House of R - Our Top 5 Moments from San Diego Comic-Con 2025

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

Mal and Jo are coming to you from San Diego Comic-Con to give you their favorite moments from the convention! From the ‘Alien Earth’ panel that Jo hosted to taking pictures with cosplayers, they talk about it all! (00:00) Intro(03:02) Jo’s panel reactions(05:06) Meeting the listeners(09:00) ‘Peacemaker’ panel(11:58) Mal’s panel reactions(16:25) ‘Percy Jackson’ panel(20:02) Hanging with the Ringer-Verse crew(22:54) ‘Interview with the Vampire’ panel(29:06) ‘Project Hail Mary’ panel(33:37) ‘Alien: Earth’ panel Hosts: Mallory Rubin and Joanna RobinsonProducer: Carlos ChiribogaSocial: Jomi AdeniranAdditional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopowell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Try Activia today. Enjoying Activia twice a day for two weeks as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle. may help reduce the frequency of minor digestive discomfort, which includes gas, bloating, rumbling, and abdominal discomfort. Hello, welcome to a very special House of Our episode live from San Diego Comic-Con. I'm Joanna Robinson. I'm Mallory Rubin. We're here today to talk about our favorite things we saw at Comic-Con this year.

Yes. It's our last day. Yes. We're on the verge of departing. We're not going to do our usual intro spiel, but we do want to let you know if you're like, hey, it's Sunday, where's the Fantastic Four episode? That's coming on Tuesday. our Fantastic Four deep dive.

We're going to dive deep into Fantastic Four, but that's going to be on Tuesday. Yes. So we just wanted to get all of our Comic-Con takes fresh, live from the ground, here in this beautiful FX Alien Earth Studio. Tim is behind you right now. My best friend Tim's here. It's great. It's great to be here. We just thought we would do a breezy little countdown of our top five favorite things, moments, experiences that we had at San Diego Comic-Con this year.

We saw some panels. Yes. We were on some panels. We met our listeners. We bonded with the team. We ran all around beautiful San Diego. So Mallory Rubin, do you just want to kick us off with your number five? I think before I dive into my fifth, I'll just say this was my first time here.

Yeah. I've never been here. And so this was my first, my maiden, San Diego Comic-Con voyage. I had done some other cons elsewhere in the world, in the United States of America. We've conned together. We've gone together. In the past. But never here.

And I've always wanted to come. I don't really have an explanation for why I haven't. But it was so wonderful to be here with you and share these few days together and to be here with the whole Ringervverse crew. Like, attending all of the panels, just seeing the excitement, walking around and everywhere you look. Some like absolutely astonishing cosplay awaits. And listen to my voice. Yeah, we're a little. Very last day of Comic-Con.

We're a little froggy voice. Voice today. Yeah. And getting to, I was to say, like, that was so cool for the whole ringer. reverse crew to get to do a panel at Comic-Con. And to then do the meet-up after and get to interact with so many of the bad babies and the Midnight Riders

and the Junior Mintz and the button-mashers. It like, I feel like it sounds so saccharine and corny every time we say this, but it is so earnest and sincere. Like, we would do the pot of no one listened to it. But to see how many people, like, love it and what it

means to them and to get to share moments with people who have, like, really fallen in love with stories that we also love. And then it's like, we're all the part of the community together. And you get to feel that so tangibly in real time. It's just really special. So that's my overall highlight.

It's just like being here with you guys and getting to meet so many of the bad babies. It was awesome. In terms of the actual panels, I had a blast. We saw so many things. I got to experience Hall H through something other than Instagram for the first time in my life. What a treat. What a time. My number five.

However, is less about something I witnessed on stage and more about something I got to witness in the chair next to me. Oh. Sure. My number five. Sure. You know, we have a lot of people in the Ring of Versus family down here. So we sometimes we were all together and sometimes we had to divide and conquer. And I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to go to the Anne Rice AMC panels.

Yes. I did not have a dedicated seat. But I made it in, folks. and I got to sit next to this beautiful angel. Right. And she watched the Listott images and initial teaser trailer be revealed. And I got to feel you quiver and I got to hear you gasp. And I got to see you wipe tears away from your eyes.

And that's why we do it. To share things like that because genuinely, like a lot of what's cool about Comic-Con is getting to interact with the things you love the most. But then the other amazing thing, one A. 1B is getting to see other people, like relish in the things that they love. And so it was actually genuinely very special to get to be there. I tried to record a video of Joanna reacting. Why won't people be able to see me wipe tears from my eyes? I did accidentally record my own pants because I guess I'm 75 years old.

And I don't know how I jumped from 38 to 100. She said footage right before and right after the moment she intended to record. I did the old. You don't know when you're hitting record on her off. really like harrowing for me to have to confront that I'm washed. That's how I learned it. officially. I'm washed. So I do have you bracing for the Cidemarid emerging. And then I have a minute and a half, I think, of the particular wash of the jeans I was wearing that day. And then some like, when I turned my phone over, like some of the bottom of my chin and nose. But I did not capture.

I say release the pants cut. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe. So that's my number five was seeing your joy because I love you and it was great. We'll come back to that. I assume it's your number one. I don't know. We'll come back to that. What's your number five? My number five, I just kind of want to, yes and what you said, it's my official number five, which would be interacting both with our listeners and, like, the people of Comic Con.

I roped. See, I just cheated by making that an intro. You smuggled it, and I didn't have to. I respect the smuggle. I really do. I forced my colleagues to play my favorite San Diego, Comic Comic-Con game, which is each... She's only doing this because she won.

I mean, I did win by a lot. But each person picks a costume that they think the most number of people will be cosplay as, and then you have to run around and get as many selfies as possible. So picture me yesterday, accosting every single Mario I could possibly find one of them more than once. She was like, you got me this morning, actually. I got to see that. That was special.

Mallory picked Deadpool. I got to see you right up to a couple deadpools. I did. Including one in a vehicle in like the maybe middle lane on a crowded street. And I went at least one lane into the road to try to take the selfie. And then Charles said, didn't count. Didn't count. That's just just Charles thought he was going to win. But he didn't win. I won by a lot. But anyway, winning aside. It was a fun game. I will say it's really fun because I really love talking to the

cosplayers. And the first year I came here, I sat, you know where we were sitting yesterday outside of Hall H where we were like drinking our coffees and just taking a moment? The first time I came to, yeah. The first time I came to Comic-Con, I sat there just to watch the cosplayers go by and I literally cried. Because I think it's so beautiful how excited people are, how much they care, how much time and energy they put into their costumes. And they're at a place where they can just be exactly who they are. And exactly who they are, which in other contexts might make them feel a little other, a little lonely, makes them like the bell of the ball here. People come running up to them in their most elaborate cosplays.

And it's just absolutely wonderful. So I would say interacting with the cosplayers during the game yesterday and just watching all the cosplayers go by. And then, yeah, and then meeting the bad babies at the meet and greet that we did, which was just incredible. If our voices sound funky is probably because we were, like, enthusing over our very. sweet listeners for, I think it was two and a half hours or something like that straight. And hearing how people, how long people have loved listening to Mallory via binge mode, people who have gone back, like, as far as like pajaba or storm spoilers with me, and then finding us together, hearing everyone's sort of like journey through our work was really,

really impactful. And yeah, we, I forget sometimes. Sometimes I'm like, oh, it's just Mallory and me talking to each other. Which would be wonderful. Which would be absolutely the best. But a ton of people listen. And we're so lucky and grateful for that. So to get to see everyone.

And the people who stopped us out on the convention floor and stuff like that to say hi. It was really, really nice. So it's been the best. Just to be in like a nerd haven of people who really unapologetically love the things they love and love celebrating that love has been very, very memorable and cool. I will be back. I love pointing at cosplayers and shouting out what they are as if they didn't know, you know? That's just like one of my favorite things to do. Here's the thing that you didn't reveal, but I'll reveal on your behalf, which is that you have already, I won't

share it with the specifics. We've already begun to strategize. I've picked next year's character already. You will be selecting when we run the game back next year. So it's serious business for you, and I respect that. Charles came in second. Yes. Charles put up a solid, solid showing.

But then at the end of the day, at the end of the day, you came in with just a photo drop. Yeah. And you didn't actually type this in the group chat, but I felt that you said scoreboard. That's a sports term. my understand. Okay. Mallory Rubin, what's your number four?

My number four is the peacemaker panel, which was an interesting panel experience, but was like, so that was when we had been in for a prior panel that will be discussed later in the pod. And Arjuna and I kind of like shuffled to find seats elsewhere and join some of the other members of the team who had been hanging out. And I had no idea what to expect in the panel. And my assumption, I don't know, maybe this is a bit strong, Annie, but my assumption is that maybe some people left the panel and they were like, wow, we actually didn't get any other DC news or any other DC announcements. Although they thought they were going to smuggle in some other gunvers up in there.

Yeah, that there would be some shock reveal at the end? Because James Gunn, of course, was on the panel. So would that be like, would we see maybe some Supergirl footage? Or would we like dare to dream? learn like a bit of casting news on the Batman front or something. None of that happened. None of that happened. And that's fine.

I really like Peacemaker. And so it was, and I just think that of all of the stars of a show or a film across the week, and there were a few other really memorable performance, including one of our, you know, featured images here on the back, Timmy really put up just a very remark. remarkable performance. We'll get to that later as well. John Cena, unsurprisingly, it was one of the most entertaining of the entire weekend. He came out dressed as peacemaker. He came out wearing his costume, which is always fun when that happens. And he just hammed it up in the best possible way the entire time. He was clearly having a blast.

And it was very entertaining to watch him interact with the audience and to like really celebrate that people were so enthusiastic about the second season, the pending next month, second season of the show that people waited years and years for. And we got to see a cool new trailer. We got to see a couple scenes. But the reason ultimately that it made my top four, even though this was sort of harrowing because the framing was a little violent for my taste, there was a dedicated discussion segment about crypto and Eagley, two of the most important characters in my life. And so how can I not have that in my top five? Do you remember yesterday we were walking back to the hotel and you're like, look, there's Eagley. And it was literally just like a picture. picture. It was just like a billboard on a bench. And she was like across. She was like,

there he is. It's Eagley. I love Eagley dearly. Maybe I should have knocked Peacemaker out of the top five because Eagley wasn't a formal participant on the panel. You could go either way with it. But I liked that we got to see a little bit of Eagley. There was a very funny clip that we got to see about bird blindness. Tim Meadow's new character. He's joining the show. He's like, who's this bird that everyone's obsessed about? Like, I can't tell the difference between this bald eagle and a hummingbird. Made me chuckle. What can I say? Made me laugh. So that's my number four. What comes in, what comes in a number four for you, my darling?

Okay. This is sort of similar to your number five. It's not about, it was about sitting there in Hall Age and experience this, but it was mostly about sitting next to Mallory experiencing this. And it was the Project Hail Mary panel that we got to experience in Hall Age yesterday. It was, this is one of our most eagerly anticipated films of next year. We were saying it was our most, and then our lovely colleagues reminded us of Dune 3. I just don't believe that Dune is coming out next year,

but if it does great, what an embarrassment of riches for us all. But Prodigital Mary, which comes out in March of next year. We are so excited for it. We love the book by Andy Weir. The panel was Lord and Miller, two filmmakers we love. Ryan Gosling, Mallory will talk about his fit, and eventually, I'm sure, on this top five. Andy Weir and Drew Goddard,

just like legends all of them up on the stage. They showed so much footage from this movie. And I was so excited to be sitting there with Arjuna, with Van, and with Mallory. I couldn't really see Arjuna. We were on either ends of the group. But I was so excited to be sitting next to Mallory because she was like vibrating and crying a little. And it was everything you would want from Amali Rubin. I've been waiting all my life for this panel experience.

And then next to her was Van who has been skeptical. Like, you know, just didn't really like, no. It's like, no. What is this thing that you guys are so excited about? Yeah, why are you guys so excited for this? And at one point, you heard him gas? Yeah, and we started to, we built. Yeah, we got a little gas.

I kept looking for vans. We got the chuckles. We getting van. Yeah, and then you're like, we got him. We got him. Mallory turned to me, she's like, we got him. We got him. You can feel the moment?

Yeah, vans on board. I know that Arjuna had a good time, too. And it was just like, it was a fantastic panel. We're so excited. And my, like, my podcast idea brain just started going. I was like, oh, we got to do a book club podcast. I was like, we could do space movies next, like our favorite space movies next year. Space friendships?

Space friendships. Love it. I was like, we got to get Andy. We're on the pod. We got to get, you know, like, you know, like. That would be interesting. I would love that. I was just like, we're just going to blow this out next year.

We're so excited. So not to over promise and then Paul of Fame deliver, but we have a lot. If June comes out next year, you all will finally get the Paul of Fame. So we have a lot. We have a lot we want to do about Project County Mary. The footage was fantastic. We're so excited for this movie. Got the first, for my typically very supportive husband, got the first,

Don't Paula Fame it recently from him. Oh, wow. And we didn't. We got a few Paula Fame mentions at the meet and greet, so there you go. Great stuff. I, spoiler, have Project Hail Mary on my list as well. A little higher, but fuck was that amazing. Yeah, it was fantastic.

That was incredible. Rocky! Sweet Rocky, I just can't wait. I can't wait to watch that movie and talk about it with you. I'm tempted. The bad babies at our meet and greet, one of, like, a couple of them, really nice folks recommended this, like, podcast musical for me to listen to on my drive back. Yes.

Which I am definitely going to listen to you soon, but I'm kind of... You just want to dive right back in? Project Hail Mary. I might do a re-listen to Project Hail Mary on my drive back today. Never a bad time. It's an incredible audiobook if you haven't listened to it. I haven't done the audio book. I'm definitely going to before the film comes out.

But, yeah, I can't wait to do a reread, and I can't wait for every little trickle of footage that keeps coming out between now and March. They should, they also, this is your first experience of them pulling back the curtains. Sorry. In Hall H. And all throughout the panel, they were showing, you know, concept images and just like all this really cool. Mallow just kept snapping photos of every single thing that went up on every single screen. It was great. I didn't do a great job of snapping the photos.

I have a lot of, like, foreground images of the top of other people's heads. But you live and learn. You know, and then you game plan. It's your first year. You game plan for next year. Yeah. You know? It's, in a way, it's training camp.

And training camp is about being in the best shape of your life. And that includes learning how to take a photo and film a video. Running a combine, too, I hear. Well, I mean, this is your favorite thing to talk about, the combine. The combine is at a different point of the year than training camp. But don't worry. We'll follow up on that later. Arjuna just gently nodding in the corner.

I really thought I did something. You did. You did. You did. You did. You did. You did. You invoked.

Combine. You know that it's a football thing and that's great. My number three is the very first thing we did here other than like arrive and have some meals. The Percy Jackson Hall H panel, that was the first thing we did in Hall H on Thursday morning. This is of course the panel for season two, which is coming out in December. We had a blast covering season one together. We really loved it. That was the first time like prepping for that show and then going through the show that I read the books and I really fell in love with them. That panel was really cool for a few different reasons. First of all, I will always remember it because it was my first tall age panel.

So that's just like it's kind of now embedded in my experience. And it was the first panel, first day of the con. Yeah. And it was my first time getting to like feel in the room, especially because that was a longer audience Q&A portion than in any other panel I attended throughout the weekend. Mixed bag, audience Q&A. The positive part of it is like the, the, the, adoration and fandom was so palpable from everybody who, like, vibrated their way to the mic and just expressed how much the performers mean to them, how much the characters mean to them, how much the world means to them.

It made me weepy a few times. I got emotional watching them because it was just so sweet to see people, like, getting to interact with other people in their Camp Half Flood T-shirts and then, like, ask a question of somebody they really admire. That was just really cool. I love that. Tancelis himself, Timothy Simons, friend of the ringer, not yet a friend of House of Arbor, but maybe one day. Tim moderated. Percy Season 2. Yeah, Percy Season 2.

He was hysterical, as always. He was great. That was really fun. We got to see in the footage our first glimpse of one of my favorite characters in the book series, Tyson, who, you know, we've, of course, known that Tyson is coming because this is the Sea of Monsters adaptation. we've gotten to hear from the performer who's like such a fan of the books and was he was wearing his trident like pendant necklace that was just amazing but we got to see the first glimpse of Tyson with the Cyclops eye and that was really fun to like not just see but then to see like to feel everybody else gasp when they got to see Tyson rendered on the screen for the

first time and then not to like jump past season two which hasn't even come out yet. But the highlight for me, the part where I was like grabbing your arm, they announced Nico and Bianca DeAngela. They announced the casting for two of the, my favorite and the most important characters in the series, like Nico is a real, real, real favorite of mine. And they announced the casting. And we got to see it.

Like Rick came on the screen and announced the casting news. And then we got to meet the performers. Let's see. Levi, Chrysopoulos, and Olive Aberyst. crumbie. And they were just precious. They were precious. And I can't wait for the DeAngelo siblings to come into the world. And the third book is my favorite in the series. So I'm just like, I'm excited for season two, of course. But I'm already like the hype for season three now is mounting. And the fact that they've cast them makes me perhaps foolishly, but makes me optimistic

that maybe it will be a shorter span between seasons. A lot of the jokes from the core trio returning was about how much older and taller they were in season two than in season one. We're not like quite in Stranger Things territory, but we've grown. Yeah. So I think they are all feeling the urgency of capturing those kids while they're kids. Yes. What's your number three, my darling? My dearest darling one, it's spending time with the Ringervverse pals, the core crew.

Our Juna is here in the studio with us. So getting to spend time with Arjuna. with Charles, with Jomey, with Steve, with Van. Just means a lot to me. We had a team dinner beneath a very rickety-looking Ferris wheel. That we watched disassembled by two people in real time. So that was disturbing, I have to say. But doing the panel with all of you, it was just fun.

The House of Midnight doesn't get a lot of a ton of chance to. all be together. So it was really nice to be all together. This was our first time, like, all out at a place together. Because we've had, you know, whether it's prior Comic-Con's or D-23 or Star Wars Celebration, there's always, like, one person missing. Somebody's not there or two people aren't there. So this was, like, really cool to get to just spend the time together.

And I loved that every day, even though people went off to do their own things. And maybe if we have a few minutes at the end, we'll do a very quick, like, lightning around honorable mentions of some of the other stuff we had. talked about, but that we know other people really were excited about when they got to see, because that was one of the cool things about the weekend, too, is like, if one of us didn't get to make it to a panel, but someone else did, you get the download and you're like, oh, man, everyone had a great day. Like, everyone had a cool, fun, interesting day. Yeah.

And the moments where you're just sort of weaving in and out of each other's lives. Right. Yeah. You meet up. You're in the same place. You grab a snack bar together. Everybody fuels up on their coffee. Then everybody goes and does their own thing or fractures.

And then we amass again. And it was, that all felt, that all felt really great and kind of smooth. Surprisingly smooth. Great work, Arjuna, you killed it, man. I say surprisingly smooth and know that you ground yourself into dust for months. To make sure it felt that smooth for all of us. So thank you. Legend.

Legend. Yeah. That's a great book. Thanks. The team rules. Again, I smuggled all of that as a top. So as not to have to devote spots in my top five. but I am as always undisciplined, and nobody's surprised by that.

Nobody's surprised by that. My top two, I have as like a shared number one. I don't have a two and then a one. I have two number ones. Okay. I couldn't make a decision because it was the thing I was like, it's one of the things. The two of the things I was most excited for. And then there's like a personal, as you've already teased, you know, one of my most

anticipated things of next year. But then there was like the just sort of sheer mass of all of the different things that we got to do. Since I understand what they are. Yeah. How about we I'll do my number two. Yeah, and then I'll talk about Hail Mary after and then we can do the obvious other thing.

The thing that is branded all around. What can it be? But it's also actually my number one. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptide may be able to help. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity. Or some adults with overweight who also have

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Side effects include nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting, which can cause dehydration and worsen kidney problems. Talk to your doctor. Call 1-800-545-9-9 or visit zepbounce.lily.com. My number two, as Mallory earlier mentioned, is that I went to the Anrise Immortal Universe panel, which was a double panel. It was the tease for the Talamaska,

the six-episode Talamaska series. and then a tease for season three, which they're calling the vampire listat of interview with the vampire. And I went to that panel so early. I had a reserve C for that panel, and I was still pacing outside of Ballroom 20 for like an hour beforehand

because I was so excited for it. And I didn't think Mallory was going to be able to come because she was at the Peacemaker panel and all this other stuff. And so I was there for the first, you know, like 15 minutes. or so by myself just like texting Valerie. I was like, and then Eric Begojan, who

if you're fan of New York Theater or Law & Order or Succession or whatever. Billions. Billions. Billions? Never miss an opportunity to mention billions. It's just like a veteran actor who's been working for a long time, like incredible actor,

but has experienced this sort of like second coming of popularity because of his work in interview with Vampire. He's got this like rabid young audience who, who love him as Daniel Malloy on interview of Vampire. So they brought him out for the Talamaska panel to say, hey, Daniel Malloy is going to be in the Talamaska series.

Mallory was outside the hall. It was like the Beatles came to America when Eric Begozian walked out. It was like a roar. It was louder than actually maybe anything I heard. Shrieks outside of the number one thing we're going to talk about in Hall H. Like it was so loud and so shrieking and so wonderful. For Eric Begozian, just like this veteran actor, it was so amazing. And then, so I was texting Mallory, and she's like, I'm going to try it again in.

Yeah. Then she got in. Sat next to me. And that just made everything so much better. We did get shushed by a poor reporter who was trying to transcribe the panel because we were talking too excitedly. And then the interview with the vampire panel started next. And Sam Reed and Jacob Anderson came out. Eric Bikosian came out again.

Daniel Hart, who's the composer of the show. And Raleigh Jones was there, who I, who's the. showruner who I absolutely adore, and he brought out his, like, dog-eared, bookmarked, creased, crumpled copy of the Vampire Listad book, partly as like a prop to announce, like, this is what the title of the season's going to be, but also to flex, as well he should, how much time and attention he pays to these texts. I've seen him do this before on, like, various interviews, bring out the books just to show you how much that he is, like, paying attention to these texts.

but I am so excited. And then, I mean, Jacob Anderson and Sam Reed are so incredible. They're so wonderful. They showed a teaser that they have released online, and then a teaser, I think that was exclusive to the room. They had only been shooting for 15 days, and they put together a trailer. I don't understand. So much footage for the trailer.

It seemed like something you would assemble after six months of film. It was wild to me. And I cried. I did because here's the thing. Interview of the Vampire is genuinely one of my favorite shows of all time ever. It's currently airing and it is one of my favorites of all time ever. It means a lot to me. I was texting Van photos and he was like, oh my God, they're so gorgeous, all the sort of stuff like that.

So like Van is here with me. Mallory is seen season one. She is here with me. But my love is on an unhealthy level for this show. And so imagine that one of your favorite shows of all time exists. and now, and you're Joanna Robinson, and now they're going to make it a musical. That's what's happening in season three

of interview with the vampire. And so we just saw the vampire list at in his sort of velvet gold mine glory, like leather panted, shirtless. But then like the best part of the footage that they showed us is that we got to see a bunch of flashback footage. So, you know, from centuries ago,

some of that was in there. Jennifer Ely from the, 1990s Pride and Prejudice miniseries who played Elizabeth Darcy is going to be the season. That got me really excited. And, you know, and the music that we heard was amazing. And then there's just, like, this incredible scene of basically Louis and Listout, which is essentially set up as like a divorce. This was fantastic. Divorce lawyer.

Like, I don't know what you call those. Mediator. Mediator scene. Child a divorce. Yeah. And Listad is just throwing a tantra. a very listat tantrum. Very specific detail.

The whole pull out of thin air. It was just amazing. It was just I lost my mind. It was, I think it's the most like fan girl Comic Con experience of my lifetime and Mallory was there to squeeze my hand through it. Well, had you ever previously been shushed by a fellow journalist? So then I think that's immense it.

Never happened to me before. Deeply unprofessional. The interview of Vampire Season 3. There's also, there's a massive, I'm sure you've seen it if you are a fan of the show. There's a massive, like, wrap on one of the buildings that's right across from the convention center, and it's the vampire list ad, and it says, scream for me. But if you are looking at it at a certain angle and the palm tree is, like, blocking it, and it just says cream for me, and it's just like, definitely intentional.

I didn't write it. It's just there. And I just, it was a lot. It was a lot to experience here at Santiago Comic-Con. Incredible. You pointed that out to me, day one. And then I couldn't unsee it, of course. And so I tracked the various viewing angles and more often than not, it's cream for me.

Like 85% of the vantage points that you could have. That is what it says. They know what they're doing and they're right to do it. So there you go. That's my number two. Remarkable. Privileged that I got to witness you witnessed this. Arjuna looks quite upset and I'm sorry about that.

Normally you have the distance of like a Zoom box between us. Or you're in like a booth, but you're right here in the room with me as I've lost all sense of perspective and professionalism. So I apologize. Project Hail Mary. Yeah. Describe the Gosling fit. It was extraordinary. Okay.

How can I describe this? He came out in, I think you summed it up well. Like it was very Taylor Sheridan verse. Yeah. Core. Yeah. You know, like a tight fitting. pair of faded, broken in.

Like a Levi-esque kind of a gene, a plaid like denim shirt rolled up right to the elbow line with the top forearm tattoos just peeking out. Yeah. A cap. A cat tractor cap. Real like working man cosplay from Ryan Gosling. Yeah. And, you know, the accessory that he carries with him everywhere, which is all of the

charisma in the world. It was riveting. I love this book. You love this book. As you already said, we've just been so excited about the prospect of this movie when we got to see like the first images and just even like the poster with the release date we freaked out about. And the trailer, like to see the trailer on the big screen when the screens expanded,

getting to glimpse all of the concept art and some of the behind the scenes, photos of the sets and like hearing about how they're doing this. You like grab me and you're like, it's Rocky's Tunnel. Seeing Rocky's Tunnel really made me emotional because we have, I will say, we have been reluctant to say too much about the plot of the story because, and we'll talk about this obviously in much more detail closer than the film, but in many different respects, the book unravels as a mystery. Like you are, you are waking up alongside Riley and Grace and figuring out who,

who you are and where you are and why, and then the journey toward meeting Rocky and, like, learning about him. The fact that Rocky is just in the trailers and is clearly going to be a part of the marketing campaign, you know, we've glimpsed the little, like, fingers in the trailers so far. And, you know, they're not hiding it.

No, the trailers are like, I'm not an astronaut. Like, no, I think they're putting it all out there in a way that is, I, like, 5% sad about it because I think that's one of the real joys of reading the book, but, like, 95% co-assigned this is great, it makes it a lot easier to just explain what the story is. And then all of that is just the beginning. It's all just still sort of how we get to where we are. This is why I've been so bullish that people should read the book, like now as early as possible.

Yes, it is. Because they've already sort of, you know, revealed a bunch of things in the trailer. So, like, I want people to have that experience as cleanly as possible. Yeah. And, like, I will say without getting into any other particulars about why, that Rocky is one of my favorite characters. And I love a surprising friendship. And this is a great story about, and this was like a real focus of the Hall-Age panel, a real story about like surprising connection, which is one of my favorite things, obviously, in a fantasy tale or a sci-fi tale, a genre tale in general.

It's something we always really like latch on to and respond to. So I'm just so excited. I hope more people read the book, obviously. I'm so excited for people to experience that tale in what looks like a visually astonishing cinematic scape. I cannot wait for this movie. When they announced that Neil Scanlan, who was just like a legendary creature, a designer from Lucasfilm is like put in the work on Rocky. Yeah, getting to learn about the puppetry. Six-person puppeteering.

Yeah. Incredible. The practical effects mixed with, of course, the CGI and the animation. Just pipe meter through the fucking roof. And then like, you know, we love Lord of Miller. Like you said, so just to get to hear them talk about something that they're. adapting and to get to hear Drew talk about something that he's adapting was great. And I just am such a fan of Andy Weir's work and his writing that it was really fun because he was occupying two roles, I think. He was occupying the I am the creator of

this world and I'm also kind of like geeking out that this is happening and I get to be here on the stage. And that was really, I thought, charming and fun to see. So the movie looks sick. I can't wait for it. And it was really fun to get to share that with you guys. I loved it. Yeah. And I think that having them all up there, Drew Goddard dropped a Buffy reference, and I got so excited. I was like, Mallory, we can watch the Drew Goddard episodes of Buffy. I started a weird day.

Before we watch Project Hail Mary. What a thrill. What a joy. Okay. Let's talk about our shared number one. You might have noticed we're here in the FX Alien Earth studio. Honestly, though, genuinely, this is my number one. It's hard to top.

The Alien Earth panel in Hall H, which you moderated, you fucking superstar. Which I got to moderate, which was extremely cool to be up on stage at Hall H. That was a thrill of a lifetime. We killed it. But they showed the first episode in full. In full. In Hall Hage. It was a supersized panel.

They showed the full episode. Then they did about 20 minutes Q&A. So it was like a really brief Q&A. But I had already seen the episode on a laptop, though. So getting to sort of, I wasn't sitting in the audience. I was sort of like waiting on the side so that I could scurry back so we could all go on stage. But the cast did come out and sit in the audience. And then all my pals, my re-reverse pals were in the audience.

And the sound was incredible. And it looks amazing. I think we were all like a little nervous. You just rewatched all of the alien movies. We love the alien franchise. You're always nervous when there's like a new, installment in a franchise that you care a lot about. And I just really, really genuinely loved this episode.

Timothy Olfant. Have you out of them lots? Was there? Joanna. On the panel. On the panel in the show. Alex Lothor. She's really underplaying this.

Our guy Nemic. Alex Lothar was there. Sidney Chandler. Babu Sise, Samuel Blanken. It was just like, I think one thing that surprised me, at least in watching the first episode, was I didn't know how heavy the Peter Pan references were going to be. And it's a really interesting skin that Noah Hawley has put on. Noah Holly, of course, is also there, David Zucker, producer.

But like that Noah Holly has put on the show. It's really smart. He's talked about this in a few interviews. And we got a chance to interview Noah Holly. and Alex Lothar, but this idea of like the billionaires of the world and the tech that they're chasing

towards immortality. Yes. And how in his view, that goes hand in hand with this idea of Peter Pan never wanting to grow up. Right. And so you've got...

It's always fine when people... Totally fine. Never Never Land is fine, guys. Filthy amount of means to pursue cheating death. But you see so much... Natural. Okay, so there are sins, there are cyborgs, there are hybrids, which are these new creations.

We've got a guy in a suit playing the xenomorph. The xenomorph gets some crazy action in the first episode. And tons of new creatures. And a lot of, there's like a blood-sucking leech thing. Anyway, it was always truly an incredible experience. Co-sign all of that. I will be your hype man for you so that you can maintain that balance of not having to be like, I fucking killed it. But guess what?

Everybody, she killed it. She fucking killed it. Zero surprises here in this room or anywhere else. I'm sure. I would say that there were like three. So everything that we've talked about was really fun. The Vampire Lissette, Project Tell Mary, these are things we're so excited for. We were looking forward to them.

We will think about them now and we leave. But they were contained to moments in time, our experiences here at ComicCon with them. There were three true through lines of these five days. Being here together, seeing all of the cosplayers, and then Alien Earth. Alien Earth was with us in some capacity every single day. We engaged with it in some way. And so it is like inextricable from this Comic-Con experience for us. And I think for a lot of the people who attend to Comic-Con, that that would be true as well.

And so that's really cool, like the level of the immersion in the world. We're podcasting in their studio, which is right next to the same. really sick, like crash activation that they have next door that people have been lining up for all weekend. The whole time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was awesome. Sorry, you're like one of my best friends in the world.

Getting to watch you moderator, the Hall H panel was false. It was so cool. How can that not be the, like, top thing of the weekend? You got to be on a stage. I'm like, kind of. And I'm doing that watching you do that. What is wrong with us? Getting to watch you up on the stage with Timothy Olith.

one of our shared favorites as he came out in a pink sear sucker suit and did this to you. It's like a life highlight. That was amazing. The moderation was great. The discussion was awesome. Watching the episode, like you said, from a seat in Hall Age, like, yeah. The scene on the big screen amazing, the sound in Hall H is. As I imagine, that is what it feels like when an alien bursts out of your chest, like in a good way, though.

My apple watch is just like, it's very loud in here. Your hearing is in danger. It was, first of all, I thought the premiere was fantastic. Genuinely great. And I think that the other side of what you were saying about, like, you know, years, decades, maybe for people, days, weeks, depending on when you come to the alien franchise of fandom, whenever you have loved something for that long or there's that much of it already, there's always going to be that level, like you said, of, like, what awaits? For me, and this is where I always tell him myself as, like, I love movies. but if I have the choice that almost always, as you know, will lean TV. Like, that I am just so excited to get to have eight episodes and then hopefully subsequent seasons.

Like marinate in the world. Yeah. Like, while I love the alien movies, there is, I think, an aspect of like when you have an hour and 54 or an hour and 58 minutes. Of course, there's only so much you can do and the fans are looking for the facehugger moment and the airlock moment. So like, to have so much more room to play and especially given where the show is set in the timeline, right before alien. Two years before. Yeah, yeah.

Is a fascinating moment in the canonical timeline to get to expand and play and introduce new creatures, new figures, new corporations. Like, I'm just really, and I think Noah Hawley as a world expander, whether it was, yeah, whether it was like Legion or Fargo, somebody who is moving into a world that existed and then making it bigger for us and showing us more of the nooks and crannies or aspects of it that we didn't know is there. I think he just has like a genuine gift for that. And the cast is awesome. So I'm so excited for the show. And to watch the enthusiasm in the room, I was in, I can't, I think I told you this. I was in line waiting with somebody who had watched the screeners start to finish three times already.

And he's like, I host an alien podcast. Like, aliens my favorite thing. I've already watched six episodes out to press. He's just like, I keep rewatching them because they're so good. I can't wait to start it over. So there's like nothing better, especially like in our universe with our pods and what we all do when the enthusiasm is there with the audience. And the deep core fans are like, he really did it.

And that's the thing about Noah Hawley has talked about this. When he made Fargo, you know, everyone was like, how dare you touch Fargo? A perfect film. Why would you do this? And then Fargo as a TV show rules. The first season is one of the best things I've ever seen. I have very special places in my heart for subsequent seasons. John Hamm nipple rings at gmail.com.

We're going to be covering the show throughout the whole season. Week to week. We're doing it week to week. We can't wait. That's awesome. I'm very proud of you. And I think you're the best. I think you're the best.

Thank you so much. One quick Timothy O'Lefon story I will tell, which is that when I walked into the green room, he was talking to Mark Hamill, who was going to be on the next panel for the long walk. And he was talking to Mark Campbell. And then we did sort of like huddle up before the panel. And he walks over to the rest of the cast. He's like, guys, Luke Skywalker is right over there. And it was just like, he's like pretty cool. Just like us.

It was really sweet. It was really sweet. 30 second rapid fire lightning around. Other highlights things that we didn't get to talk about. Steve and I got to go to the Gen V panel. They showed a very early season five, the boys trail there. And that looks like it's going to be, you know, a bloody, filthy great time. So I can't wait for that.

The panel I really wish I had gone to was the coyote. versus Acme panel where I didn't know but my pal, Griffin Newman, was on stage as the coyote under a mask that he did not reveal until later that it was him on stage. Incredible.

But Steve went to that panel and he said it was really, really fun and we ran into my friend Germain Lusier who talked about it. So that's coming out next summer but that looks like really fun. That was high on a lot of people's height meter for the weekend, which was really fun.

And then Arjuna has yet to stop talking about the Predator Badlands. Yes. panel. You got to see a bunch of footage. You said it looked awesome. So that was really fun. We heard some cool things about the Tron. Arias panel. So yeah, I think those are all additional highlights. Currently, as you record it's Sunday. We had to- At this exact moment in time right now, it's happening. We had to run around like the longest Hall-Age line I've seen in a long time for the George Lucas panel in Hall-Age.

George Lucas's first time at San Diego Comic-Conn is happening right now. So it was It's just been like a really fantastic weekend. I'm Joanna Robinson. That's Mallory and Rubin. We'll be back with our fantastic four pod on Tuesday. Thank you to the FX pals who let us have this studio. Thank you to Arjuna for all of his work this weekend. Always.

Thank you to Carlos Sheribogo, who's with us here in Spirit, who worked on this episode and Jomey and Dinner on Social. And we will see you soon. Bye-bye. All. Pay off your home. Travel for life. Drive a Ferrari.

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