No Comic-Con 2020 for Star Wars
By George Robbins
As of now most, if not all, live-events in the U.S. have been canceled through the remainder of the year due to the coronavirus pandemic. This has resulted in a number of events either being delayed to a later date or canceled in their entirety with refunds given out to people who paid to go already. Thus we now have numerous people that can no longer go to any live events such as conventions and they now have refunds or they put their money towards admission for next year or the year after. Of the remaining events that had been planned for the year was Comic-Con which sees some of the largest crowds with people from all over the world. It is no surprise that of all of the events this year, this would be the one that would get canceled.
While it may not be much of a surprise that San Diego Comic-Con was canceled for this year, it was a surprise that they would have an online event. Many other conventions have been canceled for this year and many will not have online events in their stead. For instance, the Star Wars Celebration convention is held every year to both give praise to the series and to announce new content for the universe. This event was canceled just like everyone expected it to be, but what no one really expected was that the event would not be back until summer of 2022. At this point, many companies are expecting things to carry on as they are for years and this is shown with this announcement.
Comic-Con announcing the fact that it will be having an online convention to help make up for the lack of the live-event gives a little bit of light for people. It means that they can now attend the convention they love, albeit in a different way than usual. While it also means that they can not meet people face-to-face, it does mean that they can see what they might have wanted to see if the convention was still going. Another up-side to this whole thing is that the admission for the online event is totally free and it appears as though we will be able to explore a virtual hub and marketplace. This gives an opportunity for vendors to market some of their new wares even though they can’t show them off the way they usually do. They are also not the only ones doing something like this, with DC FanDome taking place next month.
Unfortunately, there are some things that just end up being lost in translation between the actual live event and the new plans for the online edition. The first notice that this would be an issue was that Marvel Studios announced that they will not be showcasing anything and will not be attending at all. Now it appears that nothing will be appearing from Star Wars at this new At-Home Edition of Comic-Con and this is in light of it being only a week away. This doesn’t exactly bode well for the event because with DC hosting its own event and Star Wars and Marvel Studios not appearing, there leaves some outside groups to make up for the lack of content. Thus the event may not end up being what people expect it to be and it could end up being a total wash. There is no knowing for sure until the event takes place next weekend, so let’s hope it is what people want.