By Mark Seavy  

Fan fervor ran high at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 despite some major studios opting out of this year’s event, which focused heavily on nostalgic IP and featured only a handful of new properties. 

With Disney’s Marvel and Warner Bros. Discovery’s DC Entertainment not showcasing films with panels in the convention’s marquee Hall H, the cavernous facility was turned over to Disney’s Tron: Ares (October 10), 20th Century Studios’ Predator: Badlands (November 7), and Amazon MGM’s Project Hail Mary (March 2026).  

One viral moment from the five-day event, however, took place on the last day (June 27) when Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas made his first appearance at Comic-Con. Lucas previewed his 300,000-sqaure-foot Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and 40,000-piece art collection that is slated to open in 2026 at the Los Angeles, CA fairgrounds. It will feature, among other things, the first character drawing of Flash Gordon in 1934, Peanuts comics from the 1950s and 1960s, and the first Iron Main comic series (1968). 

Yet with the absence of 2025 movies like Lucasfilm’s Mandalorian & Grogu and Amazon MGM’s Masters of the Universe (Hasbro did, however, promote the film at its Comic-Con booth), as well as the upcoming second season of Netflix’s Wednesday, some industry executives questioned Comic-Con’s relevance for Hollywood.  

That was especially true compared to last year’s event, which featured Marvel’s Deadpool & Wolverine, a movie that was released the first night of Comic-Con 2024 and went on to a $210 million opening weekend box office. And while Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts films struggled at the box office earlier this year, The Fantastic Four: First Steps opened on the event’s first night and generated $218 million globally in its first weekend at the box office. 

“Going to Comic-Con is like going to prom—you never go in your sweats,” one major studio marketing executive told Deadline. “You never want to make a bad impression.” 

New film releases aside, there was a heavy focus on nostalgia-tinged properties for collectibles and other products at Comic-Con. 

Hasbro, for example, unveiled Marvel Legend X-Men ’97 two-packs figures that will be sold through Hasbro Pulse this fall at $49, with preorders starting in August. Hasbro also released the soundtrack from its 1985 TV series Jem and the Holograms and featured at its booth a performance by Britta Phillips, the original voice for the show’s titular lead singer Jem. 

Horror Inc., having settled a long-running copyright dispute with Victor Miller, the screenwriter for the original Friday the 13th movie, has signed licensing agreements with NECA (action figures) and Spirit Halloween (hockey masks).  

Horror, which recently appointed Striker Entertainment to handle licensing, acquired the rights to the Friday the 13th franchise from Georgetown Productions. But Miller sought to terminate the copyright transfer he made to the production company, arguing he wasn’t a contract employee.  

An appeals court ruled in Miller’s favor, and he regained the rights to the first film (1979) and the name “Friday the 13th.” Horror, however, as part of the settlement, retains ownership to the broader franchise, including sequels and visual aspects of characters like Jason Voorhees.  

Horror’s franchise has been rebranded the “Jason Universe” and at Comic-Con it promoted plans for the short film Sweet Revenge, which is being released on Amazon Prime Video on August 13. There is also an upcoming  Peacock and A24 TV series called Crystal Lake inspired by the franchise.  

“Comic-Con’s still alive and well without Marvel and DC panels,” Ian Kerner, VP of Business Development at Lightiron and a 30-year Comic-Con veteran, told TheWrap. “It existed before them and exists fine without them.”