15 Things We're Looking Forward To At Comic-Con 2012

Pacific Rim

Why We’re Excited: We adore Guillermo del Toro at Total Film , and we’re ridiculously excited about his monsters vs mech-suits movie.

Guillermo will be unveiling footage from Pacific Rim at Comic-Con 2012 . Expect the Internet to explode with glee shortly afterwards.

What We’re Hoping To Get: As many scrap scenes as possible, and some glorious concept art that reveals the various creature designs.

Godzilla

Why We’re Excited : Just the sight of the classic Godzilla design is enough to get us giddy, and we’re really hoping this latest instalment in the franchise gets Gojira right.

What We’re Hoping To Get: We want to feel giant footsteps thundering through Hall H, before hearing Godzilla’s distinctive roar bellowing out. Then, after the goosebumps have settled back down, we want footage. Lots and lots of footage.

Django Unchained

Why We’re Excited: Quentin Tarantino will be bringing his cast, and exclusive footage from Django Unchained to Comic-Con .

Expect much discussion about Lucio Fulci’s brief foray into the western genre, Sergio Corbucci’s use of snow in The Great Silence , and the advantages of using ‘70s funk to soundtrack six-gun shoot-outs.

What We’re Hoping To Get: As much new footage of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Calvin Candie as we can get - from the trailer glimpses, he looks like a fascinating villain. We want to see more. A bit of dialogue from Sam Jackson's Stephen would probably bring the house down.

Man Of Steel

Why We’re Excited: We know footage of Man Of Steel exists, but no-one outside of a VFX conference has seen it.

With The Dark Knight Rises hype-machine winding down, we’re expecting Warner Brothers to unveil a jaw-dropping presentation, complete with footage that’ll have everyone in attendance hitting their favourite social network to turn #manofsteel into a universe-wide trending topic.

What We’re Hoping To Get: Superman, Zod, and Lois to get their own stand-out moments in an extensive footage presentation. A full trailer, ready to go into cinemas before The Dark Knight Rises , would be a nice surprise.

Read more on Man Of Steel

Keep checking www.totalfilm.com/comic-con for all the latest news and announcements

Looper

Why We’re Excited: We have a very good feeling about Looper .

Okay, so we might have made that last bit up. But keep your eyes on this one, we have it on good authority that Looper is very special indeed.

We’re looking forward to seeing more at Comic-Con .

What We’re Hoping To Get: Footage, footage and more footage. The film’s completely in the can, so we’d expect nothing less. Expect the buzz to build rapidly almost as soon as it’s revealed this Friday.

Read more on Looper

Keep checking www.totalfilm.com/comic-con for all the latest news and announcements

Iron Man 3

Why We’re Excited: Post the disappointment of Iron Man 2 , post the excitement of The Avengers , post the threequel redefinement of The Dark Knight Rises , Iron Man 3 will be carrying a large weight of expectation on its metal shoulders.

What We’re Hoping To Get: It’s been shooting for a while, so some triumphant footage shouldn’t be out of the question.

If we don’t get it, only Robert Downey Jr charming the pants off Hall H will do.

Elysium

Why We’re Excited: We’re huge fans of District 9 , so all of our attention will be on Neil Blomkamp’s next SF social-metaphor at the Sony presentation.

What We’re Hoping To Get: A trailer is probably too much to hope for, but a sizzle-reel of Matt Damon in action mixed with stunning dystopian / utopian imagery will be enough for us.

Guardians Of The Galaxy

Why We’re Excited: It’s the announcement of a new Marvel franchise and given their track record, that’s cause for extreme exhilaration.

It’s very early days for Guardians Of The Galaxy , but the comic fans in the office tell us a big-screen version will have to be as spectacular as The Avengers to do it justice.

Apparently, it involves a gun-wielding racoon, which is always nice.

As long as it’s absolutely nothing like Green Lantern , we’ll be happy.

What We’re Hoping To Get: Guardians is scheduled for UK release on August 14 2014, so it's a long way off. Still, a writer / director announcement isn't out of the question.

We're hoping the announcement is so exciting, it'll have us buying back-issues afterwards.

The Expendables 2

Why We’re Excited: It’s all about the panel with The Expendables 2 . Sylvester Stallone, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, Dolph Lundgren, Jean-Claude Van Damme and… Arnold Schwarzenegger.

What We’re Hoping To Get: Banter, basically. The dynamic between Stallone, Van Damme and Arnie should be worth the price of admission alone.

Ant-Man

Why We’re Excited: Edgar Wright recently shot some Ant-Man test footage, and if the rumours are to be believed, he’s bringing it to Comic-Con .

Expect very loud cheers, even if he just shows up as a guest at Marvel’s panel.

What We’re Hoping To Get: We’d love to see that test footage, but in the absence of that, announcing the identity of our Hank Pym would be absolutely lovely.

Read more on Ant-Man

Keep checking www.totalfilm.com/comic-con for all the latest news and announcements

The Hobbit

Why We’re Excited: The Hobbit 's Comic-Con exclusive poster has just been released, but we’re fairly sure it’s just the tip of Mount Doom in terms of what we can expect to see this weekend.

What We’re Hoping To Get: New footage, ideally in the form of complete scenes.

Total Recall

Why We’re Excited: Director Len Wiseman will join stars Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, and Bryan Cranston on stage at Comic-Con .

What We’re Hoping To Get: If ever there was a place to unleash fan-pleasing clips of the 2012 Recall paying homage to the original, it’s Comic-Con . We’re expecting to see the full three-boobed mutant scene, if not a large metal object coming out of Quaid's nose.

Oz: The Great & Powerful

Why We’re Excited: Sam Raimi’s Wizard Of Oz prequel has intrigue written all over it.

What We’re Hoping To Get: Raimi’s rumoured to be including black and white footage, in homage to the original Oz – we’d pay fairly good money to see some of it.

Failing that, confirmation of Bruce Campbell’s “pivotal” cameo will do.

The Cosplayers

Why We’re Excited: Comic-Con wouldn’t be Comic-Con without fans dressing up in preposterously detailed costumes in tribute to their heroes.

What We’re Hoping To Get: This year, we’re hoping the cosplayers get organised – with all the Captain Americas, Hulks, Black Widows, Iron Men, Thors, Hawkeyes, Nick Furys, Agent Coulsons and Agent Hills gathering together for the ultimate Avengers costravaganza. If that happens, we feel sorry for all the Lokis.

Oh, and we also wouldn’t mind seeing a few Banes and Catwomans scattered the place.

See the 40 Sexiest Movie Cosplay Costumes

Keep checking www.totalfilm.com/comic-con for all the latest news and announcements

The Surprises

Why We’re Excited: Every year, Comic-Con unleashes several unpredictable moments – whether it’s Andrew Garfield in a home-made Spidey outfit, surprise panels for films we’ve never heard of, or seeing all of the Avengers together for the first time.

Keep checking www.totalfilm.com/comic-con for all the latest news and announcements

PRODUCTS

Sam Ashurst is a London-based film maker, journalist, and podcast host. He's the director of Frankenstein's Creature, A Little More Flesh + A Little More Flesh 2, and co-hosts the Arrow Podcast. His words have appeared on HuffPost, MSN, The Independent, Yahoo, Cosmopolitan, and many more, as well as of course for us here at GamesRadar+.