George Lucas Headlines Pop Culture’s Biggest Weekend

Comic-Con has officially opened its doors for 2023 in San Diego, with tens of thousands of pop culture fans expected to descend on the city in the coming days.

But in addition to the throngs of pop culture enthusiasts from around the world who will come, this year also marks a historic moment: sci-fi and blockbuster legend George Lucas will make his very first Comic-Con appearance in the city.

Comic-Con has close connections with Lucas’ blockbusters Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Yet despite the San Diego-based convention being among the most famous and highest profile annual events dedicated to all things storytelling, cinema, and fandom, Lucas himself has never attended in the 50 years of its history.

But 2023 will be the year of firsts for George Lucas and Comic-Con, with an announcement by the event’s Chief Communications and Strategy Officer David Glanzer that “nearly half a century ago, Star Wars made one of its earliest public appearances at our convention, alongside a booth showcasing comic book artist Howard Chaykin’s now-iconic Star Wars poster as a promo giveaway.”

Attendees will hear more from Lucas in a special Sunday panel discussion led by Queen Latifah, and the interview will be the first part of a wider discussion on the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Set to open in Los Angeles next year, the museum will serve as a “multi-platform, multi-disciplinary cultural institution dedicated to the power of stories as told through the unique visual language of film, comics, and concept art.” Lucas will be joined by Oscar-winning Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and fellow Oscar-nominated artist Doug Chiang, whose work has informed and contributed to the Star Wars universe for decades. Lucas, del Toro, and Chiang will also discuss the museum’s planned goal of amassing one of the largest archives of Lucas’s collection.

GEORGE LUCAS MAKES HIS COMIC-CON DEBUT

Lucas isn’t the only big name heading to San Diego this weekend. Marvel, meanwhile, has seemingly taken a step back this year, with the company announcing it would not have its traditional Hall H presence for the 2023 event as it restructures in the wake of 2023’s Avengers: Doomsday.

In response to Variety, a Marvel Studios representative said: “After a smooth 2022, ongoing production in the UK this year has led to some difficult logistical hurdles for Marvel Studios. For that reason, we’ve decided to take a pass on Hall H for this year’s Comic-Con and instead focus on Avengers: Doomsday.”

That said, there will still be no shortage of action and sci-fi programming for fans of big spectacle, and Marvel Cinematic Universe’s “Avengers: Doomsday” won’t be the only big franchise coming to Hall H this year. Sci-fi mega-blockbusters have notably risen to the challenge to fill Marvel’s sizeable boots.

Fans won’t have long to wait for the eagerly anticipated Star Wars: Skeleton Crew comic book series by writer John Ostrander (Solar: Man of the Atom), and perhaps the biggest buzzword for this year’s Comic-Con is Predator.

Alien: Earth, first look at the series ahead of the 2024 theatrical release

The sci-fi horror series Alien: Earth is the first glimpse of Ridley Scott’s original 1979 film prequel that is set to get a full series release. Noah Hawley’s series is expected to be released next year, and Episode 1 of the four-part show will premiere in theaters in 2024. It’s set to be directed by Steven Piet, with an intended focus on what the extra-terrestrial race is up to on the alien-infested Earth, some few years before the opening of Alien.

Predator: Badlands also marks a new direction for one of sci-fi’s longest-running franchises, as the alien hunter will be the one to be hunted for the first time. Produced by Greek filmmaker and screenwriter Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi and in part based on his comic book series starring the character Dek, as well as a host of other previous comics with Predator, Schuster-Koloamatangi is set to make his feature-film directing debut.

Director of 2022’s Prey, which earned glowing reviews for its fresh take on the long-running series, Dan Trachtenberg, will make an appearance alongside leading actress Elle Fanning at the panel for Predator: Badlands, with Schuster-Koloamatangi also set to attend. Updates on the script and direction of the new film are expected to be addressed, and hopefully, fans will get an update on what’s to be expected next.

Ryan Gosling and Project Hail Mary

Project Hail Mary is an upcoming feature film based on the novel of the same name, written by The Martian author Andy Weir. Airing in theaters next year, Project Hail Mary is scheduled to show at Comic-Con, with Gosling set to be joined by directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller on Saturday at the panel. The film stars Ryan Gosling as former schoolteacher Ryland Grace, who wakes up aboard a spacecraft to find himself the only living being on board and is responsible for being the last chance for humanity to survive.

Peacemaker is also set to show on Saturday, with an update and behind-the-scenes content from the second season of the hit series due in a few months. Joining creator James Gunn, who is also taking on DC’s superhero reboot with a Superman sequel in November, the team cast will be at the panel to share previews and information on the upcoming content, in addition to exclusive content for the spinoff.

Comic-Con weekend, however, is not just a weekend of hall rooms, celebrity sightings, sneak peeks, and screenings. The San Diego-based celebration of storytelling, fandom, community, and all things geek and beyond is also a weekend to truly look and feel like a part of it all. Cosplay fans and comic book superheroes, princesses, demons, warriors, zombies, aliens, and everything in between will descend on Comic-Con in hordes, and the buzz and energy the weekender in San Diego brings is palpable.