Everything Actually Cool At New York Comic Con
It’s early October, and that means one thing: Comic-Con. In particular, New York Comic-Con, a weekend-long caffeine-fueled hype fest filled to the brim with cosplay, Q&A, and lots and lots of trailers. As someone who has spent perhaps a tad too much time viewing said trailers over the last few days, and as such has had less time to write Quest articles, I offer herein a selection of what I consider to be the most exciting, or at least new and noteworthy upcoming releases. Bear in mind that this is by no means an exhaustive list, and if I’ve passed over your favorite fandom I do apologize (shoot me an email at declanb@reed.edu and maybe I’ll include it next time; sorry, Chris Pratt fans). So without further ado behold the weird, the wonderful, and the wacky: the best of a particularly exciting year at NYCC.
Amazon’s adaptation of The Peripheral looks… really good actually?
Based on the novel by William Gibson, the new series from the creators of Westworld follows the beta-testers for a “next generation” VR game set in near-future London. The twist: the game is real, a workaround for a time travel device that can only ever transmit information, not matter, across the decades — and the future needs their help. In other words, it’s a ten-episode reboot of the original Matrix that wants to be Snowcrash when it grows up, and I am here for it. Really, they had me at sword-fighting cyberpunk androids, but the aesthetic similarity to Netflix’s (tragically) canceled Altered Carbon series is a pretty convincing bonus.
The Peripheral Season 1 premieres on October 21st.
On the other hand, The Power of the Doctor looks, uh, not so great.
Following in the footsteps of the acclaimed trilogy of Doctor Who specials that closed out Matt Smith’s run as the titular time-traveling alien in 2013 — The Name of the Doctor, The Day of the Doctor, and The Time of the Doctor — The Power of the Doctor has a lot of potential. With Jodie Whittaker as the 13th Doctor, Mandip Gill as her increasingly well-written companion Yasmin Khan, and Sacha Dhawan returning as an undeniably creepy Master, it’s all there. It could work, I want it to work. And yet, I’m sorry, rewind that trailer there for me, was that a death star? And a… space train? Oh no.
Doctor Who returns, too soon, on October 23rd.
Professor X and the ghost of Lin Manuel Miranda are ready to fight God.
Yes, I do mean literally fight God. No, I’m not kidding. Honestly, no explanation I can offer will beat the headline, so you’ll just have to see it for yourself.
His Dark Materials returns on December 5th.
Star Trek: Picard was like “Nostalgia? Hold my beer!”
Star Trek: Picard — that show where beloved Star Trek characters come out of retirement to team up with new Star Trek characters who then die making room for more old characters to come out of retirement — is back at it again. The series’ third and final season, otherwise known as the “Patrick Stewart just really, really, wants to retire” season, will apparently feature Lore, hologram Moriarity (yes, the Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes), and a host of other TNG villains, all of whom are somehow not dead and still surprisingly committed to killing Jean Luc Picard. Being the most British-sounding, supposedly Parisian admiral in Starfleet makes you a lot of enemies I guess. Season 3 will also see the return of Picard’s old crew, including a newly pacifist Worf, because of course it will.
Star Trek: Picard wants to know if you’d like some nostalgia with that on February 16th.
Meanwhile, Star Trek: Discovery is still about magic space mushrooms. I think.
For a show whose first season followed a mutineer’s guilt-laden quest for redemption as she and her crew fought an unethical and unwinnable war against a vastly superior foe, Star Trek: Discovery has since gotten downright cheerful. Returning for another season of galactic adventuring are most of the ensemble cast — excepting those who have teleported away to spin-offs — including Sonequa Martin-Green as Captain Michael Burnham, Doug Jones as First Officer Saru, and Anthony Rapp as the Guy Who Invented the Mushroom Teleporter in the Engine. Okay, so maybe this show was never all that serious after all.
Star Trek: Discovery is expected to return in early 2023.
Neil Gaiman just said there will be love stories in Good Omens Season 2.
“I will say there are some love stories in it,” Gaiman said. “I will say you will learn a lot about Jane Austen you didn’t know before. There’s a lot more heaven and a lot more hell.” And then he revealed this poster, in which Crowley’s and Aziraphale’s wings clearly form a heart. Summer 2023 cannot come fast enough.
For links to all trailers and updates, click here.