Why Marvel’s SDCC 2023 panel plans have dramatically changed

San Diego Comic-Con is known as a pop-culture mecca, thanks in major part to the lineup at “Hall H”: the corner of the convention center that’s often host to panels from the likes of HBO, DC, Star Trek, and Netflix. Over the last decade or so, no company’s Hall H panel has commanded as much attention as Marvel’s — but this year, the MCU stars won’t be there. While Marvel will still have a booth on the convention center floor, circumstances beyond even Kevin Feige’s power are in play.

Marvel Studios bowing out of SDCC isn’t an out-of-the-blue decision; there were rumors that the company would be skipping the con as far back as June. And while Marvel’s parent company Disney didn’t give any specific reasons for skipping the show, there are a few relevant ones that aren’t hard to guess.

Marvel’s panel is often a who’s-who of guests, cameos, and presenters. The downside is that those presenters are often actors or writers — two groups that are both striking against studios at the moment, and therefore will not be attending the show. Writers’ strike was started by the Writers Guild of America in May after the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and Writers Guild of America failed to come to an agreement on a new contract. Screen Actors Guild’s (SAG) strike began in July after it, too, could not reach an agreement on a contract with AMPTP. There’s been no significant movement toward either strike ending yet, which could mean they both last for several more months.

Marvel is faced with more challenges than just an absence of buzz at SDCC. The SAG-AFTRA/WGA talks are not expected to end soon, so the release dates of upcoming movies and phases that were previously announced have been thrown into the wind. Even if Feige wanted to take the stage at SDCC and prepare fans for what’s to come, it would be nearly impossible to announce things like new movies or cast members.

On top of all that, Marvel probably doesn’t have much to announce at the moment. At last year’s San Diego Comic-Con the studio released its plans for both phases 5 and 6, and due to writers strike delays, those plans won’t come to fruition until Avengers: Secret Wars Arrives in 2027. Meanwhile, movies like BladeThe following are some examples of how to get started: Deadpool 3The strikes will most likely delay the release of. Marvel should have a relatively quiet year on the news front.

With all these reasons in mind, it’s not too shocking that Marvel chose to skip SDCC this year. Disney is not the only company to have made that decision this year. Universal, Warner Bros. Paramount, DC, and Warner Bros. all skipped large panels.

Just because the MCU won’t be at Comic-Con doesn’t mean that Marvel won’t have a presence at all. Marvel’s large booth will host a variety of panels, including retrospectives of classic comics and characters, live podcasts of Marvel Weekly, as well as two retrospectives of current and past editors-in chief. The Next Big Thing Panel, which is devoted to upcoming comics, will be held alongside the Marvel Comics panel. There will also be a large Insomniac panel. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.