San Diego Comic-Con 2025 - What We’re Most Excited For
There is something quietly cinematic about Comic-Con. Not in the blockbuster sense – though blockbusters have largely become its lifeblood – but in the hush before the curtains rise. San Diego, once again, prepares to open its great proscenium to the world this weekend, and soon enough we’ll be watching and reading about panels entirely focused on the stories that will soon be shaping our imaginations throughout the coming year.
Even from afar, the anticipation has texture. It hums like a perfectly-orchestrated film score. Because in this age of serialized cinematic universes, streaming services, and once-dormant franchises roaring back to life, Comic-Con 2025 is more than a promotional event. It’s a pulse check on the stories our society cares about most.
Thursday, July 24
The weekend begins Thursday, July 24, with a promise that mythology is not only alive, but thriving. Percy Jackson and the Olympians returns to Hall H to promote its second season, fresh off a first season that finally delivered the faithful adaptation fans of Rick Riordan’s books had waited years to see. Will fans finally get a glimpse of Percy, Annabeth, and Grover preparing to cross the crucible known as the Sea of Monsters?
Later that day, Amazon brings its most offbeat fantasy experiment to the stage – Critical Role’s double-pronged universe. With The Legend of Vox Machina returning for season 4 and The Mighty Nein gearing up to explore the world of Exandria over 20 years after Vox Machina’s end, the franchise that began as a tabletop game is now reshaping how IP can grow from grassroots devotion. The Mighty Nein, with its darker tone and moral grayness compared to its predecessor, has the potential to do for high fantasy animation what The Boys did for superheroes, and if we’re lucky, we’ll get our first look at a trailer coming out of this panel.
Then there's the glorious absurdity of Twisted Metal, a show that no one expected to work and yet became one of Peacock’s sleeper hits. As season 2 looms, the promise of new vehicular carnage, the beginning of the games’ titular tournament, and the introduction of characters like Axel and Mr. Grimm could make this one of the more fun panels of the day.
Meanwhile, Universal’s Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 arrives on the heels of the first film’s unexpected box office triumph. Say what you will about killer animatronics, the fanbase is real – and so is the momentum. Blumhouse knows how to put on a crowd-pleasing show, and the trailer – if revealed – may give us a clearer look at how they’ll adapt the tangled web of game lore for the screen.
Thursday also offers a triple-shot of camp with The Strangers: Chapter 2, Red Sonja, and The Toxic Avenger, all of which seem positioned to scratch different nostalgic itches. But even within the grindhouse aesthetics, there’s a beating heart – a desire to make these long-ignored genres feel alive again.
Friday, July 25
Friday shifts from camp to some of pop culture’s most iconic franchises. And in the world of sci-fi horror, few loom larger than the Alien/Predator franchise, now reengineered for television. FX’s Alien: Earth has been cloaked in mystery, but early stills and casting announcements suggest a show unafraid to confront the existential dread and body horror that made Ridley Scott’s original so indelible. This panel may be a sleeper highlight of the coming weekend – especially if it reveals how, exactly, the series will bridge the horrific events of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant to the original Alien, which it takes place only a couple of years prior to.
The other contribution we can expect from this franchise is Predator: Badlands. With Dan Trachtenberg back at the helm after Prey, this film has the potential to do what few sequels manage this far in: deepening a mythos without smothering it in exposition. The trailer that was released yesterday was feral, tense, and intimate, and if what they have to share at this panel rings true, these two highly-anticipated releases could mark a renaissance for the Alien/Predator brand.
Friday also brings Tron: Ares, a film long trapped in development limbo, into the spotlight. With a visual tone that leans hard into neon-noir, there’s a cautious optimism surrounding this project. Tron: Legacy was an aesthetic marvel when it came out in 2010, and the hope here is that Ares will be the same for this decade.
Some honorable mentions on Friday also include The Walking Dead (currently promoting the upcoming third season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon) and Resident Alien – both of which continue to prove that creator-owned comic books still have the potential to translate beautifully to the television format.
Saturday, July 26
And that finally brings us to Saturday: historically the day of Comic-Con when the sky is known to crack open.
The Star Trek Universe panel promises updates on Strange New Worlds and Starfleet Academy, and it comes at a time when Trek is finally thriving again. If early whispers are to be believed, we may get the first trailer for Starfleet Academy and hopefully a premiere date. For long-time fans, these are more than just new seasons – it’s a legacy.
Also on the docket is the highly-anticipated DC Universe presentation, which will give fans their next look at James Gunn’s vision after the smash-hit success of Superman. With a focus on the first TV series of Gunn’s new DC Universe, next month’s Peacemaker, this could be the moment where DC either builds up its newfound cultural momentum with looks ahead at next year's Lanterns, Supergirl, Clayface, and beyond – or falls short of the throne.
Project Hail Mary, based on Andy Weir’s bestselling novel, promises to inject some grounded sci-fi into the weekend. Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and starring Ryan Gosling, this could be 2026’s Interstellar – ambitious, emotional, and potentially even a dark horse in next year’s awards conversation.
And then there’s Coyote vs. Acme. A film that has already made headlines for surviving studio purgatory, now poised to be either a disaster or a cult classic. With John Cena in what seems to be the role of the villain opposite Will Forte as a down-and-out lawyer representing Wile E. Coyote, the film will no doubt embody the chaos and comedy that Comic-Con itself has always embraced.
Finally, the panel for Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe, which includes Interview with the Vampire, Mayfair Witches, and Talamasca: The Secret Order, may be the most thematically rich panel of the weekend, as we get our inner goths ready for more seasons of tragic, romantic immortality.
Final Thoughts
There will be more surprises, of course. There always are. But what excites me most about this weekend isn’t just the footage or the reveals – it’s the idea that each of these panels, whether they work under a corporate structure or not, represents someone’s passion project. Someone’s dream. Whether it’s a voice actor, a comic book writer or artist, a director, or a showrunner – they’re all storytellers chasing the same thrill: to make us feel something.
And so we wait. Not for spoilers or leaks, but for stories. Let the con begin!