Those 135,000 folks flying into San Diego from various countries to line up for hours to see their fave stars at Comic-Con might be greatly upset to learn that not all panels are live and in-person.
The crowds are real, but some panelists are being beamed in via satellite.
Deadline has learned that today’s panels for ABC’s The Rookie and Abbott Elementary will have moderators in-person but with their casts beamed in via satellite. The actors reportedly are unable to make it to SDCC because their series are in production.
At the Rookie/Rookie: Feds panel, TV Guide‘s Damian Holbrook is onstage at Ballroom 20, but on screen is Comic-Con denizen, Firefly alum and Rookie star Nathan Fillion and Feds star Niecy Nash-Betts, as well as EPs Alexi Hawley and Terence Paul Winter.
Meanwhile at Abbott Elementary, scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at the Hilton Bayfront, IndieWire’s Marcus Jones will be live, while those on-screen from the Season 2 set will include star and EP Quinta Brunson; stars Tyler James Williams, Janelle James, Chris Perfetti, Lisa Ann Walter, William Stanford Davis and Sheryl Lee Ralph; and EPs Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker.
We’ll update you on other panels going hybrid, but we hear Dwayne Johnson will be in person at the big Warner Bros/DC Hall H panel on Saturday morning. “When Dwayne commits to something, he does it big,” said one source with knowledge about the action star. He made a big splash in-person at CinemaCon at the end of April when he showed off the first trailer for Black Adam.
Warner Bros. TV’s Riverdale originally was expected to hold a panel down here at SDCC but decided to cancel because the cast was scattered to the wind in production on other projects.
Meanwhile, if you’re trying to get into the San Diego Convention Center, to quote a line from Lars von Trier’s Antichrist, “Chaos reigns.” Forget about trying to get into the venue, but you’ll have to head over to one of various hotels — the Marriott Marquis, the Omni San Diego or Town and Country — to get your Covid Verification Wristband before stepping foot in the convention halls.
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One attendee on site told Deadline that to get a Covid wristband alone, “there’s lines winding down to the street” from each hotel.
Rosy Cordero and Matt Grobar contributed to this report.