J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens already made a big splash on the convention scene earlier this year with a very special panel at this year's Star Wars Celebration Expo, but that's not going to be the only stop it makes on the promotional tour leading to the movie's December release. Instead, the film will be stopping by this summer at the biggest comic book convention in America, as it's been confirmed that the feature will have its very own panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2015.
StarWars.com officially announced this new development, confirming that the highly-anticipated blockbuster will have prime positioning on the schedule for the event and take place in the San Diego Convention Center's famed Hall H on Friday July 10th. At this time, producer/LucasFilm President Kathleen Kennedy and J.J. Abrams are the only people confirmed to be present for the event, though it is promised that there will also be "special guests" as well as a "special look" at the seventh chapter in the Star Wars saga.
When it was in production last year, Star Wars: The Force Awakens ultimately decided to skip an appearance at San Diego Comic-Con - presumably as a means of trying to maintain the very strict atmosphere of secrecy around the movie that really still continues to this day. Now that the feature is deep in post-production and probably has a good amount of finished footage to show off, it makes sense that the film would stop by the Southern California event - though there never was a guarantee of that happening. Earlier this year it was reported that Marvel Studios would be skipping the events of Comic-Con this year, presumably in favor of shining a brighter light on the D23 Expo that the Walt Disney Pictures has planned to take place in August. There was every possibility that Disney would also save Star Wars for their own studio event, but evidently they decided against that course of action.
So what will be shown during the event? One can speculate that the entire Star Wars: The Force Awakens cast will be brought on stage - including both the newcomers and the stars from the original trilogy - and it's pretty clear that there will also be some exclusive footage for the folks that make it into the convention center. Whether or not new footage from the movie will be made public
This year's San Diego Comic-Con will be taking place earlier this year than in the past, and will be running from the preview night on Wednesday, July 8th to the final day of programming on Sunday, July 12th. As we do every year, we will be on the ground in full-force during the event, so be sure to come back that week and check out all of our in-depth coverage!
