Nathan Fillion–with a moustache? One of the more interesting panels from this year’s San Diego Comic-Con and one certainly not to miss for Browncoats everywhere is a panel devoted exclusively to the star of Firefly, Castle, and The Rookie. It’s definitely one of those atypical panels (even for 2020) like we saw Fillion host back in the days of Nerd HQ, this time with added wacky editing and Fillion stepping in to provide commentary along the way. That’s right, Fillion has enough pop culture street cred to get a panel to himself. But he also knows how to share the stage.
In case you’re looking for the seventh annual hour-by-hour panel coverage of Zachary Levi’s Nerd HQ panels, hosted by him for the past six years as an alternative to San Diego Comic-Con, there’s a reason why you’re not seeing any. No event will be held this year. The reasons for the no-show have been suggested to include funding, scheduling, and planning problems.
This is unfortunate for the many fans who attend only Nerd HQ each year–the announcement came a month after the opportunity to obtain tickets for Comic-Con. Will there be Nerd HQ in the future? Levi said he expects to. Check out his video announcement below.
Instead, Levi signed on to host and serve as executive producer of a Syfy Channel show taking place at Comic-Con. “Syfy Presents Live From Comic-Con” airs tonight and tomorrow night at 10 p.m. Central on Syfy.
Bummed that you’re not getting your convention fix this weekend because you’re not in San Diego? Never fear, you can watch the weekend’s panels happening offsite in San Diego at the sixth annual Nerd HQ event online now.
Nowhere else can you watch every panel with Stephen Amell, John Barrowman, Nathan Fillion, Joss Whedon, Scott Bakula, Jennifer Morrison, Jai Courtney, Jared Padalecki, and Tom Hiddleston this weekend. Chuck star Zachary Levi began Nerd HQ as a charity event alternative for fans who couldn’t get tickets to SDCC. Ad hoc auctions occur throughout the panels to raise money for Operation Smile. Check out the fun borg.com staff had at past Nerd HQ events here.
Streaming runs live through Sunday. Here is the line-up for today and tomorrow (times are Pacific Time), followed by ALL of the Thursday and Friday panels below and the live streaming link:
ROBOT CHICKEN
July 23, 2016 11:00 AM
A Conversation with Breckin Meyer and the Robot Chicken Writers/Producers
Bummed that you’re not getting your convention fix this weekend because you’re not in San Diego? Never fear, you can watch the weekend’s panels happening across the street from San Diego Comic-Con at the Nerd HQ event online now. Just pull-up your GoogleTV or YouTube app and check out the links below.
Streaming runs live through Sunday, but we expect these to be available on YouTube as with prior years. Here is the line-up for each day:
Thursday, July 9 – Day One
10am: ZACHARY LEVI
12pm: BATTLEBOTS – Alison Haislip, Jessica Chabot, Donald Hutson, Peter Abrahamson, Greg Munson, Matt Maxham, and Chris Cowan
1pm: DEAD RISING – Jesse Metcalfe, Dennis Haysbert, Zach Lipovsky (director), and guests
2:15pm: WILLIAM SHATNER
3:30pm: YVONNE STRAHOVSKI
5pm: HITMAN: AGENT 47 – Rupert Friend and Hannah Ware
6:30pm SUPERMANSION – Bryan Cranston, Seth Green, Matt Senreich, Zeb Wells, Heidi Gardner, Tucker Gilmore, and Tom Root
7:30pm JULIE PLEC, GABE SACHS and Friends
8:30pm LAST SHIP
Friday, July 10 – Day Two
10am: SHERLOCK – Steven Moffat, Sue Vertue, Rupert Graves
The staff at borg.com have made it to several of the Nerd HQ celebrations in San Diego, including the first event back in 2011 where we met Zachary Levi and Scott Bakula. We’ve been able to see panels since then with some of our favorites, like the Doctor Who panel featuring Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, and Steven Moffat. Nerd HQ takes place each year during San Diego Comic-Con International weekend. Each year it has been hosted at a facility within close walking distance of the San Diego Convention Center, and this year it will open its doors directly across the street at the New Children’s Museum. It marks the fifth year for the event.
Don’t confuse Comic-Con with Nerd HQ–Nerd HQ is not affiliated with Comic-Con. The crew that runs the show–Chuck’s Zachary Levi and his friends–are a bit like party crashers, yet they offer an opportunity for those who missed out on tickets to the Big Show to still have a close-up experience with celebrities in the same town on the same weekend. It’s convenient for everyone since the celebrities typically have engagements for Comic-Con, so they can just divert some time to Nerd HQ, where for $22 per person per panel Nerd HQ piles up a fair amount of cash for charity.
Flip through the “back-issues” of borg.comhere to find several videos of past Nerd HQ panels. Then check out this preview of this year’s panels with Zachary Levi:
Nerd HQ wrapped this weekend’s panels for charity with some good Q&A sessions. If you haven’t seen earlier Nerd HQ panels, we at borg.com have been covering them since 2011 here when we saw Scott Bakula in San Diego at the inaugural event. Check out this link for past panels. We even got immortalized at the beginning of Zachary Levi’s introduction of Bakula as Levi was momentarily startled by a certain Tenctonese alien in the crowd in this video (“Ma’am, do you realize you have no hair on your head?”):
We’re still finding photos on the Web Comic-Con visitors snapping photos of us in that Alien Nation cosplay.
This weekend posted the first days of the panels from this year’s Nerd HQ here and here. Nerd HQ wrapped with more panels Sunday. Making his first appearance at Nerd HQ was the man playing one of our favorite characters, Arrow’s Oliver Queen, Stephen Amell:
The Winchester brothers returned again for this Supernatural panel with Mark Sheppard:
Nerd HQ offered up a great variety of panels from the best of TV Saturday. Here are some great panels to check out. After four years of 45 minute panels offered just yards from San Diego Comic-Con, many of these have become a source for stand-up comedy from the actors. See for yourself.
First up what may be the best panel idea ever, the voices and muppets themselves, from Sesame Street, Grover, Cookie Monster, Bert, and Murray. And Grover reveals the true identity of Super Grover. This one can’t be missed.
A Conversation with Sesame Street
Intruders TV Series Panel with John Simm, Mira Sorvino & Glen Morgan
Orphan Black Panel with Tatiana Maslany and Other Cast Members
Following up on yesterday’s rundown of all the Nerd HQ panels, borg.com has all of today’s panels in full from Nerd HQ for you to watch from home if you weren’t one of the 250 people who saw it live at San Diego’s Petco Park, opposite San Diego Comic-Con International today. Nerd HQ offered up even more fun panels including cast member from OrphanBlack–their first Con panel. Note that you may want to skip ahead a few minutes on each video to get to the beginning of the panel.
Enjoy!
First up, the Hannibal panel including series co-star Hugh Dancy:
Next up, the “Mystery” panel, which ended up featuring Chuck’s Zachary Levi, Rob Zazinsky from Pacific Rim, and Firefly’s Alan Tudyk and Nathan Fillion:
If you didn’t get to San Diego this year for the annual pilgrimage, or you just missed out on getting tickets to Nerd HQ, then borg.com will get you caught up right now. Nerd HQ Day One, held at San Diego’s Petco Park, opposite San Diego Comic-Con International today, offered up some fun panels and we’ve included each in full below. Note that you may want to skip ahead a few minutes on each video to get to the beginning of the panel.
Enjoy!
First up, the Psych panel including series creator Steve Franks, and stars James Roday and Dulé Hill:
Matt Smith! Eva Green! Aaron Eckhart! Tatiana Maslany! Joss Whedon!
Nerd HQ returns again for its third year as an added stop for Comic-Con attendees next week from July 18-21, this time changing its venue to the home of the San Diego Padres at Petco Field, via the Gaslamp Gate. As with past years the highlight of Nerd HQ will be its panel series with admittance limited to 250 attendees. We attended the first Nerd HQ back in 2011 and were able to talk to Zack Levi (Chuck) and catch the panel and autograph signing with Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap, Enterprise, Men of a Certain Age) discussed here at borg.com. Nerd HQ offers an option for those who could not get tickets to Comic-Con and those Comic-Con attendees who want to sample some of the events outside the annual “greatest show of the year.” Compared to the large audiences at Comic-Con it also offers a more intimate opportunity to ask questions to major genre guests who are only a few feet away.
Tickets are for sale today beginning at noon Pacific Time, and with 250 seats per panel they will sell out quickly. Each panel costs $22 with all proceeds going to charity. Last year the events raised $140,000 for Operation Smile.
Here is the initial schedule of panels, the scheduled guests, and a quick link to where to buy tickets today:
