Comic-Con: Fox Skipping Hall H Over Piracy Fears... So No 'Assassin's Creed' Clip

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Michael Fassbender in Assassin’s Creed (Fox)

By Graeme McMillan, The Hollywood Reporter

Lines for San Diego Comic-Con might be a little shorter this summer, with 20th Century Fox deciding not to present any upcoming features in Hall H due to concerns over piracy, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Traditionally, presentations in the oversized location have included promotional footage being exclusively screened for attendees weeks or months ahead of wide release; at last year’s Comic-Con, early versions of the first trailers for Deadpool and the upcoming X-Men: Apocalypse were shown to rapturous reception, with pirated versions of the clips appearing online just days later. (The trailers were officially released in August and December, respectively.)

Fox was not the only studio to have to contend with leaks of Hall H footage; Warner Bros. ended up officially releasing a sizzle reel for Suicide Squad early after it leaked online, with director David Ayer addressing the matter on Twitter, calling it “unfair to the fans who waited in line.”

Talking to THR after last year’s leaks, one studio executive explained that such leaks only increased an existing feeling of anxiety about sharing footage before a movie was locked. “You have to pry the footage out of their hands … people are now going to be even more hesitant about showing anything but finished trailers,” the executive said.

The lack of a Hall H appearance — which likely would have included teases of Michael Fassbender’s Assassin’s Creed, already previewed at CinemaCon, as well as announcements for future installments in the studio’s X-Men franchise following next month’s X-Men: Apocalypse — does not mean that Fox will be absent from the annual pop-culture event entirely. A source said that the studio will have a presence at the show, just not an official Hall H presentation.

Fox’s move follows last year’s absence of both Marvel and Paramount from Hall H, with the reasoning given at the time as inconvenient timing for both studios. Marvel would go on to debut footage from this year’s Captain America: Civil War at the Disney-owned and controlled D23 Expo a month later.

Related: Comic-Con: Pirated Footage From ‘Suicide Squad,’ 'Deadpool’ Forces Studios to Take Action