SAN DIEGO — Warner Bros. definitely has something up its sleeve for Saturday at Comic-Con, but Thursday was left to the fans.
Staffers of TheOneRing.net were invited to to take the stage, in what has become a Comic-Con tradition, to talk Middle-earth movies from Peter Jasckon, and this year for the final Hobbit film. It was extra pleasing to follow the fantastic and ever-more-popular George R.R. Martin after his panel. Clifford Broadway made sure to sit in Martin’s chair.
Panelists were:
Chris Pirrotta — Co-founder of the site and a big part of TORn conventions for years, Calisuri was on hand to finish what he started.
John Tedeschi — A long-time staffer from New York, Thor moderated the panel keeping the rest of us in check.
Clifford Broadway — The site’s Quickbeam, Cliff adds a depth of knowledge or all the adaptations of Tolkien’s works, not just the latest from Jackson.
Kellie Rice — As a writer and unabashed fan known as part of the Happy Hobbit, Kellie added a feminine touch to the proceedings.
Larry D. Curtis — With several trips to New Zealand and five weeks on set during filming of the films, MrCere is a convention vet but was also silent during certain portions of the proceedings.
We hoped we were a fun and diverse group and we tried to strike a conversational balance on the panel. We also knew we had a little extra time because of the cancellation of the panel following ours. We focused on where we left off last and then went deep into spoiler territory with a lot of speculation but also content taken from clues from interviews, official photos and rumor.
The conversation also generated some laughs when members of the audience had not read the books and learned the most elementary of spoilers, such as about who lived and who died.
Our audience polls also highlighted the popular opinion of fans on many fronts. Forged by and for fans, TheOneRing staff was honored to be a part of the programming at San Diego Comic-Con. We were also honored to have LOTR guru Jim Rygel stop by to say hello to the audience!
