‘Interstellar’ Comic-Con 2014 Panel: Matthew McConaughey and Christopher Nolan Talk Their Sci-Fi Epic, Reveal New Trailer

Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated, post-'Dark Knight Rises' sci-fi film, 'Interstellar,' touched down at Comic-Con 2014 for a panel, and to the surprise of everyone in attendance, both Nolan and Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey came out on stage for their first appearances at the convention.

"I heard y'all were loud," joked the actor when he first emerged in Hall H.

Early buzz already pegs this film as one of the year's highlights and Nolan's best film to date, so we were antsy to get as much info on the film as possible -- and it didn't disappoint! 'Interstellar' stars the likes of the rom-com-reformed McConaughey, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine and Anne Hathaway, and centers on a team of explorers who tap into a newly discovered wormhole in space, as their own planet's resources are all but depleted.

As he recounted, McConaughey was introduced to 'Interstellar' by his agent. "He said, ‘Nolan has got a new film and he would love to meet you.'" After meeting with the director face-to-face and loving the script, he signed on.

“Christopher is always out for original," he said. “Everything he wants to do, it has to be original ... He wants an original take on everything."

In the film, McConaughey portrays Cooper, a pilot, engineer, and widowed father of two children. In this setting, civilization is just maintained -- "we don’t need astronauts, we don’t need new bright ideas." With humanity's depleting resources, however, Cooper is offered "the greatest mission mankind has ever taken."

"[Christopher Nolan's] a man whose reach constantly exceeds his grasp," he said, before introducing the director to the booming Hall H crowd.

"I've always been a huge fan of science-fiction," remarked Nolan, citing films like 'Star Wars,' his "single biggest influence" '2001: A Space Odyssey,' and 'Bladerunner,' the latter of which he says he knows every scene and line of dialogue. "I hope it’s true, that we’re on the cusp of a brand-new era."

'Interstellar' is "really about human beings, what it means to be human," said Nolan. "The further you travel out into the universe, the more we learn about what it means to be human beings."

To cap off the 'Interstellar' panel, Nolan and McConaughey introduced a brand-new trailer to the crowd, one which, Nolan said, will not be released for some time. As with the other trailers already shown, we begin with the actor's voice narrating a desolate scene with soft music playing, this time over McConaughey staring out his window at the corn field, presumably one of the last remaining crops on Earth. Soon, we see storms of dust billowing up in the distance before sweeping over everything in its path.

"Nothing in our solar system can help us," remarks a voice, which is why Cooper and a team of astronauts (two of which are Hathaway and Wes Bentley) head into the furthest reaches of space to save mankind. This journey will take them to new planets and environments, one of which is covered in white-rocked formations with floating alien objects. "We’ve done a lot of innovative techniques" in bringing this film to life, said Nolan, "but I'm not going to tell you what they are."

'Interstellar' premieres in theaters on November 7.