Star Wars and Storytelling: Lucas and del Toro Lead Panel

Comic-Con got underway Thursday in San Diego with tens of thousands of pop culture fans from around the world descending upon the city, and this year it has a particular star power that has longtime attendees excited.

Sci-fi and fantasy legend George Lucas will be attending the annual convention for the first time in its history, with fans abuzz over his surprise appearance. Though Lucas’s “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” franchises have had deep connections to the event, they have never had the famed filmmaker in attendance for the convention celebrating storytelling, movies, and fandom.

This year’s Comic-Con is a full-circle moment. “The original Star Wars had its public coming-out party 50 years ago this week at our convention,” David Glanzer, the Chief Communications and Strategy Officer, said in a statement, “with the help of one of our exhibitors, we presented a booth with Howard Chaykin’s now legendary Star Wars poster as a promotional giveaway.” He called the attendance of Lucas, who has had an impact on world-building and visual storytelling, a “true full-circle moment.”

The Lucas, who will attend a special Sunday panel moderated by Queen Latifah, will discuss the forthcoming Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which will open in Los Angeles next year. He will be joined by Mexican director Guillermo del Toro and Oscar-winning artist Doug Chiang, who has been creating designs for Star Wars for decades. The three will discuss the mission of the museum, which will be dedicated to exploring and honoring illustrated stories and narrative through film, comics, and concept art. It will also house an archive of Lucas’s collection.

Comic-Con is a far cry from what it was 50 years ago

San Diego Comic-Con, or Comic-Con International, began in 1970, and it started as a much more intimate affair than the international pop culture convention it is today. A small group of comic book enthusiasts met in San Diego’s Uptown to get together and discuss their shared hobby and interest.

The number of attendees to the convention exploded over time, from around 150 in the early 1980s to 130,000 visitors today. Fans travel to San Diego not only for the cosplay, fan art, and collectibles, but also to catch exclusive glimpses, panel events, and world premieres of the industry’s buzziest projects from Hollywood.

Sci-fi films, shows will have a big showing

‘Alien: Earth’ world premiere at Comic-Con

One such project is “Alien: Earth,” the world premiere of the new series set in the universe of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic “Alien” from 1979. This prequel series from director Noah Hawley will offer an exploration into the mythology of this world and series.

The show is set just a few years before the original movie, and the pilot is due to premiere tomorrow in the convention’s Hall H, and it will be available on streaming services next month.

The other big sci-fi story is “Predator: Badlands,” a new take on the series that makes the difference between the hunter and the hunted a question: for the first time in the films, it is the Predator who is being pursued. The film’s director, Dan Trachtenberg, was on the series team that injected new life into the property last year with “Prey,” and at Comic-Con, the director, Elle Fanning, and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, who plays the alien Dek in the film, will be on a panel to discuss what is to come.

Marvel to not be part of Comic-Con 2024

Marvel Studios will not be involved in Comic-Con this year. The studio will not have the usual Hall H showcase, with plans falling through due to changes with the release of its next “Avengers” entry, Variety reported. While there have not been official announcements from the studio or from Disney, it has been reported that, as the UK continues to experience strikes, filming of upcoming productions has been a logistical issue.

In the face of Marvel Studios’ decision to step back from this year’s Comic-Con, the sci-fi community has stepped in to save the day. Hall H, the convention’s marquee programming venue, is set to be full of fan-favorite programming over the weekend.

Ryan Gosling to star in ‘Project Hail Mary’ panel

Fans can also look forward to the reveal of “Project Hail Mary,” the new film from The Martian author Andy Weir. The movie, due out in theaters next year, follows Gosling’s Ryland Grace, a former schoolteacher who awakens alone on a spaceship, and he is the only person on Earth who has any idea what he’s doing.

Gosling will attend Saturday’s panel with “Hail Mary” directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, known for helming Spider-Verse movies 1 and 2 and other blockbuster hits.

Also on the Comic-Con docket are discussions on the second season of the Peacemaker series, and it will be joined by its creator, James Gunn. Gunn has also been tapped to helm DC’s next reboot in the form of Superman, but in the meantime, fans will get an inside look at what he and the cast have been working on for the next season.

Millions of costumes

Cosplay is, of course, the other piece to Comic-Con and the geek-fest culture as a whole. Thousands of fans will walk the halls of the convention dressed as everyone from princesses to warriors, aliens to superheroes.

The event will run through Sunday, July 27.