After we finished up at the Pennyworth offsite, next on our agenda, we decided to visit the Amazon Prime offsite. This year at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, they featured three different shows: The Boys, a show that seems to take a satirical approach of superheroes with their slogan being, “Never meet your heroes”; The Expanse, which originally aired on SYFY but has since moved to Amazon Prime and takes place in a future where Mars has been colonized, and finally, Carnival Row, which is a fantasy-based show featuring mythological creatures in a “neo-noir” setting, where creatures have fled their lands and now try to co-habitate with humans.
The offsite was in the same location as the Jack Ryan offsite last year, on 1st Street, across from Children’s Park. The line to enter took about 30 minutes to wait in, which is not bad considering everything at SDCC has a long line. While in line, staff made sure you were pre-registered (which you could do while waiting) and were then given a wristband. Once inside, after going through a bag check, staff gave attendees coins which could be spent on various things inside the event—typically food items like ice cream, fruit, churros, pretzels, or popcorn.
As for activities, there were quite a few different “sets” within the area, depicting small scenes from the 3 different shows.
In the middle of the area was a colorful tower, which had mini-performances based on the 3 different shows. For example, we saw The Expanse performance which had actors portraying lower-class citizens having a run in with the law enforcement, and breaking out into a fight.
There were also photo-op areas too, such as a place to have fairy wings attach to your back, by kneeling on a knee support and leaning back against a backrest with wings attached to it.
Violet and I decided to do The Expanse activity while there, since the line seemed reasonably short, and most importantly—it was mostly shaded. We had to wait in line for about 45 minutes, and while in line, we had the opportunity to get a temporary tattoo themed after The Expanse. Violet and I both opted to get one on our forearm. What was pretty neat about the tattoo was that they had a special filter through Snapchat that could be used to make it appear as if crystals were growing from the tattoo.
Also while waiting in line, there was a tower show for The Boys, but we were too far ahead in line to be able to see it very well.
As for The Expanse experience itself, we loaded into what looked like a space-like landing pod, and we were “briefed” by some “United Nations” members that we were on a mission. Once we “landed” we went outside, where the U.N. members talked about the ancient structures that were in the area. They had been there thousands of years, it seems.
We were to investigate the area, so the actors broke us up into a few groups. Violet and I went with one of the U.N. members to talk to a “Belter” which seems to be a lower-class citizen. We learn through her that the U.N. member we were with was actually a Belter herself, but wanted to keep that side of her a secret. But the woman said she would help the Belters after the Belter pleaded for some help.
Our group went into the Belter woman’s hideout, where we all also agreed to help the Belters, and started coming up with a plan of attack. Suddenly, we heard some strange noises outside, and the U.N. members seemed to get scared, thinking something large was coming. There seemed to have been some sort of skirmish, as we saw one of the actors laying on the ground injured. Once that happened, they hurriedly rushed us to the exits for safety.
Upon exiting the experience, we were given some closeable cups with The Expanse logo on it. By the time we had finished the event, the offsite was closing down so we had to leave.
Overall, the Amazon offsite was quite enjoyable. They had plenty of places to sit and hang out, and there was a lot to see with the settings that were made to advertise their three new upcoming shows. It was a bit disappointing we did not have time to do the other two experiences, but The Expanse one was quite interesting.
For those wanting to know, Carnival Row will begin airing August 30th, 2019, The Expanse’s 4th season will air December 12th, 2019, and The Boys will release very soon, July 26th, 2019. All of these will be streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Stay tuned for more of our coverage of SDCC 2019!
