The Mockingjay Part 2 Panel is on a Thursday around noon. It’s late morning Wednesday when Courtney and Tiffany arrive in San Diego and camp out at the Hall H Line. They hang out there for a while, making friends, making sure Denise and I get there on time, taking pictures...
Denise and I are still stuck in traffic at this point so that’s not exciting. Tiffany and Courtney then head to the Lionsgate mixer to hang out with our Lionsgate and other fansite friends somewhere on a hotel rooftop. Willow Shields (who plays Prim in the movies, in case you might have missed that. We love her.) heard about the mixer and decided to join everyone!
She stayed for about 40 minutes where everyone discussed Dancing With the Stars, Jennifer Lawrence, and theme parks among other things.
Then it was time to head back to the Hall H line and get ready for bed
Thursday!
In line to be let in to Hall H !
And then we were in.
(HQ pictures from the panel are in the gallery below, so this recap won't have a lot of pictures.)
Mockingjay Part 2 was the second panel of the day. From the time we noticed the drums they set up on the stage, we knew it was going to be awesome.
The panel started off with the Stand With Us Propo, with the live drummers on stage and in the aisles (behind where we were sitting) accompanying the drumming onscreen. It definitely upped the intensity and made the whole thing more moving. Check out this video we took of the drums onstage:
After the propo, Conan O’Brien, who was moderating introduced Francis, Nina, Willow, Liam, Josh and Jennifer. With a quick comment about the movie from Francis (“Katniss is back into action and she’s coming after Snow with Squad 451”) and a short intro, we were shown the newest trailer (which will be out IN A WEEK! We’re all excited to see it again!).
It’s kind of hard to describe the trailer without giving away any spoilers, which we don’t want to do since when we saw it for the first time not knowing what was going to be in it was very emotional and moving for all of us and we want you to experience it the same way. We will tell you though that it was amazing and that we cried both times they showed it to us!
And then it was time for the panel! We livetweeted it, so you can check out our twitter for it. Everyone was funny and adorable as usual, and we learned quite a bit about the movie. Some highlights include:
- “He couldn’t stay away. He couldn’t resist. This.” – Jen commenting on Peeta being back with the rebels after being captured by Snow.
- Jen deciding her favorite Katniss moment was “I volunteer as tribute,” (thanks to Willow’s suggestion) when she was asked.
- The cast talking about how emotio
- nal the end of filming was, and how they “held each other and slept like puppies” after they wrapped filming. Jen saying that if she could keep any prop or costume from the movies, she would keep the orange backpack (which, if you listen to the Hunger Games Fireside Chat, would be extra funny to you).
- [SPOILER] While talking about filming the epilogue, Josh talks about playing in the field with Jen’s nephew!
- Jen was asked if there was anything she did to say goodbye to Katniss and she had said that it hasn’t happened yet, and that she probably would not say goodbye completely because of how playing Katniss has changed her life.
- When Conan was trying to end the Q&As, Jen made sure that a girl who cosplayed as Katniss got to ask her question.
- The Q&A in general was great, but obviously our favorite part was when COURTNEY GOT TO ASK A QUESTION!
In Mockingjay, there was a lot of material between the climax of the book and before the epilogue. What were the challenges you faced in adapting that section of the book? Which Nina Jacobson answered with: Finding the balance between taking time for emotion and propulsion towards the end was a challenge.
In case you were wondering what Nina thought of the question:
They showed us the trailer again at the end of the panel and right before they got up to leave, Josh took a second to thank the fans and tell us they love us.
This was my first ever Comic Con and Mockingjay Part 2 was the first big panel I saw and I was definitely blown away not only by the stuff they showed us but also at how fun and informative and IRL adorable the whole thing was! Kind of bittersweet that this will be their last Comic Con panel ever, but what a way to go! Check out our Mockingjay Part 2 @ Comic Con 2015 Gallery:
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And here's the FULL Mockingjay Part 2 Panel video
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(video source)