REVIEW: Paramount+ The Lodge San Diego Comic-Con 2026: Reliable But Never Predictable

Paramount+’s The Lodge activation has come to be one of the most popular and reliable experiences during San Diego Comic-Con. They have consistently brought top-tier offerings for a variety of their most popular properties, and given ticket-holders 50 minutes of playtime with food, drink, and exclusive souvenirs.

In the time since their first San Diego Comic-Con Lodge iteration, Paramount has significantly grown their footprint (with the help of production company 15|40 Productions), and therefore the number of people it can accommodate. The larger square footage doesn’t give you more room to maneuver, but it does give you more to see and do. Unfortunately, that does mean that some of the more popular activities can have their own lines, which can be cut off before your time is up (looking at you, UFC challenge!)

This year, The Lodge highlighted the feature film Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender, the beloved series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the long-running South Park, UFC, and Dutton Ranch.

Passing under the iconic mountain sculpture, guests could line up to create custom pennants with a choice of two patches, or an engraved phone wallet or luggage tag.

A recreation of the U.S.S. Port Galley from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds dominated half of the offered space, which included a bar with themed drinks and two interactive photo-ops. There was also a DJ who would, on occasion, bust out a sweet saxophone solo.

A tray of refreshing cubed fruit was also passed for attendees to munch on.

The Republic City Marketplace from Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender was largely front and center. A selection of delicious and refreshing teas were available, and there was ample space for “My Cabbages” photos.

In the back corner was a rip-roaring hoe-down in honor of Dutton Ranch. Some swell hats were on display, a bar was slinging drinks for those over 21 years old, there was a rocking chair and porch for a photo op, plus a chance to prove your roping prowess with a hay bale rope pull.

Oh yes, and “DR” branded burgers were served. In a change from previous years, the offered food required a scan of your wristband, no more just “grabby-grabby.” This smart decision made it take a smidgen longer to get your mitts on the grub, but it reigned in the chaos level.

And even FURTHER back was a walk-through South Park activity. Several facades of popular characters were on display, and there was staff ready to take your pics. And no, your eyes do not deceive you; those are giant testicles you can perch on. Of course they are.

After a cruise through South Park, it was time to explore the UFC brand, with interactive challenges like testing your reflexes. After that workout, attendees were gifted a branded workout towel to mop their brows.

While The Lodge is still one of the offsites I continue to recommend and extol the virtues of, it could continue to evolve and improve. The bottleneck through the Dutton Ranch bar area and the corridor into the Star Trek area could be and often were very crowded.

The footprint for UFC and South Park could have been more open, allowing for those not participating to see what was going on, or provide extra places to set your drink while you snap a pic.

The addition of the Avatar property was very welcome and we saw more families enjoying the experience than we remember previously. We also feel that the wristbands, and having to scan them for food and drink made it a bit less chaotic, even if savvy (excessively thirsty?) people were figuring out quick workarounds to get more than their allotted shares of drinks.

What would REALLY help more people enjoy The Lodge is if there were more strict limits on tickets. This year the limit was 2 tickets per time slot but what about one time slot per day? Two time slots? I’m sure those in the “I will get tickets for every time slot but I’m actually a hero, not a villain because I give all the extras to my friends” folks would disagree, but the purpose of these sort of events should be to have as many DIFFERENT people experience it as possible, not to have the same 50 people experience it over and over again. Obviously, this is my personal opinion, possibly not even shared by others on the UBlog team, and Paramount+ might have different metrics for a successful event.

My fingers are firmly crossed for many more years of The Lodge at San Diego Comic-Con.

Additional photos courtesy of Johnny Du and Kerry Dixon.