AMC horror to thrive at modified San Diego Comic Con

Like many other festivals, San Diego Comic Con will exist in a virtual edition this year. Here are a few panels horror fans will want to check out.

With the recent announcement that Montreal’s Fantasia Festival will exist in a virtual format this year, San Diego Comic Con is following a similar lead. Also known as “Comic Con@Home,” one of the biggest conventions in North America shows no signs of slowing in the face of a pandemic that’s put many large gatherings out of commission for the foreseeable future.

My one experience with a con even coming close to the scope of San Diego Comic Con was Wizard World in Philadelphia, circa 2012. While the biggest autograph draw that year was Chris Hemsworth, I was much more taken with the cast of the original Evil Dead. Bruce Campbell got an hour-long Q&A all to himself, which was worth the price of admission alone.

While San Diego Comic Con skews more toward what’s “hot” in popular culture, its interests are all-inclusive, spanning a myriad of genres and fandoms.

And this upcoming edition promises to be appealing to horror fans in particular.

Deadline announced several exciting panel lineups for those who log on to the virtual edition.

Having achieved a degree of popularity that has now produced several series offshoots, the cast and creatives of The Walking Dead will showcase one panel. A sampling of participants include Greg Nicotero, Norman Reedus, Melissa McBride, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Lauren Cohan.

If you can’t get enough of The Walking Dead, there will also be a panel for its offshoot series, Fear the Walking Dead. Showrunners Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg and cast members Lennie James, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Jenna Elfman and Rubén Blades, among others, will be on hand to discuss the series’ forthcoming sixth season.

And if you still haven’t had enough Walking Dead at that point, the coup de grace for fans will be the premiere of the latest spinoff, The Walking Dead: World Beyond. Per Deadline, the series “delves into a new mythology and story that follows the first generation raised in a surviving civilization of the post-apocalyptic world.” The presence of Julia Ormond in the cast has me intrigued, and she’ll also be one of many cast and crew members present for the ensuing panel discussion.

If you wish to take a break from zombies and get cozy with rising horror icon Charles Manx (Zachary Quinto), fans of Joe Hill’s NOS4A2 can get insights on the show’s now-airing second season, with panel contributions from Hill, Quinto, and showrunner Jami O’Brien.

San Diego Comic-Con will run from July 23-26.

Are you ready for San Diego Comic Con online? Let us know if you plan to “attend” in the comics.