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NYCC 2017 Day Two: Peter Capaldi, Pacific Rim: Uprising, Family Guy

Stormtrooper New York Comic Con

New York Comic Con 2017 Day Two Writeup. Day two of New York Comic Con takes us all over the place. From beloved Doctors to massive blockbusters to animation and everything in between, there was something for everyone.

I spent a good deal of time on the show floor today, and participated in something known as the “Star Wars Experience.” There is a big booth that shows off some props and costumes from the upcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi that also includes a short show that incorporates the audience and allows them to witness Kylo Ren force-choking some pesky rebels. It’s fun! Not “Wait several hours to get in” fun, which is what I had to do, but fun nonetheless.

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But hey, enough about that. Let’s talk about some panels!

Peter Capaldi Spotlight

So I came into this as a bit of an outsider, since not only have I never watched an episode of Doctor Who, I’m pretty sure I had never even seen a frame of it. Until today! The panel began with a short sizzle reel showcasing Capaldi’s time as the titular Doctor, before giving way to an interview followed by a Q&A with Capaldi in person. It was clearly a somewhat emotional experience for some of the fans in the room – Capaldi’s tenure as the Doctor, after all, is ending with the upcoming Christmas special (he will be replaced with Attack the Block‘s Jodie Whittaker, which is awesome).

Capaldi has done a lot of work outside of Doctor Who, probably most notably The Thick of It and In the Loop, where he portrayed the iconic and foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker for creator Armando Iannucci (the creator of HBO’s Veep). While he shot down any chance of a resurgence of The Thick of It (he noted that politics aren’t really that funny anymore), he did mention that he is working with Iannucci again on his next film, but he couldn’t say any more than that. (Iannucci’s current film, The Death of Stalin, has been getting great reviews and will be released soon.)

On the Doctor Who front, Capaldi only revealed that his Doctor isn’t particularly keen on regenerating, and that he’ll receive some help from David Bradley’s First Doctor along the way. The panel ended with another sizzle reel of fans expressing how much Capaldi’s Doctor Who means to them, and it was clearly a touching farewell for both the fans in the audience and Capaldi himself.

Pacific Rim: Uprising Panel

So I’m a big fan of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim, and though I was excited for a continuation of that universe, I was a little bummed that Del Toro would not be the one to keep that story going. Still, Pacific Rim: Uprising is a project that I’ve watched with interest, and when I saw it had a panel at New York Comic Con, I knew I had to be there.

The panel included director Steven S. DeKnight (who has mostly worked in television, on shows like Buffy the Vampire SlayerSpartacus, and Daredevil), actress Cailee Spaeny, returning actor Burn Gorman and newcomers Scott Eastwood and John Boyega (from a little-known sci-fi franchise called Star Wars, maybe you’ve heard of it). The panel itself was fairly standard, revealing a little bit about the world of the sequel – it takes place ten years after the original, it’s an attempt at building on that world while honoring what the original did, etc. This was all lead-up to the world premiere of the trailer, which was released online shortly after. I think it looks like it could be cool, though I can’t shake the feeling that it’s a pretender to del Toro’s throne. We’ll see how it turns out when it is released in March 2018.

The panel ended with star Charlie Day, who sent in a video of himself testing out potential theme songs for Pacific Rim: Uprising. I hereby demand that all panels end this way, because it was the best. I was honestly shocked he didn’t do a rendition of “Dayman,” just so he could play the hits.

Family Guy Panel

Now entering its sixteenth season on FOX, this was Family Guy‘s first year at New York Comic Con. This panel was packed, and it was clearly full of hardcore Family Guy fans. I’ll be honest, I haven’t watched Family Guy regularly since I was in high school, but there was a time when I was obsessed with it. We were shown an upcoming episode from this season, which was pretty good. It was a pastiche of three different directors telling the same Family Guy story of Peter getting fired from his job. One segment in the style of Quentin Tarantino, one in the style of Wes Anderson, and one in the style of Michael Bay. If you’re any kind of film geek, there’s some decent gags in here, and strictly through that random Family Guy lens. The episode also included the voice talents of Carrie Fisher and Adam West, both of whom played significant recurring characters on the show.

Afterwards a panel followed that included Mike Henry, Alex Borstein, Patrick Warburton, and Seth Green. Seth MacFarlane could not be there in person as he was working on The Orville, but he appeared for the Q&A via Skype. Honestly, the Skyping was a little awkward (we could see MacFarlane, but he couldn’t see us, and there was definitely a bit of a delay on his end), but the panel was funny throughout. Borstein especially has never known a dirty joke she didn’t like, and fired off a ton of jokes that, at best, were in bad taste (but were hilarious, so it evens out).

And that’s it for Day Two of New York Comic Con! Tomorrow I’ll be jumping around all over the place, spending some time at the Hammerstein Ballroom, hopefully making it into the Madison Square Garden panels, and seeing some more stuff at the Javits Center.

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I’ll be tweeting and live-streaming my Comic Con experience at FilmBook’s Twitter account, and you can follow me as well if you’re so inclined.

Leave your thoughts on this NYCC writeup below in the comments section. For more NYCC reviews, photos, videos, and information, visit our New York Comic Con Page, subscribe to us by Email, “follow” us on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, or “like” us on Facebook for quick updates.

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Michael Smith

Mike Smith is an avid filmgoer from New York who loves to hear his own voice - luckily his work as a podcaster on FilmBook allows him to do just that. Mike graduated from The College of Saint Rose in Albany with a degree in communications, and is ready to dole out critical analysis of all your pop culture fixations. Mike is the host of FilmBookCast and can frequently be seen at his local movie theater, patiently explaining to his friends that Superman Returns is a misunderstood masterpiece.
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