The big moments

The Avengers assembled: The Marvel Avengers panel may have lacked the punch of last year (remember the surprise visit from Tom Hiddleston in Loki costume!), but it did not fail to bring the house down. The cast horsed around as usual, with Robert Downey Jr. making a flower-throwing entry and Chris Hemsworth comparing biceps with Mark Ruffalo, but what had the fans screaming for an encore (that was turned down) was the first footage from Avengers: Age of Ultron. It started with our favourite heroes joking around with Thor’s hammer. They are interrupted by the voice of James Spader as Ultron who sends an army of drones. Various montages of our old favourites like Hulk, Black Widow, Iron Man, Thor and Captain America as well as new additions like Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch followed. The highlight? The scene showing Tony Stark standing over the lifeless bodies of the others.

Cumberbatch’s alpha act: The Dreamworks panel was dominated by one man — Benedict Cumberbatch, who made his debut at SDCC to promote Sherlock, er, Penguins of Madagascar. The emcee banned questions on Sherlock, which left many fans repeating questions. When one fan’s query got shot down, Cumberbatch said: “Poor girl, ask me another question” (scream)... “Ask me my shoe size” (scream)... and that’s how the Q&A progressed. Here are a few gems...

On researching for the role of the wolf Classified: “I worked undercover in Yellowstone Park as a wolf for a while. I was accepted right off the bat quite quickly, but it got pretty hairy — no pun intended — when I became the alpha male. About a month into it, I realised that two of the other wolves were Christian Bale and Daniel Day-Lewis.” About motion capture: “I like to use my body, yeah”. Oh, John Malkovich was on the panel too!

A stellar Nolan: Dark Knight trilogy and Inception maker Christopher Nolan made his first Comic-Con appearance to promote Interstellar along with the film’s star Matthew McConaughey. Nolan was as secretive as ever about his latest sci-fi project, but he did show a proper trailer of the film.