In a few short days comic book and pop culture fans from across the globe will descend on downtown San Diego for the 2024 San Diego Comic Con International. This year’s event, which is held annually since 1970, will run from July 25 through July 28th. Last year’s convention was held with little fanfare amid the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild strikes. Many of the big studios that usually have a presence during the convention in Hall H pulled out leading up to the event including Disney, Marvel, Sony, and Universal. 

This year, San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) returns full force with many of the studios returning including Marvel who will be presenting in Hall H two of the four days of the convention which is unprecedented. On Thursday, Marvel Studios will host The Ultimate Deadpool & Wolverine Celebration of Life in Hall H. This will be a highly anticipated event among comic con goers and tickets are hard to come by. In fact, for the first time ever, badge holders will not be able to line up and camp out for this event like they usually do for panels held in Hall H. This special event is ticketed and a lottery was held to select people at random. 

I’ve never had much luck in the Comic Con lotteries and found out that this Deadpool & Wolverine lottery was open for entries after the fact. I almost missed out. I didn’t think I would have chance of winning this but I submitted a google form entry anyway and didn’t include a plus one option. My rationale for not selecting a plus one was because I thought somehow I would have better odds of being chosen if I was going solo. After I submitted my entry I immediately forgot about it until a few days ago when I received notification that I had been randomly selected to attend this Celebration of Life event. 

I am excited that I was chosen to attend this special panel even though no one knows what exactly to expect. Very few details have been released but winners have been instructed to proceed to Plaza Park located south of Hall H after 4 PM on Thursday, July 25. Once there, we’ll check in with Line Management before the event begins shortly after 6:15 PM. There is speculation that we’ll sit in on a panel led by Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige with the movie’s stars, Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman and Director Shawn Levy also in attendance. I’ve heard that we’ll watch an exclusive screening of the film since the rules stated we need to be at least 18 years old (or accompanied by an adult). I’ve even seen some speculation on message boards that Taylor Swift may also appear at the event, which seems less likely, but I’m here for all of it. 

Now, the title of the event, Celebration of Life, leads me to believe that Deadpool and/or Wolverine go on to the afterlife by the film’s end. After-all, This type of event is usually reserved for when a loved one passes away and their surviving friends and family come together to reflect and share heartfelt stories about that person’s life. Maybe event goers are all going to get up on stage and share stories about Deadpool and/or Wolverine to a room full of other passionate comic book fans? In my mind, I envision attendee goers being ushered into Hall H with a live 1,000 person choir accompaniment signing to Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” which has been featured heavily in the Deadpool & Wolverine trailers. Perhaps Madonna herself will be there signing lead to her 1989 hit which held the top spot on US Billboard Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks.

Going back to the Taylor Swift rumor for a minute, 1989 is also the same year that the singer was born. Could Taylor Swift be making an appearance in this movie? Some folks believe Blake Lively, Ryan Reynold’s wife, is Lady Deadpool, but I think that’s too obvious. What if Taylor Swift is Lady Deadpool?

Now that would be wild! This is, of course, all purely speculation on my part, but anything is possible and nothing can be ruled out. I have no idea what to expect but I intend to share updates about my experience as we get closer to the event. I’m definitely looking forward to attending San Diego Comic Con this year!