Prague Comic-Con kicks off today with Danny Glover, MacGyver, and cosplay stars

The annual Comic-Con pop culture festival gets underway today in Prague. Fans of comics, science fiction, and fantasy – some dressed in the costumes of popular characters – will attend the event, which lasts until Sunday, April 16.

This is the fourth installment of the festival, taking place at the O2 Universum Center in Prague’s Libeň district. Deputy Mayor of Prague Zdenek Hřib will also be in attendance. 

U.S. actor Danny Glover will be one of the headline guests at the event – he is best known for his role as detective Roger Murtaugh from the Lethal Weapon series of action films. Richard Dean Anderson, the lead actor in the U.S. MacGyver television series, will also be in attendance.

Guests will also be able to meet Scottish actor Ian McDiarmid, who starred as the scheming Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars series. English actress Christina Chong, who plays one of the main roles in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds spin-off, will also visit Comic-Con this weekend.

Other notable stars are Raphael Luce, who plays Henry Creel in the Stranger Things horror-fiction series, Dan Fogler who is well-known for his role as Jacob Kowalski in the Fantastic Beasts films, and Graham McTavish who starred as Dwalin in The Hobbit film trilogy.

A series of comic creators will also attend the festival. These include: Jason Aaron, who has worked on The Avengers comic series; Frank Cho, who is best known for his Liberty Meadows comics; Rob Williams, who wrote stories for Star Wars Tales; and comics artist Brian Bolland, who illustrated many words for DC Comics.

Guests will also have a chance to meet various social media influencers, who vlog about and stream sci-fi-related games.

The festival will feature a cosplay stage, where guests can meet famous cosplayers, and a costume fashion show. Comic-Con Prague will also host a Lego-themed treasure hunt, which requires guests to find five QR codes in the exhibition to win prizes.

On Sunday, the festival will also host a so-called PokéTour, which involves the teaching of a Pokémon card game, and the exchange and sale of cards.

The first Comic-Con took place in the U.S. in 1970, and in the following decades grew into a global pop culture phenomenon. Over 18,000 people attended last year’s Comic-Con event in Prague.