Comic-Con 2023: Fans say loss of Hollywood stars means more time for other attractions

By Natallie Rocha and Phillip Molnar | San Diego Union-Tribune

Hollywood might have needed Comic-Con more than Comic-Con needed Hollywood.

Most San Diego Comic-Con International fans said Thursday July 20, the convention’s first official day, that they were fine with almost all major studios, from Marvel to HBO, staying away this year. A writers’ and actors’ strike has ground Tinseltown to a halt, preventing creators and actors from showing up at San Diego’s big show.

It might have sounded like Comic-Con would be a drag this year, but the show stayed sold out and tickets were still going for more than $1,000 on secondary markets a day before it started.

RELATED: Netflix’s Los Gatos headquarters swarmed with protesters amid film and TV strikes

Anthony Kalvans, 30, of San Luis Obispo, said he couldn’t care less about Hollywood not being there. On Thursday morning, he was with his girlfriend at an installation promoting several FX shows near San Diego Bay.

“We’re here for the entire experience, not just Hall H,” he said.

While every fan who spoke with to us took a defiant tone over Hollywood’s absence, there’s no denying people have really liked seeing the biggest actors stroll on stage at the 6,500-seat Hall H every year since the early 2000s. People have been known to wait overnight and lose entire days just to see the casts of “The Avengers” and “Game of Thrones.”

Marcus Haase, 18, of Connecticut, admitted he got nervous reading about all the cancellations in the weeks leading up to the convention.”I was mainly concerned how it would compare to last year,” he said.

At his second Comic-Con, Haase said he was pleased that he couldn’t tell much of a difference this time from the 2022 convention. On Thursday afternoon, he was at the front of the Hall H line to get into a panel for the new Insomniac Games’ “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.”

Nathan Kinsella, 24, was looking forward to dressing up in cosplay with his friends and donned a Spider-Man suit (specifically, the one from Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” film).

This is Kinsella’s eighth Comic-Con. In past years, he has waited for hours to see the big panels and brush shoulders with Hollywood stars. This year, Hollywood’s absence is “kind of like a nice break,” Kinsella said, given there are already so many attractions vying for convention attendees’ attention.

“I support the strike — both of them — and there’s still a lot of great stuff to see here,” said the Bonita resident. “The only sort of downside is it takes out some of the excitement from the other people that don’t come as often as I do. And I’m still waiting to see how it affects crowds. Because if there’s not so many people in Hall H, maybe crowds will be bigger.”

Dounia Yang Sawaya, 25, said she is a little bummed that the unexpected run-ins with famous actors and creators around the convention are missing from this year’s experience.

She hasn’t been to Comic-Con since she was in high school, so she was excited to bring her friend, Chris Raffa, for the first time. Despite the strikes, Raffa said he hasn’t been disappointed, because there is still so much creative energy and art to see at the convention.

Yang Sawaya, a native San Diegan, doesn’t consider herself a comic book expert, but she enjoys visiting Artist’s Alley in the Exhibit Hall to support independent creators. She thinks a lot of “Comic-Con purists” are excited about the absence of Hollywood, given a wider discourse over the years about whether the celebrity appearances water down the Comic-Con experience.