoes, oceans, sky – and, again, there’s going to be a three-headed dragon.
4. Doctor Who’s first female lead has a new zest for life
It’s been a full year since the BBC announced that the 13th iteration of the time-hopping traveler known as The Doctor would be played by Jodie Whittaker, and with fandom excitement reaching frothy-mouthed levels, the time was right to show off the first footage from next season’s episodes. The first female Doctor has a sense of guileless excitement about her, eager to explore a great big universe with a childlike wonder. The quick clip shows her wielding a newly redesigned sonic screwdriver, whizzing through the space-time continuum, and inviting a fresh trio of companions (Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill) to be her “best friends”. Bright primary colors and an altogether bouncier visual sensibility make this a bold step in an unprecedented direction, even for a series that’s made its name on whimsy.
5. American Horror Story is hurtling toward end times
TV overlord Ryan Murphy landed his most popular creation with the unkillable American Horror Story anthology series, and for the show’s eighth season, he’s dipping into his own past. The most well-received seasons were the first and third, the Murder House and Coven arcs, so that’s just where Murphy’s taking his inspiration; the to-be-released Apocalypse season will focus on the arrival of a satanic infant destined to bring about the final reckoning for humankind, and will reportedly fuse mythology from those earlier episodes. Casting has yet to be revealed, but fans will be up in arms if perennial favorites Jessica Lange and Evan Peters aren’t on the call sheet. Murphy described the episodes in the can as “heightened”, a return to the all-out lunacy of his more outré work – as if audiences expected anything less.
6. Fantastic Beasts returns with an easy-on-the-eye Dumbledore
“Hot Young Dumbledore”, as his adoring public has nicknamed him, was the toast of Warner Bros’ panel promoting the follow-up to the Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The ornately titled Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald features Jude Law as the Hogwarts head during his salad days, as he tangles with the evil wizard that lends the film its title (portrayed by an aptly cast Johnny Depp). Somewhere in the mix is our man Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), continuing to catalogue the magical animal kingdom as a secret war rages around him and his romantic opposite Tina (Katherine Waterston). So it’s only natural that the clip contains more enchanted critters than you can shake a wand at, from giant glowing-eyed cats to serpents made of seaweed to one particularly quizzical-looking bird – the whole computer-generated menagerie.
7. Supergirl and Nicole Maines create TV’s first trans superhero
The CW had no shortage of sizzle reels and A-lister appearances, but the most significant revelation from the youth-geared channel’s presentation was a bit of casting. When Supergirl returns for its fourth season in October, the new episodes will include a small but meaningful milestone: in her role as humanoid alien Nia Nal, activist Nicole Maines will be television’s first transgender superhero. Those in the know speculate that her character will be a reinterpretation of the comics’ Nura Nal, AKA the clairvoyant Dream Girl, a trusted ally of the caped defender Supergirl (Melissa Benoist). Whether she’ll be friend or foe in this new incarnation has yet to be seen, but either way, it’s another step in the right direction for a trans community fighting for representation and visibility. Maines invoked a famous comics quotation when asked for comment: “With great power comes great responsibility.”
8. Sarah Paulson could be the secret weapon of Glass
A stinger scene smuggled at the end of Split foretold a crossover with Unbreakable, an earlier M Night Shyamalan film that introduced the unhinged terrorist Mr Glass (Samuel L Jackson) and the extrasensory-enabled David Dunn (Bruce Willis). That day is close, with a tantalizing trailer for this unorthodox superhero thriller now online. Fans had an especially strong reaction not to the main trio (completed by James McAvoy as Split’s dissociative mutant Kevin, better known as “The Monster”) but to their therapist Dr Ellie Staple, an expert on delusions of grandeur who has diagnosed her superpowered patients with a bad case of being crazy. Played by people’s champion Sarah Paulson, she’s the major new face in a film that also brings back Anya Taylor-Joy’s Casey Cooke from Split. The Shyamalan connected universe is getting bigger all the time.
9. Ladies take the lead for The Walking Dead’s ninth season
Change is in the humid, stench-heavy air on AMC’s ongoing zombie drama. Cast members Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohan have both declared that the ninth go-round will be their last as grizzled survivor Rick Grimes and hardy leader Maggie Rhee, respectively. More upheaval still comes from a switch-up in the showrunner’s seat, as seasoned writer Angela Kang will take over for Scott Gimple. She’s made no bones – gnawed-upon or otherwise – about her intention to foreground the female characters in a season moving on from the late tyrant Negan and the All Out War arc. The new primary villain will be Alpha (Samantha Morton), the leader of a clan that wears the skin of the undead to blend in and call themselves The Whisperers. On a show that deals death as its stock in trade, nobody is safe, and some major characters are sure to meet with a bloody demise as this series saunters on like so many flesh-starved walkers.
10. Familiar face will emerge from shadows on Better Call Saul
The ballad of Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) continues as this prequel series to Breaking Bad inches closer and closer to overlapping with its source material. A sign of the advancing times arrives in a young Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), the motivated young conniver who would grow up to be the mild-mannered kingpin/fast-food magnate that terrorized Walter White and Jesse Pinkman. Completist viewers will also recognize the doomed Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) and Lydia (Laura Fraser) as the man who would be Saul Goodman attempts to build his rickety legal empire while straddling assorted moral dividing lines. He’s trapped in an existential funk following the – spoiler alert – death of his estranged brother Chuck at the finale of last season, but constant peril tends to shake a man out of suck states. His dealings with bottom-feeders and other disreputable types always places him in someone or other’s crosshair, and Gus didn’t build his kingdom on fried chicken alone.
