On the floor, Comedian-Con Worldwide 2023 seemed prefer it did in years previous. Throngs of followers, many in costume, crowded intersections beneath shiny commercials for tv reveals dozens of tales excessive. Contained in the conference heart, individuals inched by the packed exhibition ground, lining up for unique merchandise and collectibles and work from their favourite artists. Throughout the conference’s many panel websites, consultants mentioned a variety of popular culture and style fiction subjects. Some attendees performed tabletop video games; others met for anime-viewing periods. Comedian artists and publishers gathered for the Eisners, their {industry}’s most prestigious award.
However a visit into Corridor H Saturday afternoon underscored the strangeness of this yr’s conference, which fell two and a half months into the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike and only a week into the parallel strike from the movie and tv actors of Display screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Tv and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). In an strange yr, Corridor H’s 6,100 seats would have been stuffed by individuals who’d actually waited all day (or night time) to get inside, and networks and studios would have proven them unique footage accompanied by A-list expertise onstage—a uncommon alternative for followers and the leisure {industry} to face one another straight. This yr, you can merely stroll into the partly empty Corridor H; on the Star Trek presentation, leisure journalist Scott Mantz stood alone on the dais, queuing up sizzle reels and calling out absent actors’ names for rounds of applause. In that room, it was manifestly apparent that this was a San Diego Comedian-Con with out Hollywood.
There have, in fact, been many SDCCs with out Hollywood—the “comedian” in its identify is a reminder of its origins because the Golden State Comedian Guide Conference, which a couple of hundred individuals first attended in 1970. Over the many years, the occasion’s scope steadily expanded, however the studios and massive style franchises solely started to dominate the area previously decade and a half. That dominance outlined the conference’s position within the leisure {industry} in flip: a spot for trailer drops and main bulletins, and for a lot of industry-side individuals, an opportunity to see a bodily embodiment of “fandom,” even when solely a tiny slice of fan tradition is represented there.
A few of Hollywood’s main gamers have been pulling again from SDCC because the peak of the company saturation of the mid-2010s; Star Wars, for instance, hasn’t had a lot of a presence in years, as Disney shifted fan-facing exercise to their very own occasions like Star Wars Celebration and D23. However this yr, with the writers already hanging and a SAG-AFTRA strike looming, many studios and networks started to cancel their scheduled programming; when the actors’ strike formally started and SAG-AFTRA forbade members from doing any promotional work, the SDCC schedule turned a sea of cancelations. Prematurely of the conference, there was hypothesis that Hollywood’s withdrawal would possibly imply a return to its roots—that maybe comics might as soon as once more be the star of the present.
However even in absentia, Hollywood nonetheless hung over a great deal of the conference, which is as a lot an entertainment-industry occasion as a fan-oriented one. Many WGA and SAG-AFTRA members have spoken about this yr’s strike motivations as “existential”: the sensation that this can be a main inflection level, for the leisure {industry} particularly and for employees broadly.
That feeling was palpable in San Diego, and never simply from the actors and writers who attended in a non-promotional capability. For the reason that strikes started, the studios have seemingly labored to pit followers in opposition to the individuals who make the issues they love, framing delays because the fault of the hanging writers, moderately than unwillingness from the Alliance of Movement Image and Tv Producers, which represents the studios, to present writers a deal they discover truthful. On-line, this framing has been largely rejected by followers, and that spirit appeared to hold over to SDCC, too. There was a way that an uncommon—and sure, for some, disappointing—Comedian-Con was a fully crucial one, as a result of the way forward for leisure media on all sides of the equation was at stake.