Suicide Squad Preparing for Major Promos During Comic-Con

DC Comics’ Suicide Squad, arguably one of the most hyped movies of the summer, is doing one last push of promotion before its premiere in August, and it’s going to be a big one. Anticipation is building as more and more about the forthcoming film is revealed, and it seems that the cast of the sure-to-be summer blockbuster are riding the final wave of excitement in the two weeks before the film’s wide release, slated to be a “major presence” at the most coveted pop-culture convention in the world: San Diego Comic-Con.

Tens of thousands of comic book and video game enthusiasts will flock to San Diego this July to attend the famed convention, which will host a number of celebrity guests, speakers, seminars, demonstrations, panels and workshops. Now DC fans can look forward to an appearance by the cast at the DC Entertainment booth at the convention, where they will participate in a signing session after pre-taping a special segment to air on TBS’ Conan later that evening. DC is also hosting a fan contest prior to the convention called “Squad Up!,” a cosplay/costume competition to recreate the characters from the forthcoming supervillain movie. 11 winners will be selected and given all-expense-paid trips and tickets to attend the convention.

Comic-Con attendees staying at the San Diego Hard Rock Hotel are also in for a treat, as a portion of the building is going to be transformed into the Belle Reve Penitentiary, the location of the squad’s imprisonment for much of the film. The immersive experience will also include a Harley Quinn-themed tattoo parlor (which debuted at the SXSW festival earlier this year) and a virtual-reality demonstration that allows the user to join the squad in a battle scene from the film.

DC Comics and the cast of Suicide Squad have done an admirable job maximizing the exposure of a film which, truth be told, didn’t need much to begin with—superhero and supervillain enthusiasts alike were surely going to fill theaters for the highly anticipated film in droves, regardless of above-and-beyond promo. DC is upping the ante and raising the expectations surrounding the movie, especially with other similar box-office competitors like X-Men: Apocalypse, Civil War and Doctor Strange all coming out within months of each other.

San Diego Comic-Con will take place at the San Diego Convention Center from July 21-24, with a preview night on July 20. Unfortunately, attendee badges are sold out, but be sure to check out the film when it’s released on Aug. 5.