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Even though some of last year’s Comic-Con secrets were leaked to the web ahead of time, the 2007 SDCC was a huge deal as far as revelations go. Whether it was the unveiling of Karen Allen’s involvement in Indiana Jones and the Then-Still-Not-Subtitled Fourth Installment or cast updates for Watchmen and Star Trek or a bit of clarification on what the hell that Cloverfield movie was, Comic-Con 2007 left us super excited and highly anticipatory for the next year of movie releases.

But after a quick glance, the 2008 convention doesn’t seem like it will have as many big announcements. There should be plenty of new footage shown from movies like Watchmen (making its second Comic-Con round) and The Spirit (hopefully there’s some better looking stuff than the most recent trailer gave us), but what secrets are set to be let out of the bag?

Here’s 10 things I hope they reveal over the next few days:

1. Arnold Schwarzenegger is back in Terminator Salvation - If this really happens, I’ll be flabbergasted. But a guy can hope, at least for official word on a cameo. And there’s no better place than Comic-Con for a confirmation to happen. Well, I guess if Warner Bros. could keep it a secret until the movie opens next May, then that would actually be better. But that’s impossible nowadays.
   
2. Everyone’s back for Spider-Man 4 - I despise Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, and I’m not even a big fan of the Spider-Man franchise, so I’m not exactly sure why I’d like both them and director Sam Raimi to return for the fourth installment. I guess I’m just not a fan of changing horses midstream, either. Anyway, I hope there’s some sort of news about the sequel from Sony. Maybe a confirmation of either Almost Famous kid, Patrick Fugit or Michael Angaro?
3. Abe Vigoda is Gargamel in The Smurfs - Another cast update I’d like to find out from the Sony panel (Saturday evening, check out the liveblogging here at 5:30pm PT). I know he’s probably too old, but can you think of anyone better to play the Smurf-hater?
4. Tropic Thunder is funny beyond the trailer - One of my greatest fears is that Tropic Thunder is yet another comedy from which all the best jokes — such as Robert Downey Jr. being in blackface — are in the trailer. Once people have seen the whole film at Comic-Con, I’ll know whether or not to bother with it.
5. Ant-Man’s release date and Simon Pegg stars - I don’t think Edgar Wright will have time to direct his script, but the next best thing will be for Simon Pegg to at least star as the tiny titular Avenger. This really should have already been fast-tracked for a superhero-lacking summer 2009 release, so maybe if we’re lucky, Marvel Studios can tell us that it now has been. Oh wait, Marvel’s sitting this year out, so I guess that means no news about Ant-Man or news about casting Thor or Captain America or The Avengers. Wow. Lame. Boo.
6. The Spirit might not actually suck - As I noted above, so far The Spirit looks like crap. I want to learn a few good reasons, whether in response to new footage or otherwise, that it might not actually be crap.
7. Troma plans more Shakespeare adaptations - Everyone’s excited that Karina will be covering the Troma panel, though I’d be a little more excited if I thought the company might be planning another raunchy version of the Bard’s work, like my favorite Troma film, Tromeo and Juliet. They’ll probably just be giving a peak at their fall release, Dr. Fugazzi, which stars a very low-fallen Faye Dunaway.
8. Fraggle Rock will not exclude the Doozers - The Fraggle panel is Sunday (2:45pm PT), and as a huge Muppet fan, I’m psyched to learn anything about the feature film spin-off. All I know so far is that it involves the main Fraggles (Boober, Wembley, Red, Gobo and Mokey) as they wander out into the real world (they got past Sprocket!). I just hope there’s an announcement that they bring a long at least one Doozer for the adventures. Because I love Doozers. And because that would be some huge announcement, right? Umm.
9. At least one other DC Comics superhero is finally getting a movie - We can make fun of Warner Bros. and DC for dragging their feet compared to all the Marvel movie adaptations going on this decade, but the fact is, with The Dark Knight we’ve seen that the WB is capable of giving us the best superhero movie of all time (at least according to critical ratings, IMDb voters and box office receipts), so if they want to be slow about it, all the power to them. But can we just get one revelation of another DC superhero movie that isn’t about Batman or Superman?
10. Scud: The Disposable Assassin: The Movie - With the ’90s comic book series finally revitalized this year, I’m all kinds of excited about my favorite comic character of all time. I don’t care if it’s a 3-D CG-animated feature or live-action, but I want a movie already. Please tell me someone has optioned it since Oliver Stone failed to get an adaptation off the ground.