Captain America, Lando Calrissian, and Emerald City Comic Con 2024
Four-day event kicks off Feb. 29 at Seattle Convention Center
By Martha Daniels February 28, 2024
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2024 issue of Seattle magazine.
Come meet Lando Calrissian this weekend. Stop by and see Captain America, or Frodo Baggins from Lord of the Rings.
OK, not really. They’re fictional characters. But the actors who played them (Billy Dee Williams in Star Wars, Chris Evans, and Elijah Woods in Lord of the Rings, respectively) will attend Emerald City Comic Con 2024 at the Seattle Convention Center, which begins Feb. 29 and runs through March 3. So will plenty of fans dressed as their favorite characters.
Advertised as a “celebration of pop culture from every corner of the nerdy galaxy,” ECCC serves as a space for those from all fandoms to collaborate and “nerd-out” without fear of judgment.
“The atmosphere, it’s extremely energetic,” says Fallon Prinzivalli, marketing director for ReedPop, the company that runs and produces the convention each year, along with numerous other gamer and comic/anime conventions across the United States. “Everyone who comes in is really passionate about their fandom, and people are very excited because sometimes this is the one event a year where they can come and really feel like they can be their authentic selves.”
Besides seeing an array of dizzying costumes from fans of several genres, Prinzivalli is excited for fans to meet and interact with Evans, Williams, Woods, and other celebrity attendees, including Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci, and the cast of Twilight, to name just a few. The list goes on.
The estimated 80,000 people in attendance are also expected to generate $26.5 million in economic impact, according to Visit Seattle. The convention has grown since last year, and is now taking place in two buildings with more panel rooms and additional exhibitors.
New this year are Taverns (spaces for all ages), based on Dungeon & Dragon games where people can hang out, play table-top games, and meet with like-minded communities. Guests can attend cosplay, writing, comic, and gaming workshops hosted by experts, as well as a B2B Programming track that helps connect novices with professionals.
“We always want to make sure that you’re not just having fun, but there is also some kind of education component, a leveling up component that makes it beneficial for folks in pop culture as a career as well,” Prinzivalli says.
Luckily, a few photo ops with Evans remain, but tickets are selling fast. Visit the website for details on Captain America and the convention.
“I can do this all day.” If you know, you know.
Follow Us
A New Climate Fund Starts With Indigenous Leadership
The $5.5 million investment will support seven Tribal governments and Indigenous-led organizations working on climate projects across Greater Seattle and Puget Sound.
As we head into another summer of hotter days, drought, stress on waterways and habitat, and the now-familiar arrival of wildfire smoke, the First Peoples Climate Fund puts city and philanthropic money behind Native communities already doing the work of responding to these pressures, many of them closest to the impacts and with long-held knowledge…
Washington’s Gender Wage Gap is Widening, Study Finds
Women earned $18,545 less than men in 2024, one of the widest disparities in the country.
The wage gap between men and women in Washington is the second widest in the country. An analysis released in March from the National Partnership for Women and Families found that women in Washington earned a median income $18,545 less than their male counterparts, the largest gap in the country second only to Utah. For…
A Letter to the Community
For more than a decade, our competitor Seattle Met has been a meaningful and vibrant voice in our city’s media landscape. Its journalists, editors, and contributors have told important stories, celebrated our culture here, and helped define what it means to live in Seattle during a period of extraordinary growth and change. News that folks…
More Than a Watch Party
At the Museum of Flight, Seattle celebrated Artemis II with real ties to the mission.
A moon mission lifted off in Florida on Wednesday, but one of the most interesting places to see it was Seattle. On April 1, the Museum of Flight hosted a free public watch party for Artemis II, NASA’s first crewed mission around the moon in more than 50 years. The event included a live broadcast,…