Last year, following all the promotion surrounding “the Paramount peak,” Paramount+ debuted The Lodge at Comic-Con, a guest-list pop-up promoting all the streamer’s newest content. It notably included two free cocktails and a burger, cashed in with tickets. This year, the section of the guest list open to the public filled up quickly… but despite all the crowds, the excitement wasn’t quite as strong inside this time.
Cowa-bummer?
Pizza was the food attraction rather than burgers, due to the upcoming new Ninja Turtles cartoon. Yet for an all-day attraction, they ran out around 12:30. “We still have plenty of lemonade!” they offered. Could I trade in my pizza ticket for lemonade? “Sorry,” they said, as heads were shaken.
The biggest space inside, besides the bar, was for a photo-op tying in with the movie IF. It’s one I was positive towards, but others, less so. The line went quickly to get photos with a random imaginary friend in the Coney Island Ferris wheel. More popular was a perfume bar for the show Ghosts, which seemed to have options, though I took what was handed.
Dexter furniture stood in a corner appropriately wrapped in plastic, while a Criminal Minds board allowed fans to customize its wall of evidence. Nothing was quite as cool as the Pepper’s Ghost Yellowjackets illusion display last year, though the best swag was a customizable Star Trek T-shirt, which allowed for up to three symbols and one of several catchphrases to get ironed on. Many fans picked pictures of starships, but the clear choice was Moopsie, the brain-liquefying ultra-cute wild alien.
With pizza, it would have made a nice lunch break. Without, well, one can’t complain about two free drinks, after all. And clean restrooms in the Gaslamp district are worth their weight in gold-pressed latinum. Paramount might have underestimated demand, though, as they cleared us all out after 45 minutes to make way for the next group.
Presumably, not on anybody’s payroll was the Walter White cosplayer handing out little baggies of blue candy. He was a highlight, though. Sometimes the best Comic-Con moments happen when fans bring their own fun.
Take a look at a few pics below.
