Lucca Comics and Games celebrated its 60th anniversary from Oct. 28 to Nov. 1, drawing around 80,000 paying visitors each day to the medieval Tuscan city. Europe’s largest Comic-Con brought together figures from comics, manga, games, television and film, with pavilions, exhibitions and temporary attractions spread across Lucca.
HBO’s Harry Potter pavilion attracted queues that started early in the morning and stretched around the venue. Inside, fans could examine props from the television series, choose temporary tattoos representing their preferred Hogwarts House and watch a recorded greeting from John Lithgow and Nick Frost, who portray Albus Dumbledore and Hagrid. No representatives of the show attended in person, and visitors were not shown preview footage ahead of its Christmas Day release.
Fans expressed both interest and reservations about the adaptation. Stefano, a fan of the films attending in a Jedi costume, told Variety, “It will be fun to see the books addressed in a way that is deeper.” Alessia, who had travelled from Lake Como and was dressed as Maleficent, said she worried that “they’ve made too many changes.”
The cast of Percy Jackson and the Olympians appeared in person, with Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries and Aryan Simhadri attending alongside showrunners Jonathan E. Steinberg and Dan Shotz. After taking part in a panel, the actors greeted more than 8,000 fans from a terrace above Piazza della Magione. The crowd had assembled wearing the colors of the show’s Camp Halfblood.
The event also hosted the European premiere of the live-action adaptation of Blue Lock, the anime and manga series. Its story centers on an authoritarian regime’s competition to identify the most selfish, and therefore best, soccer striker among 300 candidates. The survival-game-style selection process is intended to help Japan win the World Cup.
Frank Miller, whose works include The Dark Knight Returns and Sin City, returned to Lucca and announced another collaboration with Peach Momoko. The project will draw inspiration from Japanese horror stories. Japanese manga creator Go Nagai was honored with an exhibition titled Sun, Heart, and Steel, featuring Mazinger Z, which launched the Mecha genre, and Devilman, which was inspired by an illustration of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Costumed visitors were a prominent part of the gathering, portraying characters from Middle Earth, Hogwarts, Mario Bros. and Squid Game. Among those seen in the crowds were a fan dressed as the title character from Luc Besson’s 1994 film Leon: The Professional, carrying a silenced pistol and a houseplant, and a group recreating the original Jurassic Park cast with a Jeep.
The regular Star Wars parade included a Mandalorian at its head who turned out to be Alberto Angela, the Italian author and television personality. Angela had spent the day walking among other visitors without revealing his identity.
