Marvel Studios plans to skip the San Diego Comic-Con this year, according to "Guardians of the Galaxy" director James Gunn.
Gunn participated in an impromptu Facebook Q&A on Saturday and revealed Marvel would not be attending San Diego Comic-Con 2015. Since the studio has no plans to hold a panel, the director also seems unlikely to show up.
"Marvel isn't going so I'm not sure I will either," Gunn answered a fan's question about going to the annual event.
The last time Marvel Studios didn't attend the convention was 2011, the summer before "The Avengers" premiered. Instead, the studio announced the cast of the superhero team-up movie at the 2010 event. Marvel did attend last year to promote the sequel "Avengers: Age of Ultron" and to introduce the new characters/actors joining the universe.
Skipping out on the 2015 Comic Con seems strange given the upcoming release of "Captain America: Civil War" in May 2016 that could introduce Spider-Man into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel's other new movie "Ant-Man" will premiere a couple weeks before the 2015 convention and, most likely, Netflix will release the new Marvel series "A.K.A. Jessica Jones" around that time as well.
Marvel did stage their own event to announce their upcoming Phase 3 movie slate, which now includes a Spider-Man solo movie, last October. Chadwick Boseman, who will play Black Panther, made his debut alongside Marvel veterans Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans for the announcement of "Civil War."
James Gunn would likely promote his next Marvel film, "Guardians of the Galaxy 2," at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con in anticipation of the movie's May 2017 release.
Marvel will next premiere "Avengers: Age of Ultron" on May 1.
