By Mark Seavy

Three years removed from the last San Diego Comic-Con, showgoers will find a vastly changed media landscape.

To begin with, the show—which runs Thursday through Sunday—will see the first fruits of the mergers of Discovery and AT&T’s WarnerMedia (Warner Bros. Discovery) and of Viacom and CBS (ViacomCBS). The streaming business, once dominated by Netflix, has a new group of competitors ranging from Disney Plus and HBOMax to Peacock and Paramount Plus. And theatrical film schedules, once ironclad, were forever altered by the pandemic to accommodate changes in viewing habits.

The end result has been more content available from more sources and with that, a greater opportunity for licensing as surprise hits such as Squid Game and Tiger King became more frequent. And while studios during the pandemic created their own fan events like Warner Bros.’ free, virtual one-day FanDome for DC Comics, access to a broad swath of content and collectibles was lacking.

“The fact that you have other studios using other venues to make their big announcements hurts because, at the end of the day, Comic-Com gives them a chance to reach a much broader audience,” said Julian Montoya, SVP at licensed collectibles supplier The Noble Collection. “You can always get a sense [at Comic-Con] of what is up-and-coming and what will be part of the cultural zeitgeist moving forward. The [return] of the show is part of the path back to what the new normal will be.”

That new normal, judging from pre-show news and conversations, will be a continued reliance on nostalgia-tinged IPs with a mix of NFTs and location-based entertainment, the latter having come more to the fore in a post-pandemic world.

This year, the focus on franchises is evident as details of Marvel Studios’ Phase 5 plans are expected to emerge in Comic-Con’s high-profile Hall H. Much speculation has centered on the so-called Secret Wars, which involves X-Men, Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, Deadpool, and The Avengers.

And Warner Bros. is expected to counter with “House of Dragon” trailers and merchandise for a spin-off of Game of Thrones that’s slated for release on HBO and HBO Max on Aug. 21. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is making streaming a priority for the newly merged company (HBO Max, Discovery Plus) as he seeks to make it as profitable as the TV business.

Sony Pictures and Toei Animation will debut the feature film Knights of the Zodiac, which is inspired by the 1980s manga and anime series. And, not to be outdone, Hasbro will unveil its first Dungeons & Dragons toy line in advance of the release of a film in March 2023 and feature The Tavern immersive experience at its booth.

Any location-based entertainment at Comic-Con is expected to come in the form of pop-ups that, while short in duration, could provide roadmaps for future projects. There will be an interactive experience for the new film The Gray Man—which is being released in select theaters and launching on Netflix on Thursday—that uses a tram car to feature a chase scene from the movie. Then there’s a labyrinth featuring FX’s American Horror Stories, What We Do In The Shadows, and Little Demon. And, on the lighter side, there will be a performance by the San Diego Symphony of music from Bandai Namco’s Dragonball Z.