San Diego Comic-Con gave fans plenty of dazzling, new movie footage last week, from the talked-about 20 first minutes of The Long Walk and two extended scenes from Tron: Ares to the comical first five minutes of Project Hail Mary. But one thing there wasn’t much of? A first-look at movie nobody had previously seen any footage whatsoever.
An exception came at the end of Thursday’s Aspen Comics panel, which screened what was described as a “super-early, super-rough” teaser for Ekos, an upcoming film that has been in development for several years. The trailer (below) takes inspiration from works of Michael Turner, the late artist and Aspen Comics founder, and writer Geoff Johns.
It is the launching point of a new cinematic universe, and the trailer was intended to be for in the room only, but after the strong reaction, the team at Mythos Studios decided to release it online.
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The surprise reveal was teed up by Mythos Studios founder and chairman David Maisel, who is best known as the founding chairman of Marvel Studios, where he conceived of the company’s strategy of interconnected films, launched Iron Man and orchestrated Marvel’s sale to Disney in 2009, when he exited.
At the end of the Aspen Comics panel, he noted that one of the proudest things he was involved in introducing at Marvel was the end-credits scene, so what he was about to show could be considered the end-credits scene of the panel. He went on to joke, “When I saw that my family at Marvel was not doing Hall H this year, they asked me to step in” and do something similar for fans in the room.
The Hollywood Reporter spoke to several fans who were in the room, with multiple likening it to the feeling of being at Comic-Con in 2007 when the first footage for Iron Man debuted.
Maisel is currently seeking a partner to make the film, which takes place in a universe in which Turner’s characters can interact, ala the MCU. Turner, who died from cancer in 2008, is known for such as Fathom, which was the top-selling title of 1998, and Soulfire.
The teaser trailer comes on the heels of Ekos Vol. 1, a graphic novel that bowed earlier this year, with help from more than $250,000 from fans for a Kickstarter campaign. It largely focuses on the character Grell, who Maisel is positioning as a breakout in the film. As the footage shows, Grell is concerned about devastation affecting the planet.
Says Grell in the footage: “The world needs a wake-up call.”
The Ekos booth at San Diego Comic-Con
Mythos Studios