Sci-Fi Heaven as Comic-Con Premieres Alien Prequel and More

Comic-Con began on Thursday in San Diego, with tens of thousands of attendees from around the world flocking to the four-day celebration of geek culture, but one attendee has been especially noteworthy this year for longtime fans.

Legendary filmmaker George Lucas will be in attendance for the first time. The media giant behind Star Wars and Indiana Jones has had an impact on Comic-Con before, but the convention has had a long history of Lucas’ absence: Despite its many connections to the auteur’s most iconic sci-fi franchises, Lucas has not previously attended SDCC, or the world’s largest event dedicated to storytelling, cinema, and fandom.

It’s a fact that Lucas’s attendance this year has changed; his coming is marked as an official full-circle moment by convention team members. “Nearly 50 years ago, Star Wars made one of its first public appearances at our convention and had a booth staffed by fans, who were giving away Howard Chaykin’s now legendary Star Wars poster as a promotional giveaway,” David Glanzer, Chief Communications and Strategy Officer, said in a statement. “Mr. Lucas’s attendance this year is a true full-circle moment for us all, as his influence on world-building and visual storytelling remains without peer.”

Lucas, along with Oscar-winning artist Doug Chiang (whose work has contributed to redefining the looks and lore of the Star Wars franchise for decades) and Oscar-nominated Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, will be at a Sunday panel hosted by Queen Latifah. Lucas, Chiang, and del Toro will all talk on a panel about the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. The museum is set to open next year in Los Angeles and will be devoted to celebrating illustrated storytelling in film, comics, and concept art, and will also house an archive of Lucas’s collection. The Sunday panel will focus on the museum and the art world, where the three industry heavyweights inhabit.

Comic-Con’s Growth in Pop Culture Over 50 Years

Comic-Con began as a small comic book convention in 1970 and now, some 50 years later, has evolved into one of the largest pop culture events in the world, with an attendance of about 130,000 each year. Fans come for the cosplay and collectibles and to see sneak peeks, panel discussions, and world premieres from many of Hollywood’s biggest and brightest projects.

Alien, Predator Headlining Panels and Releases

Fans will get to see the first look at the series Alien: Earth, the prequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic Alien, tomorrow when it premieres in Hall H, the convention’s largest venue. The series is set only a few years before the events of Alien and is helmed by Noah Hawley, who has described the story as an inquiry into the larger mythos of the Alien franchise.

The series is slated to premiere on streaming services in August.

Attendees can also look forward to learning more about the new feature film Predator: Badlands. The film, a reboot of the sci-fi franchise that pits soldiers and aliens against an unseen menace in outer space, puts an interesting spin on the concept: For the first time in the series, the Predator is the hunted. Prey director Dan Trachtenberg is attached to helm the movie, which he will discuss on a panel with stars Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, who plays the alien Dek.

Marvel Will Be Scaling Back Presence at SDCC

Marvel Studios will be doing things on a smaller scale at SDCC this year. Variety reported that Marvel had been forced to make a last-minute change in their plans, due to production delays in the United Kingdom. Because of the late-stage shift in their upcoming Avengers entry, the studio decided to bypass Hall H for its usual debut this year.

Even without Marvel taking up a spot in Hall H at the heart of Comic-Con, that hasn’t stopped the con’s organizers or sci-fi companies from filling the air with exciting programming and more than enough content for fans to take in over the weekend.

One of the biggest projects on the docket is the adaptation of Project Hail Mary, the recent novel by Andy Weir, the author of The Martian. The movie will make a debut at Comic-Con and is scheduled for a theater release next year. The film, which follows the character of Ryland Grace, a former schoolteacher who awakens alone on a spaceship with no memory of how he arrived, stars Ryan Gosling. Gosling will be at a Saturday panel for the film with directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, the team behind the Spider-Verse trilogy.

DC fans will also be treated to a look at the second season of Peacemaker, for which creator James Gunn, who will be leading DC’s larger cinematic reboot with Superman next year, will be joined by the cast for a presentation of behind-the-scenes footage and new clips.

Costumes and Geekery Galore

Between big announcements, panel discussions, and all the celebrity appearances, there will be plenty for fans to see at Comic-Con, but the event remains, at heart, about celebrating fandom and geek culture. Tens of thousands of attendees will fill the streets of the convention center in cosplay, dressed as everything from princesses and warriors to aliens and superheroes. The 2024 convention will wrap up on Sunday, July 27.

Whether they’re here for the George Lucas long-overdue first time at Comic-Con, a first look at an alien-filled Earth, or comic lore and more, fans have a lot to take in over the weekend.