San Diego Comic-Con 2025 is officially in the books, and it was a unique year, to say the least. Without Marvel or DC to anchor the pop culture excitement, the field was wide open for a number of smaller properties to steal the spotlight. Some took full advantage, building crazy buzz. Others did not. Here’s our rundown of the winners and losers of Comic-Con 2025.
Winners
Aliens and Predators
The legendary sci-fi enemies took center stage at Comic-Con 2025 and brought major excitement to both franchises. Alien: Earth, the new FX show, screened an entire episode, which fans seemed to love, and had one of the biggest, most ambitious activations at the entire convention. Predator: Badlands, the upcoming theatrical release, confidently showed an unfinished first 15 minutes of the film, which were both incredibly awesome and hugely emotional. There was also a major activation and even a brand-new, canon-changing ending revealed for Predator: Killer of Killers that brings back the characters played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Glover. Plus, there might be another crossover in the future? Fans of both franchises had a very good Comic-Con teasing an even more exciting future.
Wile E. Coyote
After having his movie Coyote vs. Acme unceremoniously canceled by a certain corporation, the Road Runner-obsessed Coyote chose Comic-Con as the place to unveil the film in its new form. Now, the film has a release date, hilarious footage was shown, and audiences everywhere are poised to enjoy one animal’s quest to take down the major corporation that has failed him at every turn.
Project Hail Mary
Longtime attendees of Comic-Con know something special is coming when a studio spends the money to utilize the giant screens that engulf Hall H to project content during its panel. This year, it happened with Project Hail Mary, the March 2026 film starring Ryan Gosling, based on the book by Andy Weir, and directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. The gang was all there (as well as writer Drew Goddard) to talk about the epic sci-fi adventure and screen almost 15 minutes of the movie. Fifteen minutes almost eight months out from release? That’s a huge swing. And it worked.
Lego
Every company with a booth at Comic-Con wants to put something incredible on display. Something to bring in the fans and get them talking. This year, one booth did that to such a degree, it was almost unfair to everyone else. That booth was Lego, which centered around a massive model of San Diego Comic-Con itself. It had the Convention Center, the show floor, all the cosplayers, and more. It was built with over 200,000 bricks, took over 1,500 hours to design and build, and was populated by over 8,000 mini-figures. It was truly an unforgettable sight.
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