More than 125,000 fans are expected to head to Southern California this weekend for San Diego’s Comic-Con International, the pop-culture expo that runs from Thursday to Sunday (Wednesday is preview night) and features panel discussions for blockbuster films, popular television shows and comics creators, not to mention portfolio reviews for aspiring professionals, book signings, a cosplay masquerade and plenty of geek-friendly shopping on the convention floor. Tickets have long been sold out.

Here are some of the mainstage highlights:

Thursday

Two Summit movies, the upcoming book adaptations Ender’s Game and Divergent, will take the stage midday in Hall H, Comic-Con’s marquee 6,500-seat venue, bringing actors from the two projects and new footage from the films. Later in the day, Showtime’s hit serial killer series Dexter will close out the Hall H programming with an hour-long panel featuring star Michael C Hall.

Friday

Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and director Edgar Wright will kick off the programming in Hall H, with Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead and Sony’s panel presentation featuring The Amazing Spider-Man 2 also figuring into the lineup.

Pegg, Frost and Wright will appear on the Focus Features panel to promote The World’s End, due out in the US on August 23. Highly anticipated among the Comic-Con set, the movie sees Pegg play Gary King, a (lovable?) loser who recruits his high school chums to try to finish a pub crawl in their hometown that they unsuccessfully attempted in their younger days – but the apocalypse intervenes.

The Walking Dead panel devoted to the hit AMC zombie series will offer its own take on the apocalypse, with many of the show’s ensemble cast; the Hall H session devoted to HBO’s lavish fantasy follows.

Sony will hold a two-hour presentation to preview films including its Spider-Man sequel (star Andrew Garfield will be on hand), Robocop and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 along with Screen Games’ The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.

Saturday

Thor: The Dark World is among the upcoming movies topping the Hall H schedule. New footage from The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and the Aaron Eckhart-led action I, Frankenstein will be featured during Lionsgate’s panel presentation, and fans might also see some new footage from Thor: The Dark World and Captain America: The Winter Soldier during Marvel’s panel, which promises “many surprise guests.”

Legendary and Warner Bros kick off Hall H programming with presentations on the Godzilla reboot from director Gareth Edwards and the Jeff-Bridges-starrer Seventh Son.”In the same session, Warner will showcase a trio of its own projects without ties to Legendary: 300: Rise of an Empire, Gravity and The LEGO Movie.

Rise of an Empire is neither a sequel nor a prequel to Zack Snyder’s 300 but a stand-alone film set before, during and after the events of that movie; the new project is directed by TV commercial ace Noam Murro and produced by Snyder. Gravity sees the return of Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men) to the science-fiction genre with a film that stars George Clooney and Sandra Bullock.

The LEGO Movie marks the first feature-length animated entry from the brand and centres on a figure named Emmet who is called upon to save the world.

Sunday

Doctor Who toplines a television-heavy lineup for the day that includes panels devoted to the dramas Breaking Bad and Sons of Anarchy and cult comedies Community and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, among other series.

Actors Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman will both be present at the tribute to the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. Doctor Who lead writer and executive producer Steven Moffat and writer-executive producer Mark Gatiss will talk about the series and the anniversary special, An Adventure in Space and Time, which will premiere on BBC America on November 23 and will star David Bradley as the first Doctor, William Hartnell.