Lucasfilm is reviving its big presence at San Diego Comic-Con with a panel about Star Wars: The Force Awakens in SDCC‘s massive Hall H.
“Lucasfilm president and producer Kathleen Kennedy, director J.J. Abrams, writer Lawrence Kasdan, and special guests [will] provide a special look” at the film, StarWars.com announced Wednesay.
The history of San Diego Comic-Con is deeply intertwined with the history of Star Wars. In 1976, when it was still a fledgling independent studio, Lucasfilm used SDCC for its first major Star Wars publicity effort. The company has been back every year since then. The global phenomenon that Star Wars became is widely credited with turning SDCC into the pop-culture spectacle that it has been for decades.
Comic-Con was the place to be for Star Wars when the prequels were coming out, but ever since the last prequel’s release in 2005, Star Wars has had a more muted presence. Book and comic publishers announced new titles, and TV shows promoted upcoming material, but without a big Star Wars movie to anchor Hall H, other properties—most notably Marvel—succeeded Lucasfilm as the big name at the show.
It remains unclear what fans can expect from the “special look” at The Force Awakens. Lucasfilm, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, revealed the second teaser trailer for the film at its Star Wars Celebration event in April, and the Disney event D23—at which Lucasfilm is confirmed to have a presence—looms on the calendar in mid-August, barely a month after SDCC.
While it is not impossible that a third teaser trailer might debut at SDCC, it is unlikely. Disney can upstage virtually every other film property, including its Marvel Cinematic Universe, simply by holding a Star Wars movie panel in Hall H. It can save its next big reveal, including but not limited to a new trailer, for D23, thus prolonging the summer’s mainstream Star Wars news cycle.
Lucasfilm also announced other Star Wars programming on Wednesday, including two publishing panels and one about its Hasbro action figures.
Photo via StarWars.com