You read that headline right… DC’s highly anticipated, 24-hour, mega fan event, DC FanDome, will now be branching to a second day due to fan feedback about some key panels clashing and people not being able to experience it all in the allotted time frame.
Just a few days ago, DC released the schedule for FanDome, which takes place on August 22-23, and boy was it a doozy. The main portion was an 8-hour block in the “Hall of Heroes” section of the event. This was essentially their “Hall H”, if you’re familiar with how San Diego Comic Con works. If not, this is were all the big movie announcements/panels would take place, and FanDome was following that example with panels for WW84, the upcoming Flash movie, Black Adam, The Suicide Squad, The Batman, and more. Also included in this were the two big gaming panels.
Outside of this were five other areas to explore, with the next biggest being “WatchVerse”, which included all of the many television panels.
The issue was that, even if you stayed up for the entire 24 hours, there was no way to watch every major panel that was being put out. I know this as I spent two days putting my schedule together, because I was going to stay up the entire time and cover as much as I possibly could. But not everyone has that ability, and so after hearing the fans’ feedback, DC has decided to split their event into two days. However, these days are not back-to-back.
This Saturday, August 22nd, DC FanDome will still take place, but is now called “DC FanDome: Hall of Heroes”. As the name suggests, it will consist, almost exclusively, of the content originally scheduled in the Hall of Heroes section of the event, with the TV panels for The Flash and Titans added in (but according to the schedule, they’ll either overlap with other panels or be cut from 40 and 30 minutes, respectively, down to 15). It will be one 8-hour block played three times throughout the 24 hours.
Everything else, which is still an enormous amount of content, will take place three weeks later on September 12th under the name “DC FanDome: Explore the Multiverse”. This day will be completely “On-Demand”, and fans will be able to build their own schedule.
The biggest issue I see here is how disproportionate these two days have become. Why isn’t any of the on-demand content that was originally slated for August 22nd still there? What if I don’t care about a certain panel and would like to explore something else? People will wind up leaving the site and some may not return for other panels. The majority of the “InsiderVerse” section was on-demand content, like documentaries and behind-the-scenes featurettes, the type of stuff you’d find in the special features of a Blu-ray.
But we get none of that.
I have said since the beginning that this event should have been an entire weekend, instead of just one day, because the sheer amount would be too overwhelming for most people. And now that they had the opportunity to actual do just that, they instead are making fans wait another THREE WEEKS to get those panels they were teased with.
And some stuff just won’t be there at all, like the world premiere screening of Superman: Man of Tomorrow. This was one I was ridiculously excited for, but now it’s just gone.
So, anyways, if you’re still planning to check out the event, be sure to look over the new schedule, as some times have shifted. Head on over to schedule.dcfandome.com to set up your own schedule now.
And be sure to follow DC Comics News on YouTube, as I will be live streaming through the event. I was originally going to do the full 24 hours, but now there’s no new content past 9pm ET, so I’ll just be doing the 8-hour block instead. Hope to see you there!!