The Sideshow Collectibles booth is always one of the highlights of San Diego Comic-Con, and 2022 is definitely no exception. With a massive display featuring iconic heroes and villains from franchises like Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Resident Evil and The Witcher, there’s something for everyone in this year’s lineup.

Check out the slideshow gallery below for a closer look at the many jaw-dropping statues, figures and life-size busts on display at Sideshow’s booth:

With so many cool pieces on display, it’s hard to narrow things down to just a few standouts. But we’re definitely impressed with Sideshow’s Star Wars statues this year, particularly the Premium Format Figures based on The Mandalorian and the Star Wars Mythos: Darth Vader statue. The latter might just top the original for being one of the best Star Wars collectibles ever produced, depicting a battle-ravaged Dark Lord of the Sith with a flaming lightsaber.

Several of Sideshow’s partner companies are also displaying new items at the show. Hot Toys continues to deliver stunningly lifelike figures from the Marvel, DC and Star Wars franchises. Unsurprisingly, Hot Toys is going especially Batman-heavy this year, with figures based on 1989’s Batman, the Dark Knight trilogy and Robert Pattinson’s version of Batman.

Hot Toys is also (finally) showing off new versions of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s versions of Spider-Man, as seen in Spider-Man: No Way Home.

For gamers, the real centerpiece of this display is undoubtedly Pure Arts' Lady Dimitrescu statue from Resident Evil: Village. Even at 1:4 scale, this statue is practically the size of a middle school child.

There's tons of news for all your favorite shows, films, games, and more coming out of San Diego Comic-Con 2022, and we've got the full schedule to guide you through the weekend of panels, announcements, trailers, and surprises.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Marvel Studios has shared an adorable first-look trailer at the upcoming I Am Groot animated shorts that will be released on Disney+ on August 10, 2022.

The trailer features our favorite Guardians of the Galaxy tree friend going on adventures of his own, and he looks to be in his Baby Groot form for at least part of the series. In the trailer, we get a glimpse of him being attacked by aliens before inadvertently befriending them by farting out a leaf that they use for food. Yep, you read that right!

We also see him wearing a colorful scarf, a headlamp, dancing with a mirror version of himself, dressing up in a grass dress, and just being incredibly adorable.

SDCC also treated fans to a new poster of Groot relaxing by a tree that may or may not be his cousin, and there are equally cute bugs and creatures around him.

The trailer for I Am Groot was accompanied by the official announcement of Season 2 and Season 3 of Marvel's What If... ?, the news that Spider-Man: Freshman Year will arrive in 2024 with Charlie Cox's Daredevil, info on Marvel Zombies, and a release window and new details for X-Men '97.

You can also check out everything announced so far for San Diego Comic-Con 2022!

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

The cast and crew of Amazon's highly-anticipated Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series revealed a fascinating bit of information regarding female dwarves during their San Diego Comic-Con presentation in Hall H: apparently, they will have beards after all according to executive producer Lindsey Weber.

It's difficult to say if Weber's comments apply to all female dwarves of Middle-Earth, especially after we saw Sophia Nomvete's Princess Disa beardless in a character poster earlier this year.

During the panel, Nomvete calls Disa a "force of nature and a joy," and shared her audition story with the audience:

"I auditioned for this role when I was two days away from giving birth," Nomvete explained. "I got the call to say, that you will be flying the torch for this incredible character when my daughter was five weeks old. I stepped onto a plane with my family when she was eight weeks old."

She went on to say that her costume unravels so that she would be able to feed her baby between takes. “That is the power of a female dwarf," Nomvete continued. "Kaza Doom is alive and in its prime. For any great success for any people or race, there are females. And here I am."

Executive producer and co-showrunner John D. Payne also mentioned the importance of adhering to J.R.R. Tolkein's extensive lore. Throughout the production, Payne and his team had Tolkein "lore-masters" and "scholars" in the writer's room to make sure everything is as authentic as it can be.

Payne also spoke about the importance of casting, and how they auditioned over a thousand people for various roles in the series. "We saw hundreds of people for each role. Thousands total," Payne said. "We had two criteria: they had to be an excellent performer. And two, we had to look in their eyes and say, 'do they have Middle Earth in them?'"

You'll be able to stream The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power when it debuts on Prime Video on Friday, September 2, 2022. For more on the series, here's what Rings of Power is actually about, the first look at the Orcs, and find out what Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin thinks of Rings of Power.

There's tons of news for all your favorite shows, films, games, and more coming out of San Diego Comic-Con 2022, and we've got the full schedule to guide you through the weekend of panels, announcements, trailers, and surprises.

David Griffin is the Senior Editor, Features and Content Partnerships for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.

At San Diego Comic-Con 2022 we got official confirmation that "Ultra Instinct Shaggy" meme is indeed canon.

During a panel focusing on MultiVersus, the upcoming free-to-play crossover fighting game with characters from various properties owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, when asked about the meme, MultiVersus Game Director Tony Huynh confirmed that the meme had been added to the official canon.

"While it's a meme, it's actually canon," Huynh said. "In the movie, there's that bar fight scene. There was the Mortal Kombat animated movie last year, and it was connected to that." The Mortal Kombat movie is referencing is Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, in which Shaggy appears in the Warner Bros. Animation intro.

The Ultra Instinct Shaggy meme has been around for years. As KnowYourMeme notes, the origin dates back to 2017 after a YouTuber created a remix of Shaggy from the 2011 animated film Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur. And the meme was added into MultiVersus, where his character bio reveals that Shaggy possesses "incredible powers."

Outside of confirmation that "Ultra Instinct Shaggy" is canon, the MultiVersus SDCC panel also confirmed three new characters are joining the roster: LeBron James, Morty Smith, and Rick Sanchez. We saw some gameplay of LeBron, with the character being available starting July 26. Morty Smith will be playable starting August 9, while Rick Sanchez's release date has yet to be announced.

There's tons of news for all your favorite shows, films, games, and more coming out of San Diego Comic-Con 2022, and we've got the full schedule to guide you through the weekend of panels, announcements, trailers, and surprises.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Billy Peltzer is back... sort of. During today's San Diego Comic-Con panel detailing Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, Zach Galligan — Gizmo's caretaker in the original film — was confirmed to be returning for the animated series as a recurring guest, though no details were offered concerning his role in the series.

Galligan announced the news during a surprise appearance at the panel. He will be joined by Sandra Oh, Randall Park, George Takei, and Bowen Yang, all of whom will be guests starts on the new series. Character details were not revealed.

Secrets of the Mogwai will take the series back to 1920s Shanghai, where it will reveal the origin of Sam Wing — the shop owner in the original movie. It will feature "colorful monsters and spirits from Chinese folklore" as well as a power-hungry industrialist who controls an army of Gremlins.

Gremlins has been in the news quite a bit lately as director Joe Dante has feuded with Star Wars and rumors have circulated of a new live-action series. Nostalgia remains strong for the original 1984 movie, which pitted Billy and Gizmo against a host of eccentric monsters.

In addition to its guest stars, Secrets of the Mogwai will also feature Ming-Na Wen, James Hong, BD Wong, and Izaac Wang. The first episode premiered back in June on HBO Max. It has already been renewed for a second season.

In the meantime, there's lots more news coming out of San Diego Comic-Con, including confirmation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection's release date. Keep an eye out for our full roundup as SDCC continues.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Shown at San Diego Comic Con today, a new trailer for upcoming Middle-earth series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power showed us the creation of a Balrog, among other things.

You'll remember the Balrog from The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring – a fiery demon able to conjure swords and whips – and the iconic "You shall not pass!" Gandalf shouts before dispatching it. In the new trailer for the upcoming Amazon TV series, we see what seems to be the birth of a Balrog, seeming from a leaf. It's possible this is Durin's Bane - the very Balrog we saw in Fellowship of the Ring.

The trailer included far more than just that, including new footage of Morfydd Clark's Galadriel as she confronts the new threat to Middle-earth, the formation of a cursed blade from Mordor and even a few shots of what appears to be Sauron himself, in his disguise as the fair Annatar.

We've already seen a handful of teasers for The Rings of Power so far, giving us looks at Galadriel, Isildur, Elendil, and more familiar characters from Middle-earth. While we wait for its coming release on September 2, IGN has a primer on what The Rings of Power is actually about, as well as why we probably won't see Gandalf anywhere.

There's tons of news for all your favorite shows, films, games, and more coming out of San Diego Comic-Con 2022, and we've got the full schedule to guide you through the weekend of panels, announcements, trailers, and surprises.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

MultiVersus, the Smash Bros.-like Warner Bros. crossover fighter, has revealed new characters Rick Sanchez, Morty Smith, and LeBron James.

Announced during a San Diego Comic-Con panel, the panel unveiled these characters along with a closer look at how LeBron controls in the game. While it seems jarring to put LeBron James, a real-life person and pro basketball player in the NBA, this would not be the first time we have seen a "fictionalized" version of him, which initially debuted in 2021's Space Jam: A New Legacy.

The MultiVersus panel also confirmed that Morty Smith will join the roster on August 9th, while Rick Sanchez will be playable at a later date.

LeBron James along with Rick and Morty join a roster that includes an abundance of characters from various properties owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, such as Batman, Steven Universe, and the recently-announced Iron Giant.

MultiVersus is a platform fighter in the vein of Nintendo's Super Smash Bros., and brings together characters from across Warner Bros.' many franchises. Even before today's announcement, it was an unexpected mix, including Batman, Arya Stark, Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, and Steven Universe among others.

In a hands-on in May, we said the free-to-play fighter left us "extraordinarily impressed. Gameplay-wise, it’s not as tight as any of the Smash Brothers games, but to be fair, it’s also aiming to provide a type of experience that’s very different from Smash Brothers, or any other platform fighter for that matter."

An open beta began this week, and will run until July 26.

There's tons of news for all your favorite shows, films, games, and more coming out of San Diego Comic-Con 2022, and we've got the full schedule to guide you through the weekend of panels, announcements, trailers, and surprises.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

It doesn't look like Justice League, Batman v Superman, and Man of Steel director Zack Snyder will be returning to make any more movies in his 'Snyderverse' setting.

Speaking during a San Diego Comic-Con panel (and shared on Twitter by @themarveImaniac, below), DC Comics chief creative officer Jim Lee said Justice League: The Snyder Cut would likely be the director's final entry in the franchise.

"I work on the projects that are in development," Lee said. "I think the Snyder Cut was Zack's vision realised, and it was a really satisfying story he told, but there's no plans for additional work on that material."

Jim Lee confirms that there are no future plans for Zack Snyder or future Snyderverse materials at #SDCC. Jim Lee is part of development for all DC films. pic.twitter.com/nrPUyLWu3w

— RJ (@themarveImaniac) July 21, 2022

The four hour version of Justice League did revitalise belief in Snyder's vision for a Marvel Cinematic Universe style take on DC films, as after it was released last year, #RestoreTheSnyderVerse trended on Twitter with over one million posts of support.

The film was left open-ended too, as Snyder said he wanted to stay true to the original vision (that would have a sequel) and "it's in-genre to end these movies on a cliffhanger".

DC's new bosses reortedly decided on a different direction, however, as in April this year Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav said he wanted to overhaul the company and find a Kevin Feige-like figure to oversee the new era. Films like The Joker (which IGN said was a masterpiece) would serve as a "shining example" of things moving forward.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Guerrilla has announced that it will be shutting down multiplayer servers for three games on August 12. The games are Killzone: Mercenary, Killzone Shadow Fall, and RIGS: Mechanized Combat League.

"On 12 August 2022, online servers for Killzone: Mercenary, Killzone Shadow Fall (including Intercept Mode) and RIGS: Mechanized Combat League will shut down," Guerrilla says in a Tweet. "Online features (including online multiplayer modes) will cease on that date. Single player offline modes remain available."

On 12 August 2022, online servers for Killzone: Mercenary, Killzone Shadow Fall (including Intercept Mode) and RIGS: Mechanized Combat League will shut down. Online features (including online multiplayer modes) will cease on that date. Single player offline modes remain available

— Guerrilla (@Guerrilla) July 22, 2022

Killzone: Mercenary first launched in September 2013 exclusively on the PlayStation Vita. The game's servers went down briefly back in 2020 without any advance notice or reason given, but they were eventually restored. However, they'll be closing for good soon.

Killzone Shadow Fall was released in November 2013 for PlayStation 4. Last year, Killzone’s website was “retired” but did not affect any online multiplayer functions at the time.

RIGS is a VR title that was released back in 2016. In our RIGS: Mechanized Combat League review, we said, "Rigs: Mechanized Combat League brings fast, intense multiplayer action to the PlayStation VR, but with a few notable caveats. While there was enough variety in the mechs to keep me playing through a full season of matches, the sub-par visuals distract, and big matchmaking issues made online wait times unbearable."

This isn’t the only game from Sony that suffered from server shutdowns recently. The last one that occurred was for multiple LittleBigPlanet games last year. Additionally, the servers for Everybody's Golf will shut down on September 30.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey

Avengers: Endgame and Infinity War directors the Russo brothers don't have any official plans to create a Marvel Cinematic Universe TV series but they do have a fun suggestion for one.

Speaking to TechRadar, Anthony Russo said he and his brother "love longform storytelling. That's why television has always appealed to us," plus movies based on long-running comics like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. "We have a passion for TV shows and we love Marvel, but we don't have any plans to do something with them, either on the series or movie front.

When asked which heroes they'd pull from the comics, however, Joe Russo said: "Whatever we say, we're going to get asked about it 100 times over the next week. So let's pick the Great Lakes Avengers." That idea is on the more whimsical side as they suggested creating a show around the Great Lakes Avengers, that features characters including Mr. Immortal, Dinah Soar, Big Bertha, Flatman, and Doorman. Though the group was trained by Hawkeye, and has fought alongside Deadpool, they're not taken as seriously as their New York counterpart.

Russo was clearly having some fun with this, as they also suggested the story of 'Cheese-Man'. This dairy dynamo isn't actually a comic book character, and likely just a joke about the team's base in Wisconsin as "America's Dairyland", but he would likely match the style of the Great Lakes Avengers.

Thing is, given the Russos' stellar back catalogue in the MCU, we'd actually welcome their take on the GLA.

Disney is exploring the lighter side of the Marvel universe through its TV shows,with the likes of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law being released just next month on August 17. If they do return to a deeper and more serious tone, the Russo Brothers have also expressed their love for the Secret Wars series of comics.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.