Amid the massive amount of upheaval going on at Warner Bros. Discovery, it is not surprising that the studio has officially announced that there will not be a DC Fandome this year. The annual event has been in place since 2020, when it arrived as a huge online “immersive virtual fan experience” at a time when the Covid pandemic was shutting down many such physical events, and having also taken place last year, it seemed that there was every likelihood it would be back again in 2022, but that is just not to be.
A statement by DC was released to Popverse, which seemed to suggest that there is a strong possibility the event may not be coming back at all, citing the “return of in-person” events as the main reason for this year’s event not going ahead. The statement reads:
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The Warner Bros. Discovery DC panel at San Diego Comic-Con was a bit of a misfire last month, with very little being revealed of the upcoming slate of movies and shows. It has since become clear why that was, with many of the projects fans had hoped to hear about now defunct as part of the studio’s financial plan. Although it seems that the writing was on the wall for DC FanDome, it will still be a blow for the many who tuned in over the last two years. As the company evaluates the DCEU’s direction though, perhaps it is best that they don’t discuss too much openly just yet.
“With the return of in person events, Warner Bros. Discovery is excited to be able to engage with our fans live at numerous comic-cons around the world and will not be scheduling DC FanDome for 2022.”
DC FanDome Pulled in Huge Amounts of Viewers
The launch of DC FanDome in August 2020 was a big deal at the time; with the Covid pandemic restrictions taking full effect on travel and live events, it was the perfect way for fans to get the same kind of convention goodies without leaving their homes. The first event was watched at one point or another by over 22 million people across the world during the 24-hour stream.
The second event was announced in April 2021 to be held in October that year. This time around, the event was even more widespread, with streams going out on Twitch, Twitter, YouTube and more, and fans were treated to early looks at the likes of Black Adam and HBO Max series Peacemaker.
The seeming demise of DC FanDome is expected after the return of the likes of San Diego Comic-Con, which itself offered some live streams online as they happened. Whether a long-term hybrid of live-event with subsequent access to videos becomes the norm or not, it appears that the time of big virtual-only events such as DC FanDome are being phased out and are set to become a thing of the past.
