San Diego Comic Con is going to look quite different than it has in years past with the Writers Guild of America going on their 2nd month of their strike and Sag-AFTRA starting their strike at midnight tonight.
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What This Means for SDCC?
San Diego Comic Con lives and dies off of creatives, and this has never been more true as movies and television have begun engulfing the convention center floors and panels. The biggest booths and biggest panels are almost always related to tv and movies. The con clearly felt the impact from the WGA strike with one of the lightest big panel schedules I can remember. If SAG-AFTRA votes to strike, according to the Wrap’s reporting, “actors will not be permitted to take part in promotional work of any kind, including press junkets, film premieres, and fan events like San Diego Comic-Con.” Imagine a convention with no SAG members!
Is it all bad for SDCC?
For WGA and SAG members, yes. The only thing “good” coming from this is that they, through their union membership, actually have bargaining power and are using it. As per the con itself, ironically enough, I think this will make the convention hall itself more busy. Yes. More busy.
Here are the main reasons I think the floor will be busier:
- Hall H has a very light schedule, and this was before the certainty of a strike. Now, a hall that typically holds ~6500 isn’t going to be filled as it usually is.
- All panels are likely to be impacted. There are always a ton of smallish panels for up-and-coming shows that hold anywhere between a hundred to a couple hundred people that will no longer be properly filled, or potentially used at all.
- Ticketed signings used to pull people up into Sails Pavilion before the con and segmented a lot of people up there vs the normal con lines. That won’t be so if the talent isn’t there.
The comic side of things at the con is in an interesting spot. It almost feels like a throwback since more of the focus will naturally be placed on them. By no means do I think they are even remotely celebrating this idea, especially since comics and tv/movie are more intrinsically tied than ever, it will be interesting to see how this compares to previous cons.
Comic Con is a celebration of creatives being able to show off their work in front of frenzied fans waiting to explode in joy. Now, the con is going to better personify the inability for corporations to properly value their workers.
It is important to note that this strike impacts those in theatrical and television works. Those in VO, animation, etc. are not impacted by the strike. More details will follow after the SAG-AFTRA conference.