I can’t believe it’s already been a year since 2014’s Comic-Con International. Last year was my second incredible adventure through San Diego, which featured the opportunity to see plenty of old friends, make a whole bunch of new ones, and work my way through a myriad of unbelievable experiences, including the always show-stopping Legendary Entertainment booth, which gave me my very, very first experience with virtual reality, and also introduced me (in person) to one of my favourite directors of all time, Guillermo Del Toro.
During booth setup on Tuesday, I wondered just what Legendary could have in store for attendees this year. Gone were the impressive yet gigantic Oculus Rift-equipped Jaeger Pilot seats, and gone was the SDCC highlight Crimson Peak Gothic Gallery. In fact, during setup, Legendary’s area appeared decidedly more spacious, aside from an beyond-impressive, life-sized Orgrim Doomhammer.
It turns out that the company needed all of that extra space, as this year’s convention appears bigger than ever for the industry giant, and also includes a partnership and giveaway that (I believe) is unparalleled in Comic-Con history.
During the company’s preview night event on Wednesday, which we were lucky enough to attend, Legendary representatives spoke at length about the fact that, while a film studio at its core (and an impressive comic book company to boot), they’re also an experience company, and creating market defining experiences is extremely important to the company and its future. As such, the company decided to release its stellar Pacific Rim: Jaeger Pilot experience, along with two new VR experiences (one for Warcraft, and one for Crimson Peak), to the masses with the help of Google and its Cardboard viewer.
Legendary and Google have partnered up to give away 50,000 Cardboard viewers (the new design, too) during the course of the convention, and if yesterday (Thursday) was any indication, these things are hot. The lineup to grab a Legendary-logoed cardboard viewer was longer than the lineup for many of the actors around the show floor. Apparently, people are dying to get their hands on these things. Learn more about the partnership via the video below, and if you have a Cardboard viewer (or would just like to pan the camera around these experiences) head to legendary.com/vr.
https://youtu.be/G8vZXau9nFg
There was far more to see at the Legendary booth than just VR, however. As I mentioned above, the company also officially revealed the film’s version of Orgrim Doomhammer for the horde, but also brought us over to the nearby Weta booth to unveil the Alliance’s King Llane.
Llane was unveiled by Warcraft director Duncan Jones, and WETA founder (yep, WETA’s freaking founder) Richard Taylor. Following the unveiling, Taylor, Jones, and press members returned to Legendary’s booth to chat about what we just saw. Here’s Richard talking about the amount of work that went into this portable Doomhammer.
https://youtu.be/sf40gbOBga0
And here’s Duncan Jones talking about the prospect of magic in Warcraft‘s world, and also whether or not gamers would see any noticeable easter eggs in the upcoming film.
https://youtu.be/s3L3-AP5R-A
Overall, it was another amazing preview night from Legendary Entertainment. The company really is a juggernaut in the film industry, and always manages to somehow get me interested in properties that I didn’t know that I had interest in, for instance, the upcoming Straight Outta Compton.
Of course, those weren’t all of the revelations that Legendary had in store for us. Also announced were three incredible looking Mondo prints that will be available at Mondo’s booth this Saturday (pictured below), and yesterday, a Warcraft prequel graphic novel from Legendary Comics was debuted.
An exciting night, an incredible way to kick off Comic-Con, and an incredible preview of what Legendary Entertainment has in store for us this year. I can’t freaking wait for Crimson Peak, and I can’t wait to see what comes next. As always, thanks for those at Legendary for hosting an amazing night!
Legendary’s booth #3920, which is right across from #3919 (us). Be sure to go and give them a visit (after saying hi to us, of course), and check out Orgrim for yourself!
