WW84 panel
FANDOMONIUM
Millions of people like Megan were glued to their screens for DC’s first virtual con
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he first installment of DC FanDome took place August 22 for 24 hours of all things DC Comics. After hearing DC would livestream exclusives for the fans, I immediately signed up and created a schedule. I was most excited for the Wonder Woman, Multiverse, The Flash Movie, Zack Snyder’s The Justice League, The Flash DCTV, Titans, and the Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League panels. For a majority of the 24 hours, I sat in front of my laptop and watched this livestream like my life depended on it. There were no “commercials”, but there were snippets of fan art and photos and cosplayers adorned in the costumes of the featured panel that served as interstitials. FanDome kicked off with a Wonder Woman 1984 panel where they presented a new look at the movie and discussed the importance of having a woman be the lead in a superhero movie directed by a female director (Academy Award nominee Patty Jenkins returned for the sequel). The panelists were in awe at surprise inclusion of original onscreen Wonder Woman Lynda Carter. Gal Gadot praised her for laying the onscreen groundwork for her to follow. This panel was followed by a trailer for the new Batman game, Gotham Knights. I found it exciting that you choose from Batgirl, Nightwing, Robin, and Red Hood instead of just Batman and Robin. The game is set to release in 2021. After that, there was a Multiverse 101 panel with Jim Lee, Walter Hamada, and Greg Berlanti—all of whom helped create the multiverse both in the comics and on
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screen. Nine years ago, they started making DC shows on The CW with Arrow and didn’t expect for it to be a success. They then created The Flash as a spin-off after Barry Allen had a two-episode origin on Arrow. Following the Multiverse panel was The Flash movie panel with Ezra Miller and director Andy Muschietti. I knew Ezra from his work in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, so I was super hype when he was announced. When I first talked about movie Flash with my best friend Richie, we hoped that they would use Grant Gustin. However, we were just as excited when we heard that Miller was going to be Barry because he has the personality to play him. Viewers were able to receive an exclusive first look at the new streamlined Flash costume through artist renderings. The Suicide Squad panel consisted of the new trailer and squad knowledge. BAWSE Women of Color panel consisted of the women of the DC Universe sitting down and talking about why it’s important to have women of color on the screen. Static Shock is set to return to the DC Universe in February of 2021 as a new digital comic and there’s said to be a movie in the works. This is part of DC’s initiative to bring more African American voices to light. Static Shock was originally part of the afrocentric DC imprint Milestone Comics, which will also be returning in 2021. The Justice League Snyder Cut is set to be four hours long and will be released in episodes on HBO Max. The DCTV panel presented the Season 7 trailer for
Art Department Weekly • September 8, 2020
The Flash where they’re using the content from the episode they finished wrapping before the shutdown to introduce the new season. The Black Adam panel was introduced by the Rock (the titular star) and contained concept art that was strung together as a defacto teaser trailer and teases the Justice Society of America. Titans united for their panel to talk about the new season and how Blackfire will be the main villain for the season. Zachary Levi appeared with his costars to reveal the title of the new movie, Shazam: Fury of the Gods. FanDome concluded with the Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League video game trailer and announced that the game is set to be released in 2022. DC FanDome was all around exciting. It was a DC fan’s dream come true. I’m looking forward to watching all of the new seasons and movies coming out within the next two years. The biggest reveal of the weekend was the release of the teaser trailer for the Matt Reeves/Robert Pattinson The Batman. With a real world, gritty feel, it seems to strike all the right tones for the character. Shortly after its premiere, it was the No. 1 trend on Twitter. This was very different from any convention I’ve been to. All the panels played right after one another and had seamless transitions. It was different from regular conventions in the sense that you couldn’t interact with the panelists. However, I thought that DC did a really good job with presenting all of their new and upcoming shows, movies, and video games, within 24 hours.
