Comic-Con Welcomes George Lucas in Historic Milestone

San Diego – Comic-Con, one of the largest pop culture conventions in the world, officially began today, with tens of thousands of attendees from across the globe descending upon San Diego. The event, known for its blockbuster announcements and celebratory cosplay, has an especially historic guest list this year, which has longtime attendees and longtime fans alike speculating.

Comic-Con is also seeing its first-ever attendance from famed director and filmmaker George Lucas. Comic-Con has long been tied to Lucas’s “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” franchises, but has yet to see the groundbreaking filmmaker in attendance.

The 2024 convention is just the second time Lucas has visited San Diego Comic-Con as an attendee since the event’s 1970 debut. He did attend once in 1975 with several of his “Star Wars” and Lucasfilm colleagues. But fans of the “Star Wars” legacy will be in attendance to witness a full-circle moment for the creator of perhaps the most influential sci-fi series of all time.

“Aside from his presence at our very first Star Wars Celebration in 1999,” Chief Communications and Strategy Officer David Glanzer wrote in a statement for Lucas’s presence, “nearly five decades ago, Star Wars made one of its earliest public appearances at our convention, and one of the items given out at our booth was a Howard Chaykin Star Wars poster that would become legend among collectors.”

Glaser and Comic-Con are calling the decision “a true full-circle moment” in anticipation of the Lucas visit.

Lucas, who is chairing the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, is slated to appear on a special Sunday panel hosted by Queen Latifah. Lucas, Queen Latifah, and Mexican director Guillermo del Toro will be joined on stage by Academy Award-winning artist Doug Chiang. Their discussion will revolve around the Lucas Museum, a massive Los Angeles art museum dedicated to film, comic books, and concept art, and slated to open next year.

Lucas and del Toro will talk with Chiang about the construction of the new museum, as well as Lucas’s collection and archive, and how they all have ties to illustrated storytelling.

Comic-Con Goes Big in San Diego

Comic-Con, a fan celebration of all things pop culture, began as a small convention for comic book lovers in 1970. In the early years, only around 300 people annually attended to browse and buy comic books and meet like-minded fans. Now, the annual festival in San Diego, California, is one of the largest pop culture events in the world, with 130,000 attendees each year.

Fans pack in to see star-studded presentations, new film and TV sneak peeks, and panels where they can interact with their favorite creators, writers, actors, and filmmakers from the biggest and most buzzed-about movies and shows in Hollywood.

Alien and Predator Return for Comic-Con Appearances

Fans are also looking forward to the Comic-Con debut of “Alien: Earth,” a new prequel series set in the Alien franchise. The show, set to premiere on streaming services August 8, is based on the blockbuster Ridley Scott sci-fi original, which was released in 1979.

Directed by Noah Hawley and debuting tomorrow in Hall H, Comic-Con’s biggest event stage, the series takes place just a few years before the events of the original film and looks to expand on and explore more of the Alien mythos. Fans are speculating on what world premieres or possibly even series finales, as is tradition at Comic-Con, will be announced over the weekend.

Sci-fi fans will also be hyped by the upcoming feature film “Predator: Badlands,” an intriguing new take on the long-running sci-fi franchise from the man who rebooted the series last year. Dan Trachtenberg, who directed last year’s “Prey,” returns for the second film to helm the “Predator” franchise with the help of his co-writer from “Prey,” Patrick Aison. “Predator: Badlands” will turn the tables on the film’s title character, with the Predators this time the prey, and sees the crew of a convoy of armored vehicles on a mission in the desert evading an alien hunter of the infamous Predator species.

Actor Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, who plays alien Dek in the film, will also be on the stage at Comic-Con with Trachtenberg.

Marvel Takes Break, But Sci-Fi Doesn’t Budge

Fans may be disappointed by Marvel Studios’ somewhat underwhelming Comic-Con presence. After the usual H Hall debut and comic convention takeover from past years, Marvel has limited its presence for 2024 to a significantly less expansive H Hall stage and separate talks on “Secret Invasion” on Friday and Saturday.

Marvel Studios is reportedly passing on the usual Comic-Con Hall H presentation instead of the last-minute changes that have occurred with the “Avengers” follow-up. Production on the Marvel Studios “Avengers” series just wrapped in the UK, and Variety reported that the task of rescheduling around the festival had simply proved too much of a challenge for the studio.

Sci-fi, however, hasn’t let a chance go by to take the top slots of the Comic-Con programming.

Starman, Hail Mary, and Peacemaker to the Rescue

Joining the “Badlands” panel will be the upcoming “Project Hail Mary,” based on the bestselling Andy Weir novel, author of The Martian. The film is set to debut theatrically next year and stars Ryan Gosling as former high school teacher Ryland Grace, who awakens on a spaceship to find that he’s the last living person on Earth.

Gosling will join directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller for Saturday’s panel, in which fans are hoping to see more about the film and its debut after next year’s Comic-Con visit.

For fans of Peacemaker, be sure to catch the season two panel, which will feature creator and DC veteran James Gunn, who just this year has been tapped to helm DC’s full slate of upcoming superhero films, including the new Superman reboot. Gunn will discuss the development of the second season with the full cast and will screen first look footage and sneak peeks at season two’s upcoming storylines.

Dressing Up for the Weekend

Comic-Con may take in the biggest names in entertainment, television, and film, but that hasn’t stopped thousands of fans and attendees from coming to Comic-Con in full costume to showcase their favorite hero, princess, or alien.

Costume and cosplay, where fans wear intricate costumes of their favorite characters and groups to the convention, is just as much a part of the annual festival as panels and announcements, with long-time attendees and attendees from all over the world donning everything from pirate gear to elf and orc, princesses to aliens, and war heroes to Jedi.

The 2024 convention will run through Sunday, July 27.