It’s been over two full years since fans last gathered at the San Diego Convention Center for the biggest comic convention in the land. While there’s a compacted version of San Diego Comic-Con happening this weekend, the con won’t return until its proper size until 2022. Thankfully for those fans anxious to get started with planning, organizers behind Comic-Con International announced the 2022 SDCC dates Tuesday night.
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Comic-Con International will host WonderCon in Anaheim from April 1st through April 3rd next year. Then come summer, the organizers will host San Diego Comic-Con from July 21st through July 24th.
This year’s version of the convention is being described as an intimate affair, taking place from this Friday, November 26th through November 28th. Though officials haven’t confirmed the convention will be back at full capacity next year, they’ve suggested they anticipate being able to host a full convention.
“While we have been able to pivot from in-person gatherings to limited online events, the loss of revenue has had an acute impact on the organization as it has with many small businesses, necessitating reduced work schedules and reduction in pay for employees, among other issues,” Comic-Con spokesperson David Glanzer said in a release distributed by the outfit earlier this year. “Hopefully this event will shore up our financial reserves and mark a slow return to larger in-person gatherings in 2022.”
While comics and pop culture aficionados have gone much of 2020 and 2021 without attending conventions, they’ve slowly started to return in the past couple of months. In addition to smaller events held on a regional basis, other organizers like Los Angeles Comic Con and ReedPOP’s family of events—say, Emerald City Comic Con and C2E2—have been able to plan sizable events. for the masses to partake in.
“Los Angeles is the only place where this kind of unique experience can truly come to life. L.A. is the center of the entertainment universe, and eSports, anime, film, TV and pop culture are all essential contributors to that,” LA Comic Con organizer Chris DeMoulin previously said in a statement.
He added, “Nowhere else has this wealth of creative talent all in one place. We believe it is past time for the concept of a comic con to expand and fully integrate gaming and anime together into the same event. Our new partnership with PCB allows us to bring in more gaming and anime talent and unique programming, as gaming and anime are fully the adjacent spaces in today’s increasingly digital, on demand global entertainment culture.”
