It is amazing to see how far The Guild has come in the past few years … in fact, just compared to last year they have really surpassed expectations in popularity. The panel proved this by having fans lined up around the hall as soon as the doors opened, and a completely full house for the panel itself. The Guild is a web series starring Felicia Day ("Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog") about a guild in World of Warcraft that are thrown together IRL. The second season wrapped up with some new revelations and the members fighting amongst themselves. Season three is just on the horizon so it was time to get fans psyched in the San Diego Comic Con!
The excitement was thick in the room, and The Guild creators had promised four 'big surprises' for their panel this year. They certainly did not disappoint. First up was the reveal of a special music video called "Do You Want to Date My Avatar?" Felicia Day sings this hilarious pop song as it features all the cast in their WoW game characters' costumes. Tink dances sexily, Felicia writhes about looking suggestive and mugging it up, and the boys awkwardly dance to the jingly bouncy beat. I can see this becoming a very popular video online and bring The Guild a new era of fame. Jed Whedon, who worked with Day on "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," co-wrote and directed the music video. It had that very tongue in cheek sense of humor that is common with the Whedon brothers. “Jed made the nerdiest people on the internet cool,” joked Day, but we knew they were cool already!
The next big surprise came in the form of a sneak peak at season three's premiere episode, and this led directly to the third promised surprise. Without spoiling too much of the clip, know that The Guild is in a precarious position since Zabu has a new girlfriend, Clara and Vork are still at odds, and Bladezz is working to make back the money he spent on Tink. Codex tries to bring them back together as they wait for a new WoW expansion pack, but it concludes with the introduction of another guild group there to challenge them. And who is the leader of this Shadow Guild? Wil Wheaton! The former "Star Trek" star joined the cast on the panel.
The last important announcement was that Dark Horse Comics will be putting out a The Guild comic written by Day herself. It appears that it will take place at least part of the time in the WoW world itself, rather than just IRL as the gamers meet one another. Overall it was a very successful panel with the entire cast dressed in their characters' costumes and laughing it up with the audience. These hardcore nerds have really made a place for themselves on the internet and in the geeky fanbase. They joked about being celebrities, Twitter, and what's coming up for The Guild this season.
Tune in on August 25th for the third season premiere of The Guild; it will be available on XBox Live, Zune, and MSN. The special music video will be up in a few weeks, although an exact date was not given. If you're a fan, it looks like there are great things coming up for the web series, and if you are not (yet), now is the time to get caught up on the first two seasons.
More to come from the San Diego Comic Con!
