Comic-Con salutes James Gunn and gets first looks at 'Coyote vs. Acme,' and new 'Star Trek' forays

Key Points

• The highlights of Comic-Con include the presentation of “Project Hail Mary,” starring Ryan Gosling, and updates on the next series in the “Star Trek” franchise.
• Fans will receive a sneak peek of “Coyote vs. ACME,” a live-action and animated hybrid film that faced earlier shelving but is now set for theatrical release in August 2026.
• The “Coyote vs. ACME” film is inspired by a 1990 New Yorker article and will include comedic courtroom scenes featuring characters like Wile E. Coyote and John Cena as an Acme lawyer.
• Comic-Con 2025 is expected to attract around 135,000 attendees, many of them in costumes, and will run through Sunday in downtown San Diego.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Director James Gunn got an ovation from thousands for “Superman” in the most fitting place of all — Comic-Con.

Among the highlights of day three of the San Diego pop culture spectacular was a sincere tribute to the director who's now helming Warner Bros.' DC Comics screen universe, even if John Cena played it for laughs.

It came at a panel on the forthcoming Season 2 of DC's HBO series “The Peacemaker,” and Cena appeared in the title character's full comic costume and grand helmet, leading the legions in the kind of exaggerated drama he was perfect at provoking in his wrestling days.

It was Gunn's first time in front of a crowd in the weeks since “Superman” was released and has earned more than $200 million in North America.

“Today has been the most fun day I’ve had in a year," Gunn told the crowd at the end of the session.

“Superman” was his first film as captain of the DC ship, but his first foray was in 2021's “The Suicide Squad,” which spawned the “Peacemaker” TV series.

The crowd saw scenes from Season 2, which arrives in August and sees Cena entering another dimension where he gets to be a cool version of the hero instead of the often pained and pathetic version that's typical of the character. Some characters from “Superman” will make appearances.

That panel followed another rousing showcase in Hall H, where star Ryan Gosling and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller showed scenes from their forthcoming science-comedy space adventure “Project Hail Mary.”

The scenes from the film set for release in March included a look at Rocky, a faceless, stone-shaped alien who becomes Gosling's unlikely partner in an attempt to save the universe from ecological disaster.

Saturday morning cartoons in Hall H

Wile E. Coyote is getting his day in court — and theaters.

The stars of “Coyote vs. Acme” delivered a rousing presentation Saturday morning of a movie that at one point wasn’t going to be released but is now bound for theaters in August 2026. The underdog story – both of the movie and Coyote — was a running theme of the panel. But rather than direct ire at Warner Bros., the real-world studio that shelved the project, the panel focused on the fictional Acme Corp.

“This is purely an Acme decision … and I am saying this for legal purposes,” moderator Paul Scheer said at the start of the panel.

The movie is a hybrid of animation and live action and is based on a 1990 New Yorker article that satirized a legal complaint filed by Coyote against Acme, the maker of the TNT, detonators, rocket shoes, catapults and other products that consistently backfire during the Coyote’s fruitless attempts to catch the Roadrunner.

Laughter filled Hall H as some 6,000 watched a montage of Coyote being blown up, flattened and falling into chasms in a scene set to Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt.” Coyote is replaying the moments in his lair when an ad for a personal injury lawyer appears on TV.

They also played six minutes of the movie, including a scene of opening statements in the case in which Coyote's lawyer, Will Forte, accidentally unleashes a rocket skate into the courtroom, setting Coyote and the judge's robes on fire. Cena plays a slick Acme lawyer who wins over the jury, which includes a cartoon character, quickly.

Forte said he didn't think the movie would ever get to audiences.

“I’m pretty speechless. You think back to the journey that this movie has taken. I had kind of given up hope at a certain point,” Forte said. At one point, his comments were interrupted by a man playing an Acme lawyer who stormed into Hall H with cease-and-desist letters.

Director Dave Green said the movie conforms to famed animator Chuck Jones’ rules for the struggle between the Coyote and Roadrunner, which include the bird always staying on the road and the Coyote being ultimately more humiliated than hurt when he falls, is crushed or gets blown up by TNT.

The movie, which features cameos from numerous Looney Tunes characters like Foghorn Leghorn, Tweety and Bugs Bunny, will be released on Aug. 28, 2026. Ketchup Entertainment teamed up with Warner Bros. on the film and in the release of “The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie.”

Also on Saturday morning, the cast of “Bad Guys 2” teasing new footage from the movie and describing how they recorded their characters.

Marc Maron, who plays Snake, joked he asked to be tied up as he performed his lines on the floor. “The depth of the character should read a little more this time,” he said.

The film, based on the graphic novel series by Aaron Blabey, introduces a new crew of animal criminals, the Bad Girls played by Danielle Brooks, Natasha Lyonne and Maria Bakalova.

‘Star Trek’ ventures to new places

Paramount showed off its first footage from a new series, “Starfleet Academy,” which stars Holly Hunter and Paul Giamatti.

The show follows cadets as they go through training, with Hunter serving as chancellor of the academy.

It will arrive in 2026, the 60th anniversary year of the original “Star Trek” series.

Paramount+'s other “Star Trek” series, “Strange New Worlds,” also shared updates.

The crew of the USS Enterprise are being turned into puppets for an upcoming “Strange New Worlds” episode, Paramount announced Saturday. The puppets will be created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.

Season 3, which follows the adventures of the Enterprise under the command of Capt. Christopher Pike, is being released on Paramount+.

What's happened at Comic-Con 2025 so far

An estimated 135,000 people — many in costumes — are expected to attend Comic-Con 2025, which runs through Sunday in downtown San Diego.

So far, fans have gotten previews of “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,”the upcoming FX series “Alien: Earth” and “Predator: Badlands,” which will be in theaters in November.