By Mike Lera
Just when we thought we were fresh out of colossal comic conventions for this year, L.A. Comic
Con swoops from the sky and delivers a grandiose, superpowered weekend October 4 -6, filling an entire arena with celebrity booths, iconic cosplay, interactive photo ops, eclectic art pieces, high-valued collectibles and, of course, comics!
Moved from December back to its original month gave the pop culture event a terror-ific blend of both superheroes and monsters, and though sci-fi seemed to be L.A.C.C.’s main thrust this year, horror fans were certainly pleased and appeased by the elaborate Halloween décor in commemoration of their favorite month.
Ewan McGregor took the con’s main stage for a one-on-one interview, the Obi-Wan Kenobi/Moulin Rouge star chit-chatting about his illustrious 30-year career journey and some of his greatest moments as an actor, including his friendship with the late great Carrie Fisher, aka Princess Leia. “I was lucky to know her, I loved her so much, and as a child, I was deeply in love with her,” said McGregor. “We co-hosted an after-Oscars party together once at her house, and she was such a laugh! I still can’t believe I was fortunate enough to be right next to her on the Walk of Fame. It’s a great shame we lost Carrie.” Asked from audience members if he would like to see an Obi-Wan Kenobi season 2, the Scottish actor nodded an enthusiastic “YES!”
Gathering for a special reunion panel was the core cast of Back To The Future, including Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and Tom Wilson, reminiscing over their behind-the-scenes shenanigans and sharing personal anecdotes with director Robert Zemeckis.
At Fangoria Magazine’s panel, “Filmmakers of Contemporary Horror”, directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettineli-Olpin spoke on their films Scream 5 & 6 and their thought process in making horror movies. Having directed the recent horror-comedy Abigail, the fright duo was asked about the daunting task of blending both scares and laughs. “We always try to make sure that it’s not our characters that make our audience laugh, but the absurdity of the situations they’re in,” commented Gillett. “We cut jokes where the movie would steer too far into comedy, but we also cut things like violence and gore that would make the movie feel too cruel and can’t buy back that comedic tone. At the end of the day, it’s an intuition of what entertains us, which is what our work ever really is – a reflection of our own taste.”
Other panels featured Javier Guillen and Kristen Schaal from the series What We Do In the Shadows, a Q & A with Giancarlo Esposito and Ming-Na Wen from The Mandalorian and a reunion with cast members of 1991’s The Addams Family.
See videos of Ewan McGregor’s and Fangoria’s panels on my YouTube channel @MikeLera.
All photos by Mike Lera