Comic Con - A Love Letter to Storytelling

From October 9th - 12th, close to 250,000 attendees flocked to New York Comic Con (NYCC) at the Javits Center. I was one of several dozen FUTURE NOW alumni fortunate enough to receive last-minute all-access badges.  Everyone interested in media and entertainment should attend Comic Con at least once in their lifetime. 

The moment you enter the Javits Center, you're surrounded by a sea of characters who look like they’ve just leapt off the screen of an epic Marvel movie. From towering robots visible from across the hall to kids beaming with joy as they live out their superhero dreams, the energy is electric.

On Saturday, we kicked off the day by exploring the bustling show floor, packed with booths from nearly every animated show, production studio, and film franchise you can think of. There were hands-on video game demos, exclusive giveaways, trading card battles, live animation drawing, and book signings. We even got to take a picture with the legendary DuoLingo bird!

Then, we went to an exclusive episode screening of the new Batman show, Bat-Fam. The new Warner Bros. animated series is coming to Amazon Prime on November 10th and follows Batman’s life as a new dad alongside his son Damian Wayne. Producer Mike Roth interviewed cast members Luke Wilson (Batman), Yonas Kibreab (Damian Wayne), and London Hughes (Alicia Pennyworth). At just 14 years old, Kibreab talked about how posting on social media garnered the attention of an agent and led to an impressive resume, including Star Wars (Jedi Youngling), Disney (voice of Elio), and now DC Comics.

Next, we headed to the exclusive premiere of The Littles, a short film starring Violet McGraw (M3GAN 2.0), Dominic Sherwood (Shadowhunters), and Janel Parrish (Pretty Little Liars). At the entrance, we were greeted by the passionate writer, director, and producer Andrew Duplessie, who handed out tickets for his premiere’s raffle giveaway. The Littles was a labor of love for Duplessie, who masterfully blends stop-motion animation with live-action. He revealed that the stop-motion scenes took almost three months to create, and that he has finished a script turning the short into a feature, which is nearing a greenlight.

We finished our Saturday by heading to FX’s sneak peek of showrunner Ryan Murphy’s new thriller series The Beauty, about billionaires creating a new “fountain of youth” drug with deadly side effects. Murphy interviewed his star-studded cast: Evan Peters, Anthony Ramos, Ashton Kutcher, Rebecca Hall, and Jeremy Pope, who he claims were all his first-choice actors for the series. Kutcher noted that the series feels more relevant now than ever with the rise of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and billionaires investing millions in creating a real “fountain of youth” drug.

On Sunday, we wrapped up Comic Con with a special panel featuring Laurence Fishburne and Joe Pantoliano as they reflected on how The Matrix changed their lives and careers. Fishburne, a self-proclaimed anime and comic book fan, said that if acting hadn’t worked out, he’d be at Comic Con purely as a fan. When The Matrix was pitched to him as a “live-action anime,” he knew immediately it was something he wanted to be part of. He and Pantoliano spoke about the intense physical training required for the film’s now-iconic fight scenes, which left their hands bruised and battered. 

At the time, The Matrix was a huge gamble for Warner Bros.—the Wachowskis had only directed one low-budget indie, and sci-fi wasn’t seen as a guaranteed box office draw. But it paid off. The film went on to reshape the genre and inspire decades of sci-fi storytelling. Twenty-six years later, both actors said they’d be open to returning to their legendary roles.

Thanks to FUTURE NOW, I was able to attend Comic Con not only as a fan but as someone passionate about the future of entertainment. It was a weekend that reminded me why I fell in love with entertainment in the first place.