Conan O’Brien has once again invaded San Diego Comic-Con and, in honor of this year’s event, the late-night talk show host decided to give his show’s intro a little themed update. Taking some inspiration from last year’s hit Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the Conan team created a new cold open for his SDCC show that turns O’Brien into the man he was meant to be. One with no talent and no responsibility.
The Comic-Con cold open is done in the style of the wraparounds that were used in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse to introduce each different version of the character. In this case, it hilariously chronicles, and exaggerates for dramatic effect, elements of Conan O’Brien’s career. Instead of getting bit by a radioactive spider, he was bitten by a radioactive party clown. Conan O’Brien utilizes his notorious hair to swing around the city, as opposed to technologically advanced artificial web shooters. His buddy Andy Richter subs in as Kingpin. The whole thing hinges on the host’s fondness for self-deprecation and it works like a charm.
“I could have used my powers to fight crime, battle evil and rescue innocent people. But instead, I opted for cheap laughs and light celebrity chat.”
Something like this could be accused of pandering, but Conan has shown over the last handful of years that he’s not just trying to cash in on SDCC shamelessly. For five years in a row now, he’s brought his show to the massive pop culture event and has showcased genuine fandom, in addition to actively participating in some of the biggest panels and happenings at the convention. This year, he already moderated the ScareDiego event, which showcased a bunch of new footage from IT: Chapter Two.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse proved to be one of the most surprising hits of 2018. The animated Spider-Man flick introduced moviegoing audiences to the Miles Morales version of the character, who proved to resonate in a big way. The movie was met with widespread critical acclaim, which helped pushed it to major success at the box office, bringing in $375 million worldwide. The Marvel Comics adaptation also surprised with an Oscar win for Best Animated Feature. Sony, unsurprisingly, is already working on a sequel and a female-led spin-off, as a result.
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Unfortunately, we’re not likely to learn much, if anything, about future Spider-Verse entries during Comic-Con this year, as Sony has decided to skip out on attending. However, Marvel Studios will invade Hall H on Saturday, which is where we’re sure to learn a whole lot about Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is sure to include Tom Holland’s Peter Parker. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as all of the big news from SDCC 2019 breaks, so keep an eye out. In the meantime, be sure to check out the Conan cold open from the Team Coco YouTube channel for yourself below.
