Cosplayers and Creators Pack Comic-Con 2025

Comic-Con opened its doors in San Diego on Sunday, welcoming tens of thousands of pop culture devotees from across the United States and around the world, with at least one major newcomer setting fans abuzz.

Iconic filmmaker George Lucas will make his Comic-Con debut this year, and though the event has long celebrated the creator’s Star Wars and Indiana Jones sagas, he has never before attended the world’s largest pop culture convention.

“It’s especially meaningful this year to welcome Lucas back to San Diego Comic-Con,” David Glanzer, Chief Communications and Strategy Officer for Comic-Con, said in a statement. “Nearly five decades ago, Star Wars made one of its earliest public appearances at our convention, including a booth where we gave away [comic book artist] Howard Chaykin’s now legendary Star Wars poster as a promotional item.”

Comic-Con’s Sunday announcement makes Lucas’s long-awaited appearance at the event a “true full-circle moment,” he added.

Lucas will take part in a special Sunday panel about the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, set to open next year in Los Angeles. The Sunday panel will be moderated by Queen Latifah and will include Lucas, Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, and Oscar-winning artist Doug Chiang, whose work on everything from The Empire Strikes Back to Rogue One to The Mandalorian has shaped generations of Star Wars fans.

The trio will discuss the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, a collection that, according to Glanzer, will “pay homage to the art of illustration and the power of story through the lens of film, comics and concept art,” along with Lucas’s collection, which will be archived at the museum.

Comic-Con’s History in 10 Panels

Comic-Con, one of the world’s most popular pop culture conventions, has a storied 50-year history. From its original start as a small comics gathering in 1970 in San Diego, Comic-Con has grown into an international phenomenon, welcoming around 130,000 attendees a year.

From cosplay to comics to movies to gaming, San Diego Comic-Con is a weekend-long mecca for pop culture fans, drawing not just devotees but Hollywood insiders for rare chances to catch premieres, sneak peeks, and panel discussions on some of the year’s most buzzed-about entertainment.

Aliens in the Stars

The new Alien prequel series will make its world premiere at Comic-Con on Sunday. From the crew behind Snowpiercer and The Wheel of Time, Alien: Earth, the newest chapter in the Alien franchise, is an eight-episode series that will pick apart the franchise’s worldbuilding and dive into a new story just a few years before Ridley Scott’s 1979 Alien.

Alien: Earth will premiere on Sunday in the convention’s Hall H and will stream on Prime Video in August.

Fans will also have a chance to get a first look at the new Predator movie, Predator: Badlands, the follow-up to 2022’s Prey, at Sunday’s panel. In the franchise’s latest twist, the Predator itself becomes the prey as the hunting alien finally faces a creature that can match it, an alien of its own. Director Dan Trachtenberg will be on the panel along with Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, who plays the alien Dek.

Marvel Steps Back, Sci-Fi Steps In

Comic-Con fans will notice one big difference in the Hall H programming this year, as Marvel Studios is skipping its Sunday showcase and pulling back its overall presence at this year’s convention.

Marvel decided to remove the title of its upcoming Avengers film from the Sunday program after an unsuccessful attempt to hold an overseas studio tour in the U.K. due to ongoing film productions, according to Variety.

The move left an opening in the Sunday spot that has been quickly filled by comic book and sci-fi mainstays.

Ryan Gosling in ‘Project Hail Mary’

Ryan Gosling will be in San Diego on Saturday for a panel for his upcoming film, Project Hail Mary, from the novelist Andy Weir, the author of The Martian, which will hit theaters next year.

In the film, Gosling plays Ryland Grace, a former schoolteacher who awakens alone on a spaceship and must find a way to save Earth after learning that he is the planet’s last hope for survival.

Gosling will be on the panel along with directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who are also known for directing the Spider-Verse trilogy.

The Peacemaker Panel Returns

DC Comics and movie fans will be able to learn about the upcoming season two of Peacemaker as showrunner and executive producer James Gunn will lead a panel on the series.

Peacemaker and the cast, including David Call, Carl Weathers, Erin Silva, Jennifer Holland, and Steve Agee, will be on the panel and share footage from the second season. Gunn will also be leading DC’s upcoming reboot of the Superman movies, so fans will have a chance to learn more about the franchise from the creator of Guardians of the Galaxy.

A Convention Full of Costumes and Cosplay

From announcements and panels to comics and collectibles, Comic-Con is first and foremost about fandom and geekery. Thousands of fans will fill the San Diego Convention Center dressed as characters from films, video games, and comics in hand-crafted costumes or cosplay and capes as princesses, cowboys, jedis, doctors, and superheroes.

This year’s San Diego Comic-Con runs through Sunday, July 27.