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Fans return as Comic-Con awaits new 'Thrones' and 'Rings' shows

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Andrew Marszal, Agence France Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Guests attends Comic-Con International San Diego preview Night on July 20, 2022 in San Diego, California. Frazer Harrison, Getty Images/AFP" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/tvpatrol/07/21/comic-con.jpg"/><figcaption>Guests attends Comic-Con International San Diego preview Night on July 20, 2022 in San Diego, California. Frazer Harrison, Getty Images/AFP</figcaption></figure></div>SAN DIEGO -- Tens of thousands of cosplaying fans will converge on San Diego Thursday for the first full-scale Comic-Con in three years, with new &quot;Lord of the Rings&quot; and &quot;Game of Thrones&quot; TV series set to be unveiled at the world&#x27;s most famous pop culture gathering.Hollywood studios including Disney and Warner Bros. are also in town to show off their upcoming films, and have done nothing to quell frenzied rumors of a first look at Marvel superhero sequel &quot;Black Panther: Wakanda Forever&quot; and a new Superman movie announcement.The past two editions of Comic-Con had to be held online due to the spread of COVID-19, while limited numbers attended a scaled-down &quot;special edition&quot; in San Diego last November.But attendance this week is expected to match pre-pandemic levels, with more than 130,000 fans -- whether dressed as hobbits, dragons or princesses -- required to wear face masks as they pack into the sweaty convention center.&quot;I think it&#x27;ll look like Comic-Con from 2019,&quot; said the event&#x27;s communications and strategy chief David Glanzer.&quot;We weathered it. And now coming back, maybe we&#x27;re going to have tears of joy... it&#x27;s very emotional,&quot; he told AFP.The comic book, science fiction and fantasy extravaganza begins this year with Paramount&#x27;s &quot;Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.&quot;Marking the first time the world&#x27;s most popular role-playing game has received a mega-budget silver-screen adaptation, the movie out next March stars Chris Pine, Hugh Grant and former &quot;Bridgerton&quot; heartthrob Rege-Jean Page.But the week&#x27;s headlines are set to be dominated by two huge fantasy series coming to television screens soon: Amazon Prime&#x27;s &quot;Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power&quot; and HBO&#x27;s &quot;House of the Dragon.&quot; &quot;The Rings of Power&quot; is Amazon&#x27;s enormously ambitious saga taking place in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien&#x27;s books, and set long before the events of Peter Jackson&#x27;s Oscar-winning trilogy of films.The series -- playing out across five seasons, the first of which launches September 2 -- is reported to have cost Amazon well over $1 billion, and is said to be a personal obsession of founder Jeff Bezos.Much of that cost went into buying the rights to the Tolkien universe and investing in lavish production values, with a healthy sum set aside for &quot;activations,&quot; or immersive fan experiences, at Comic-Con.Amazon on Friday will bring its cast of hobbits, elves and dwarves to the venue&#x27;s cavernous Hall H, where fans -- who line up for hours, or even days -- anticipate seeing the first detailed look at the series.<div>RINGS V THRONES</div>The following day, &quot;House of the Dragon&quot; -- the first spin-off to &quot;Game of Thrones&quot; set in George R.R. Martin&#x27;s fictional world of Westeros, out August 21 -- will be unveiled by HBO.Martin has played down talk of a rivalry between the two mega-franchises, insisting, &quot;I want both shows to find an appreciative audience, and give them great television. Great fantasy.&quot;&quot;The more fantasy hits we have, the more great fantasy we are likely to get,&quot; he wrote in a blog post.But HBO hopes its prequel can match the wild popularity of the original &quot;Thrones,&quot; which over eight seasons became must-see television, spawned countless imitations and delivered 59 Emmys -- a record for a drama at television&#x27;s equivalent of the Oscars.Starring Matt Smith, Rhys Ifans and Emma D&#x27;Arcy, &quot;House of the Dragon&quot; tells the story of the murderous, dragon-breeding Targaryen family, some 300 years before the events of &quot;Thrones.&quot;Its stars will appear in Hall H immediately after a movie presentation from HBO&#x27;s sister company Warner Bros., which is set to feature Dwayne &quot;The Rock&quot; Johnson, who is promoting his upcoming superhero flick &quot;Black Adam.&quot;The week will also feature a send-off for AMC&#x27;s &quot;The Walking Dead,&quot; as the juggernaut zombie TV series bows out with its final season -- and launches a new spin-off, the anthology-style &quot;Tales of the Walking Dead.&quot;

Tens of thousands of cosplaying fans will converge on San Diego Thursday for the first full-scale Comic-Con in three years.

Fans return as Comic-Con awaits new 'Thrones' and 'Rings' shows

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Fans return as Comic-Con awaits new 'Thrones' and 'Rings' shows

Andrew Marszal,

Agence France Presse

Published Jul 21, 2022 03:34 PM PHT

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San Diego

Comic-Con

Lord of the Rings

Game of Thrones

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