Full Circle for Star Wars as Lucas Joins Comic-Con

Millions of fans of pop culture (or popcosm), many dressed as their favorite characters from movies, comics, and video games, descended on San Diego on Thursday for the opening of Comic-Con, and this year has a very special guest that made the longtime fan of the convention, George Lucas, take a bow.

Lucas has never attended San Diego Comic-Con, even as he helped pave the way with films like Star Wars and the Indiana Jones franchise that the festival now celebrates.

But this year will mark Comic-Con’s 52nd edition, and the iconic director and filmmaker will finally be present at this festival that he has never attended in decades.

“It is with great pleasure that we announce that George Lucas will be here with us this weekend for Comic-Con 2022,” said David Glanzer, Chief Communications and Strategy Officer. “Close to half a century ago, Star Wars made one of its earliest public showings at our convention, alongside a booth display that gave away [comic book artist] Howard Chaykin’s now legendary Star Wars poster as a promotional item.”

The event marks a “true full-circle moment,” he continued, “as we celebrate his enduring impact on world-building and the art of visual storytelling.”

Lucas, along with Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and Oscar-winning artist Doug Chiang, is on the bill for a Sunday conversation moderated by Queen Latifah, in which they will talk about the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which will open in Los Angeles next year, and which Lucas will curate and run.

The panel will focus on the creation of the museum, as well as looking at the mission statement to display and exhibit “stories and storytelling told through the power of film, comics, and concept art.” The museum will also be home to a large archive of Lucas’s collection.

A brief history of Comic-Con

Comic-Con, which started in 1970 as a small-scale convention in San Diego that primarily focused on comic books, has come a long way from those early days and now attracts about 130,000 visitors annually from all over the world to attend to Comic-Con’s larger program, which has expanded to cover all aspects of pop culture, including cosplay and collectibles as well as screenings and sneak peeks of Hollywood’s most anticipated productions.

Aliens on Earth: predators, prey, and Peacemaker

One of the biggest announcements expected is the world premiere of Alien: Earth, the series that is a prequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 movie Alien, with the new show that goes further in the franchise mythology under the direction of Noah Hawley. The series will be set just a few years before the events of Scott’s movie, and the special premiere is set to take place tomorrow in the convention’s most important space, Hall H. The series is expected to premiere on streaming services in August.

In the same vein, Predator: Badlands is also generating much interest as the next iteration of the sci-fi action franchise, with a twist – for the first time, the classic film franchise will see the Predator on the hunt as prey. The director of Prey, the sci-fi film reboot of the series last year, is back with the feature as Dan Trachtenberg. Trachtenberg will be on the panel along with the actors Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, who plays the alien Dek.

Marvel takes a back seat, sci-fi giants take the stage

Marvel Studios will significantly scale down its presence at Comic-Con this year and not deliver a showcase in Hall H, according to Variety. In light of shifting production for the next Avengers movie, Marvel has decided to give Comic-Con a wide berth.

The studio said in a statement that the decision was because of ongoing filming in the U.K. this summer, which made it challenging to plan and organize a presentation at the festival. This year, Marvel only plans to attend a few panels at Comic-Con.

The Marvel absence hasn’t deflated San Diego Comic-Con, and with the presence of sci-fi titans, the programming in Hall H is expected to deliver “endorphins” to the attendees.

Ryan Gosling, Peacemaker, and other top franchises

The conversation around the recently released book by Andy Weir, author of The Martian, has begun around Project Hail Mary. Based on the Weir novel, it is slated to be released in theaters in 2022, and the film is about a former schoolteacher (Ryan Gosling) who has been put on a spaceship and wakes up all alone and has to discover why he is the last chance of survival for the human race. Gosling is set to be on the panel on Saturday, along with directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the creative team behind the Spider-Verse trilogy.

DC fans should also be prepared for more Peacemaker with season two. As Gunn now takes over the rebooting of DC’s on-screen universe under the Warner Bros. DC Films banner, with Superman already confirmed and shooting slated to begin before the end of the year, the screenwriter and director will be at the Comic-Con panel along with the cast to provide some behind-the-scenes footage and previews of the new season.

Costumes and community

The main ingredients for Comic-Con’s identity remain at its center, with thousands of attendees arriving in costumes as princesses, superheroes, samurai warriors, warriors, nerds, aliens, and more, while the annual gathering continues through Sunday, July 27.