We have gone through the geek looking glass, people! For years, Comic-Con has been a judgment-free zone where thousands of white men who love facial hair and Boba Fett in equal measure can get together and feel as one. Now, though, there is a disturbance in the force: women!
Of course, it's not as though women have never been to Comic-Con before, but the Twilight fans are a different breed: a young, gender-unequal demographic that's intensely vocal and passionate about the property in question. Oh hey, sort of like every other audience at Comic-Con, but with lady parts!
However, this refracted fandom does not please the male geeks who built Comic-Con, dammit. Slashfilm's Peter Sciretta notes the massive clusterfuck brewing in a post entitled "Will Twilight Ruin This Year's Comic-Con?" Oooh, a narrative! "Probably the most anticipated film at Comic-Con this year is James Cameron's Avatar...but only second to Tron 2," notes Sciretta. Totally true, except that Sciretta then pretty much admits that actually the most anticipated film is the Twilight sequel New Moon, which doesn't count because girls.
Still, the real confrontation is set to happen not on message boards but in Hall H, where all three films are booked one after the other:
Summit Entertainment's panel takes place 15 minutes after the close of the Avatar presentation. Anyone who attended last year's Comic-Con can attest to how much of a cluster-fuck was caused by Twilight's presentation in Hall H. Hundreds of tweens and Twilight Moms/Dads camped overnight to be the first ones into Hall H. By the time the "normal people" began to line up hours before doors were set to open, thousands of Twilighters were already in line.
"Normal people"! Excellent, we have ourselves a geek caste system.
Hall H fits 6,000-6,500 people , yet many people were shut out of the opening 20th Century Fox panel, and when the Summit panel began you couldn't even hear yourself think as four or five thousand Twilight fans screamed in unison. It was a bit sad seeing a 50-year-old Twilight Mom asking a 22-year old Robert Pattinson if he wears boxers or briefs, but I'm not writing today to talk about that.
Except kind of! Uncomfortably objectifying the celebrities at panels has no place at Comic-Con, unless they have breasts. We know this.
By placing the Summit panel (AKA The Twilight Saga: New Moon panel) as the third panel of the day, they are forcing thousands of movie fanatics out of Hall H. Unless you're willing to brave the crowds and show up 4-5 hours before HALL-H opens, the seats will be taken by Twilight fans.
And those people are not movie fanatics, except that they kind of must be, on account of being fanatics for this movie?
Anyway, this will be fun! Tony Scott, can you mediate?
ยท Will Twilight Ruin This Year's Comic-Con? [Slashfilm]