“Woof! I mean B.O. and BBQ!” – Predator 2. With the town transformed and the masses arriving, Wednesday marked the official start of San Diego Comic-Con 2025! Aside from a packed exhibit hall and days of panel programming to come, the fun of SDCC is how much the city embraces it. Arrivals at the airport were greeted with a live Star Wars concert and cosplayers. The Westgate hotel hosts an annual Superhero Tea where patrons can take in a pot of tea and several courses of finger sandwiches, scones and dessert to the relaxing sounds of a live harper strumming the theme from Superman.
The Predator: Badlands trailer dropped recently and showed us it’s a full on Alien crossover with a Weyland-Yutani “artificial person” teaming up with a young hunter that will surely play like a space set Lethal Weapon. A pop up experience is taking shape at the local Hard Rock Hotel with a crashed vessel exterior and Predator guarding the door. Next door The Fantastic Four and Google have an obstacle course while Shudder celebrates its 10th anniversary with a corn maze activation promoting Clown In A Cornfield nearby.
A line several blocks long in the historic Gaslamp District led to the Paramount + Lodge where I sipped on a Landman inspired cocktail, watched folks reenact 1996’s Mission: Impossible, posed for a wanted poster from NCIS: Tony & Ziva, stopped by the deck of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and walked a serial killer’s memorabilia collection for Dexter: Resurrection! For the sports ball people there was an NFL football toss and Champions League themed bar too.
Then it was off for some reunioning, local watering hole barleymash has a Blockbuster Video motif with themed drinks along with movie posters for The Terminator, Rocky IV and more about. The neighboring Marriott went full Jurassic Park dinosaur decorations with the soundtrack wafting through the lobby. Star Wars, Superman, JP soundtracks in one day? It’s a John Williams Con!
As Bill Paxton’s Jerry Lambert in Predator 2 would say, “Keeping the 80’s and 90’s alive in 2025 is my speciality!”
