Comic Con Day 2 Highlights

      Day two of Comic Con was a lot busier than preview night. The lineups for the big halls were insanely long and people started camping out for The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones panels scheduled for tomorrow at 5pm today. What follows is a quick summary of some of the highlights from today. I will have in-depth interviews and recaps of panels up in the next day or so.

     The first panel of the day was 24 with just Keifer Sutherland and Jon Cassar. Sutherland was soft spoken and gracious as always. There was lots of conversation about some of the difficulties in shooting in London in regards to the different gun restrictions there. Sutherland also expressed great fondness for working with Kim Raver and William Devane. While there were no firm plans expressed for another series or that elusive movie, it was pretty clear that both Cassar and Sutherland would likely be open to either possibility.

     The Under the Dome panel was fun with both Rachel Lefevre and Alexander Koch showing up in costume. Koch was dressed as Daryl from The Walking Dead. The just finished shooting last week and promised lots more people would die before the end of the season - just not who. They also teased that Angie (Britt Robertson) might return in some form before the end of the season.

     The Reign pane revealed that the plague will hit the castle hard and will be followed by a famine. The season will be about what rises from the ashes of that plague and what Mary and Francis have inherited to rule: a nation out of control.

     The Hannibal panel had lots of surprises, including the attendance of Raul Esparza who play Chilton who we last saw shot in the face. But apparently, he's not dead! They were fairly cagey about who else might be alive or dead, however. Maybe the best part of this panel was just how much Bryan Fuller loves - and understands - his fans. He did say that Gina Torres would be returning and that the first episode would focus entirely on Hannibal (Mads Mikkelsen) and Bedelia (Gillian Anderson). The action will pick up one year after the finale events.

     The Penny Dreadful panel was also a lot of fun and it was hosted by Aisha Taylor - who is a total fangirl for the show. She kept apologizing for essentially ignoring the audience, but her squeeing was endearing rather than distracting. John Logan, the show's creator was also adorable as he was so happy to be a former fan who was now on the other side of the table - and deservedly so. Josh Hartnett, Reeve Carney, and Harry Treadaway rounded out the panel. Timothy Dalton and Eva Green were absent as they were working on other projects. The big bad next season will be Madame Kali (Helen McCrory), and the second season will be very different than the first. The next season will also go more into the Dracula story.

     The biggest surprise of the day for me was the Scorpion panel. This is going to be a great new show and the lead character - Walter O'Brien - is played by Elyes Gabel, but is based on a real person. O'Brien is an integral part of the production itself, and he was fascinating to talk to. The story is essentially about a group of misfits - all geniuses - O'Brien's IQ is 197 - who help a government agent - Robert Patrick - avert a disaster. The show also stars Catherine McPhee. Come back to my longer post on this and interviews with Gabel, McPhee, Patrick, and O'Brien himself.