The Fox panel at Comic Con was one of the most-anticipated of the Con and with at least one very good reason: DEADPOOL. Beyond that, there were some other good additions as well and even some surprises, including THE MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS, THE FANTASTIC FOUR, and X-MEN: APOCALYPSE. While most of us were chomping at the bit just to see the ol' Merc With A Mouth in action, Fox made sure to bring at least a little more heat to the table as well. Check out our rundown below.
THE MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS
The sequel to THE MAZE RUNNER has already dropped a few trailers, so fans are pretty aware of what they have in store…almost. With author James Dashner, director Wes Ball, and stars Dylan O'Brien, Rosa Salazar, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Giancarlo Esposito on the stage, we were shown a new trailer that had most elements from the first few, but this time we were given a look at the new monsters of the film: The Cranks, which are essentially zombified humans who go on a rampage after being infected with a epidemic disease in The Scorch.
Giancarlo Esposito weighed in on the theme of the film, saying: “It’s about humanity, it’s about family sticking things out…it’s got the guts the glory the humanity…”
We were shown a clip from the film, highlighting the new villains (which are very much like the zombies in the game The Last Of Us). Here's a rundown of the clip, which was actually quite cool.
– Dylan O'Brian and Rosa Salazar are investigating a graffiti-filled tunnel area and see a bloody tree-like crust growing on the walls (think the bloody weeds of WAR OF THE WORLDS or the ALIENS crust when they capture humans). A rat comes out of a smaller tunnel, looking infected. As it hobbles away a hand reaches out and grabs it. O'Brien and Salazar shine their lights up and a Crank is revealed to be attached to the crust on the wall. It bites into the rat, with blood and guts trailing as it does, then we see more and more Cranks coming out of the dark. They look zombie-ish, but with strange growths all over their bodies and they aren't exactly slow. Quite the opposite. The Cranks give chase and O'Brien and Salazar find themselves running out of the tunnel and into a vast, apocalyptic world of a destroyed city, which can only be The Scorch.
Final Thoughts: THE MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS looks way more like a futuristic apocalypse tale rather than a standard young adult flick and with the inclusion of the Cranks and an all-new setting, this series shows more and more promise.
VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN
Director Paul McGuigan and stars Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy took the stage in Hall H to promote their new adaptation of the classic Frankenstein tale…although let's not get caught up calling it a direct adaptation, because that's certainly not the case.
Firstly, they showed a new trailer, which has a more playful action vibe than foreboding horror. It feels almost like a pilot for a new TV show than a new film incarnation/adaptation. The monster is mostly downplayed, although we get a peek at him, with the focus clearly about Victor and Igor. In fact, a better title would be The Victor and Igor adventures, as this is essentially a buddy adventure movie, even if the buddies are both a little crazy. The story seems to revolve around the earlier years of Victor and Igor, who are working to piece together different parts of creatures to make their own hybrids (i.e. Frankenstein's monster) and end up battling those same creatures as a result.
McAvoy on Victor: "We’ve given him a reason for being crazy. We keep him mad all the way to the end. We make him more fun. Because mental people are fun."
We then saw a clip where Victor brings a pieced together monkey to life by shocking it a number of times before it comes to life, while disapproving colleagues stand around watching them. It's obvious that the community of scientists regard Victor and Igor with disdain. Once the monkey comes back to life, it immediately attacks one of the people in attendance, before running off, forcing Igor to chase it.
Final Thoughts: VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN is way more buddy adventure/comedy than straight horror with the focus on the two leads above all things. With the charisma of both McAvoy and Radcliffe that may be enough to carry it, but nothing visually is all that striking, as we've seen this kind of stuff many times before.
FANTASTIC FOUR
Director Josh Trank was joined by producer Simon Kinberg and stars Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Toby Kebbell and Jamie Bell to promote the superhero reboot and they presented a brand new trailer to kick things off.
The trailer shows a young Reed Richards experimenting at home with teleportation with a friend (Doom?) who is able to transport a toy car. Afterwards, Reed's friend says, "You're crazy, Reed" to which he replies, "Thanks." We then see much of what's been on display before, although with a much more superhero-ish tone, foregoing the eerie mystery of the first trailer. We see more of the characters in action and using their powers and more glimpses of Toby Kebbell's Dr. Doom, which looks much more "infected" with whatever is turning him into the famed character. We see Reed and Doom battle, as well as Johnny Storm flying around and doing his fire-shooting thing. Overall, not a bad trailer and certainly shows off the most we've seen of the characters in action, but I still prefer the vibe of the first one.
Toby Kebbell said that he considers Dr. Doom the "best villain of them all" and commented on how Doom always twists things to make his way right, no matter how evil, which makes him so sinister.
"It's a story about strength as family," said Trank about the overall theme of the film, which he called both an "origin" and "prequel".
"I consider him [The Thing] the heart of the group," said Jamie Bell.
Final Thoughts: I'm still cautiously optimistic about this one. While there are many who are vehemently against it as a whole, I think there's some real potential. Whether or not they deliver, I can't yet say, but I really like the cast and I'm hoping that seeing the final product will be a surprising experience.
DEADPOOL
Ah yes, the one we've all been waiting for: DEADPOOL. The panel kicked off with an intro from the Merc With A Mouth, sitting in a chair in a dimly lit room as the camera slowly pushes in. Ryan Reynolds' voice is heard, doing a riff on the trailer voice guy, starting with "In a world…" and then proceeds to go full Wade Wilson, at one point saying, "From the studio that sewed his fucking mouth shut the first time…" and "From five-time Oscar watcher Ryan Reynolds." It was a great intro and broke right through the fourth wall immediately, setting up the foul-mouthed vibe and insanity that is DEADPOOL. "Lets take these broken wings and learn to fuckin fly again!"
Reynolds joined the stage with director Tim Miller and stars Morena Baccarin, TJ Miller, Ed Skrein, Brianna Hildebrand, and Gina Carano, where they talked at length, and with much profanity, about DEADPOOL. The vibe was great and everyone felt truly jazzed to be promoting the film.
"I'm ready to make some fuckin' chimichangas, man," said Reynolds to the crowd, later gushing about the film: "It's everything we loved about the comics."
The cast joked about Tim Miller getting choked up on set for certain scenes and at one point during the panel he really did get choked up just talking about the film. "It had to come at the right time, and the studio was ready to make it now.. He's the perfect character for now."
TJ Miller: "You're gonna fuckin love this movie!"
Reynolds took a shot at Green Lantern, saying at one point: "Ive only done one other proper, ahem, sorry…superhero movie…" He is very clearly looking to put GL behind him and I don't blame him one bit.
Finally, the trailer was shown, and by now you have likely seen a bootleg of it, but to sum it up: It's got all the elements you could have hoped for. Over the top, brutal action that's finely choreographed to fit Deadpool's abilities, 4th-wall-breaking jokes (including a guest appearance from Rob Liefeld), another crack at the Green Lantern costume, a first look at the all CGI Colossus (which looks bout a thousand times better than the X-Men movies version), profanity abound (motherfucker, cocksucker, etc.) and at least one masturbation reference. All in all, it's goddamn perfect.
Final Thoughts: Fuck. Yes.
X-MEN: APOCALYPSE and WOLVERINE 3
Hugh Jackman made a surprise appearance and took to the stage to talk about playing Wolverine "one last time" after a very cool sizzle reel was shown that highlighted not only his legacy in the X-films, but also showed his original audition for the role and even video of Singer offering him the role afterwards, which was really quite cool. Jackman then mentioned how old he's gotten since the first X-MEN and dropped the words OLD MAN LOGAN, then saying something along the lines of "think what you will on that," insinuating that the classic tale may have something to do with the next (and final) film, which is being directed by James Mangold. He went on to "promise" that the third film will be "the best" of the series.
Director Bryan Singer then took the stage and brought out the entire cast of X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, including Jennifer Lawrence, Lucas Till, Tye Sheridan, Sophie Turner, Nicholas Hoult, Olivia Munn, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Alexandra Shipp, Evan Peters, Lana Condor, and Ben Hardy.
Before exiting the stage, Singer brought up to Jackman that this was the first X-MEN film that didn't have Wolverine in it, and they had some awkward back-and-forth that implied Singer wanted him back and that there was still "room at the table" for him. Jackman sat on Jennifer Lawrence's lap for a few moments before making his exit, leaving us hanging with whether or not Wolverine would appear in the film or not.
X-MEN: APOCALYPSE takes place 10 years after DAYS OF FUTURE PAST and sees a world where mutants are mostly accepted. After some banter, we jumped into a teaser trailer for the film. Here's the lowdown:
The trailer starts with Jean Grey having a dream about the end of the world, to which she tells Professor X about. Magneto has "hung up his cape" and is living a "simple life," while Mystique is more Raven (i.e. human-looking) and going against her evil ways. We then hear the voice of Oscar Isaac's Apocalypse, which is fairly dark and foreboding. His appearance is teased in a few shots before giving the final reveal. Isaac is unrecognizable and the suit appears to be mostly practical. There are shades of blue armor and he's definitely got some colored contacts in. It's hard to judge how well it works from only a few glimpses (and no real close-ups), but it looks decent, minus the fact that Isaac seems too short for the role. I always saw Apocalypse as a huge, looming character, but based on this footage he's not quite that huge…or looming. He arrives at a woodland camp where Magneto is, to which he says: "Who the fuck are you?"
We then see Apocalypse breaking into the X-mansion and having a significant pursuasive effect on the characters, playing mindgames with them. At one point he's recreating Magneto's childhood death camp, which sends Magneto off the edge. While in the X-Mansion, Apocalypse uses some kind of "force-like" power to pull a wheelchair-bound Professor X towards him.We see a collage of all the characters sprinkled throughout, so it's hard to determine who's on which side. Storm is rocking the mohawk and Olivia Munn's Psylocke looks ripped right out of the comics with the purple outfit, red sash, and katana's.
There's a general sense of foreboding throughout and Apocalypse seems like he'll make a good foe (and it's refreshing to have an actual big-name villain this time), but it's still a little early to say this looks amazing. The trailer ends with Professor X wearing Cerebro, his eyes going all black and saying "I've never felt power like this before." Then, after the titles, we see McAvoy rocking the full Professor X bald dome.
After the teaser, the cast chatted about the film, although they couldn't say too much as it's still shooting.
"God has been asleep. Then God wakes you and says, this has got to change." – Oscar Isaac on Apocalypse, comparing him to a cult leader.
McAvoy joked about how Patrick Steward basically paid for his house, since the success of the first X-MEN film paved the way for his eventual involvement.
Olivia Munn and panel host Chris Hardwicke had some fun back-and-forth banter, as it was a reunion for the former Attack of the Show hosts. For those of us that caught the show it was a fun little moment.
The grand finale of the panel was when Hardwicke called for everyone to come back on stage for a huge group selfie, with Stan "The Man" Lee coming on stage to take the picture. Then, when asked for a camera, none other than Channing Tatum stepped out on stage. The GAMBIT star joined everyone on stage and the logo's for all the set-in-stone X-films was shown on the big screen. It was a fun ending to a long, yet cool panel.
Final Thoughts: I'm game as hell for WOLVERINE 3, especially if it goes Old Man Logan style and so far I'm intrigued with X-MEN: APOCALYPSE, but not ready to proclaim my full love for it just yet.
THE MAZE RUNNER: THE SCORCH TRIALS hits theaters on September 18, 2015, VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN hits on November 25, 2015, FANTASTIC FOUR debuts on August 7, 2015, DEADPOOL launches on February 12, 2016, and X-MEN: APOCALYPSE arrives on May 27, 2016.