Things certainly seem to be changing on the San Diego Comic-Con front. For years, the convention has hosted some of the biggest Hollywood players, who showcased sneak peeks with some of their upcoming features. The illustrious (and infamous) Hall H was where many of these flicks were first showcased to a wide audience. Over the past decade-plus, the con was a mecca for comic/film geeks to go in search of the latest and greatest in comic book movie trailers, clips, and cast/filmmaker appearances.

However, with the internet age upon us, change was inevitable. As leaks made their way online, it was only a matter of time before studios began to pull out of these conventions. Disney was the first to pull out. With their own D23 to showcase their films, they had little need for Comic-Con, and now TheWrap is reporting that 20th Century Fox, the studio that produces X-MEN and DEADPOOL, has also pulled out of the world-famous con.

The reason cited by the outlet was that the studio felt like it couldn’t prevent the piracy of their trailers and exclusive footage for fans in attendance. Many will remember last year when screenshots of the titular Apocalypse from X-MEN: AGE OF APOCALYPSE made it onto the web. The look of the character was widely mocked and compared to the likes of Ivan Ooze from the POWER RANGERS film. It looks like Fox took those leaks into consideration, and have opted simply not to show up.

This is no doubt a huge disappointment for fans who were hoping to see early looks of movies like ASSASSIN’S CREED and THE WOLVERINE III. This sort of split of studios from the conare no huge surprise. It’s a costly investment to get your film to SDCC, and considering a studio has the ability to throw up a trailer pretty much whenever online for free, it seems that the studios are needing the cons less and less.

While it’s a bit sad that those dedicated enough to make it to the con may soon become privy to less and less on the film front, this will likely force SDCC to change — and hopefully for the better.

What do you think of 20th Century Fox pulling out of Comic-Con? Do you think others will follow suit soon? If so, what would you want out of conventions like these? Let us know all your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: TheWrap