The summer of 2018 was an eventful season in the film industry. Marvel said goodbye to a longtime director, arguably its most influential one; a Jurassic Park sequel came and went as if it did not even exist; and about 20 people made their directorial debuts, some of which worked, and others that did not. There is one thing that everyone can still agree on: nobody wanted a Han Solo movie, and the box office receipts backed that up in full.

This summer was unique to start off with because this was the first summer since 2006 where the opening movie was not a Marvel movie. Marvel moved “Avengers: Infinity War” up one weekend to April 29th in order to increase box office gain after Fox pushed up “Deadpool 2” to open just two weeks after it. This was only a week before “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” which had been booked for Memorial Day weekend since its initial release date was first announced.

The end result: “Infinity War” crushed and amazed as everyone expected, and provided a colossal and satisfying wrap-up to the Marvel Cinematic Universe that people are still talking about as if it is still in theaters. “Deadpool 2” proved to be extremely surprising. It proved to be a worthy follow-up to its initial installment, with some critics even saying it was better than the first one. Unfortunately, opening up only two weeks after arguably the biggest superhero event to date did it no favors in terms of pop culture status, as it was not nearly talked about as much as the first one.

If “Deadpool 2” suffered even a little bit because of “Infinity War,” that is nothing compared to the beating that both “Solo: A Star Wars Story” and Lucasfilm took from the box office and the critics. Right out of the gate, it was hailed as a failure, suffering from almost exactly the same problems that afflicted “Justice League” not even six months prior, as it too suffered from a director change and many other behind-the-scenes problems.

The strange thing, however, was that, despite doing terribly at the box office, none of the criticisms seemed to be directed toward the movie itself. Behind the scenes work, specifically Kathleen Kennedy and her handling of the whole situation, raised more criticism. Compounded with the fact it was coming off the most critically divisive Star Wars film since the prequels, along with nobody in general really wanting to see a Han Solo origin story, and Lucasfilm was primed for box office disaster.

Despite hitting a snag with “Solo,” Disney picked back up a month later with “Incredibles 2,” a film that, similar to “Finding Dory” two years prior, peaked at the box office due to built-in nostalgia that people who grew up with the originals experienced. The film currently sits at $1.165 billion and is only going up as theaters have just put it back into circulation due to a specific scene that caused a bit of a stir for the epileptic crowd being edited out.

Taking a quick break from Disney, one of the most surprising things to come out of the summer was the lineup at Comic- Con. For the first time in a while, Disney did not have anything of note at Hall H, allowing for almost every other studio to show off what it had, and for the most part, the footage did not disappoint. The most impressive trailers were for M. Night Shyamalan’s follow-up to both “Unbreakable” and “Split,” “Glass”; “Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” the follow up to both 2014’s “Godzilla” and last year’s “Kong: Skull Island”; and DC’s “Shazam” trailer, which seems to finally be the film that DC has promised with its new tone and lineup.

However, tragedy kept creeping through all of the good things that happened. A longtime member of Collider and a massive online icon in his own right, Jon Schnepp, passed away on the Friday of Comic-Con after suffering a massive brain hemorrhage. Despite not being known by the masses, Schnepp had a massive following of longtime fans in the online movie community that has blossomed over the last couple years.

Despite some promise with its “Shazam” trailer, DC has plenty of incoming disappointments, as its trailer for the upcoming “Aquaman” proved less than satisfying. While its trailer for the new upcoming live action Teen Titans series, “Titans,” which debuts on its exclusive streaming service that will launch on Sept. 14, was almost laughed off the internet due to its obvious low budget and unnecessarily dark and confusing tone.

Of course, the thing that still has everyone talking two months later was the firing of James Gunn from the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films due to extremely disparaging and disgusting 10-year-old tweets that were brought up by online Trump supporters. This news shocked and angered many, both in the industry and online, to the point where people are still bashing Disney for the decision. It sure has been, to quote the John Cusack movie, one crazy summer. Here is to hoping the fall brings just as much entertaining insanity.

Image from Marvel Entertainment via Youtube.com