The epilogue to today’s proceedings at San Diego’s Comic-Con’s Hall H culminated with the Marvel panels, in which thousands of restless fans, most of whom waited hours to finally witness them. And they did not disappoint one iota. Making everyone wait till the last possible second with breathless anticipation as collective clapping almost became reminiscent of a prison riot of sorts, the lights finally dimmed to ear splitting cheers and applause.

An out of this world Marvel sizzle reel, which sizzled and cooked at supernova intensity, showcased the best of the past decade of Marvel films, culminating with scenes from the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy, the company’s tenth film overall, including Thanos in space on this throne.

Moderated by Taking Dead‘s Chris Hardwick, first on the menu was the panel for Ant-Man, which has been shrouded in slight controversy with the dismissal of the original director, Edgar Wright. The panel was composed of Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige, Paul Rudd, who plays the titular character, legendary actor Michael Douglas, newly appointed director of the film, Peyton Reed, and confirmed just now to be in the film — Evangeline Lilly and Corey Stoll.

The cast of HBO’s hit series Game Of Thrones along with creator George R.R. Martin and showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss made an appearance today in Hall H today at San Diego Comic-Con. The actors on the panel were Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth), Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister), Natalie Dormer (Margaery Baratheon), Kit Harington (Jon Snow), Rose Leslie (Ygritte), Rory McCann (Sandor Clegane “The Hound”), Pedro Pascal (Oberyn Martell), Sophie Turner (Sansa Stark), John Bradley (Samwell Tarly), and Maisie Williams (Arya Stark).

All the cast members received a loud round of applause, though Pedro Pascal, who plays Oberyn Martell The Red Viper, got the loudest response it seemed. Moderator Craig Ferguson jokingly asked the panel which of them was still alive on the show, considering that some of the actors’ characters were killed off (a specialty of Martin’s).

A blooper reel was shown, but the big reveal for the panel was a video introducing the new cast members for season five and something about their characters (mostly, their weaponry). Filming will take part for some scenes in Spain, Ireland, and Croatia, and will introduce more of the Dornish characters. The standout actors revealed for next season include Alexander Diddig (of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fame) as Doran Martell, Jonathan Pryce as High Sparrow, and Keisha Castle-Hughes (from Whale Rider) as Obara Sand, the bastard daughter of Oberyn Martell.

Watch the new cast member video here below.

Back in December 2007 Warner Bros. sent out the opening bank robbery sequence from the then-forthcoming The Dark Knight attached to IMAX screenings of I Am Legend. It was a risky move on the studio’s part and it didn’t take long for the footage to leak online, but it paid off splendidly the next year and was one of the highlights of Warner’s aggressive marketing campaign for the movie, particularly as it provided an early showcase for the production’s beautiful IMAX cinematography (several scenes from the movie were shot in the format). Therefore, it would make sense for the studio to go with what has proven successful in the past in regards to the marketing for next summer’s The Dark Knight Rises.