An email sent to exhibitors promises that there will be some kind of online presence for SDCC 2020, however.
“Information will be forthcoming in the next few weeks regarding the Comic-Con@Home initiatives we have planned for 2020. Currently, we are in the planning stages of our Online Exhibit Hall, our Invited Guest Online Interviews and Panels and some special projects and options that we can’t yet discuss.”
Far more hopefully, they’ve already set the dates for SDCC 2021, which will be held at the San Diego Convention Center from July 22-25, 2021. SDCC parent company CCI also runs Los Angeles’ WonderCon, which would have taken place over Easter Weekend, but was also wisely canceled. WonderCon has similarly been rescheduled for March 26-28, 2021 at the Anaheim Convention Center.
It’s an unfortunate but unavoidable and wise move. The novel coronavirus still hasn’t been contained despite unprecedented social distancing measures that have swept the country over the last 6 weeks. While there are some early and encouraging results in some of the hardest hit regions that social distancing measures are starting to work, the idea of gathering hundreds of thousands of people together for an event on the scale of San Diego Comic-Con remains unthinkable at this time, and may remain so until a vaccine is found.