Comic-Con 2013 kicks off with big movies

Nerds, start your engines. It's time for Comic-Con.

The year's biggest celebration of nerd culture has once again descended upon San Diego, bringing costume-wearing, smartphone-toting lovers to the Southern California beach town for the annual four-day conference.

Some of the most highly anticipated movies and television shows released new footage, teased plot points and announced casting on the first full day of the convention.

"Ender's Game," the long-awaited adaptation of Orson Scott Card's beloved sci-fi novel, had its question answer panel in the main hall Thursday, featuring cast members Asa Butterfield, Harrison Ford, Haliee Steinfeld and Abigail Breslin.

A new promotional video, masquerading as a propaganda video from Ford's Col. Hyrum Graff to recruit kids to Battle School:

"Ender's Game" hits theaters November 1.

A teaser trailer for "The Amazing Spider-Man 2," which won't be released until next year, is some of the first footage seen for the follow-up to 2012's reboot of the superhero franchise.

The video teases a longer introduction to Jamie Foxx's villain, Electro, which will be shown at the film's Friday panel:

Cast member Felicity Jones spilled what might be a major spoiler about her character.

(Spoiler alert, obviously)

Her character is "all in the vaults of Marvel," she said. "I love all that secrecy, I think it’s great. It builds anticipation, there’s too much transparency in everything these days."

"It’s all quite shrouded in secrecy, but I’m the Goblin’s girlfriend -- I’m in a relationship with him, and his accomplice," she added. "I’m on the dark side."

The "How To Train Your Dragon" sequel, out June 20, 2014, got a very sparse teaser trailer last week, and at the Dreamworks Animation panel Thursday, it was announced Cate Blanchett, Christopher Harington and Djimon Hounsou had joined the cast of the viking fantasy.

Hounsou will play Drago Bludvfist, a "maniacal" villain with the goal of enslaving the world's dragons, while Harington will play his lieutenant Dragon Prince.

Blanchett will play Valka a vigilante warrior working to stop Bludvfist's dragon enslavement.