Los Angeles Comic Con 2024 kicks off with cosplay and 'Back to the Future' reunion – Daily News

When you see Star-Lord and Gamora from Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy standing next to each other at Los Angeles Comic Con, you might assume they arrived together in a pre-planned group costume.

“No, we just met today!” said Delaney Sargent of Buena Park. She and Thomas Barr, of Burbank, perfectly coordinated their cosplay on the first day of the con, which began this weekend, October 4-6, at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Sargent spent about two weeks creating her Gamora costume “and about three and a half hours today on makeup,” she said. She plans to unveil two more looks this weekend – Belle from “Beauty and the Beast” and Ariel from “The Little Mermaid” – and enter the cosplay contest on Saturday

“I'm really nervous; It’s my first time competing,” Sargent said. “But it’s one of the things I look forward to the most, along with meeting friends.”

Delaney Sargent stars as Gamora and Thomas Barr as Star-Lord from Marvel's “Guardians of the Galaxy” at Los Angeles Comic Con at the LA Convention Center on Friday, October 4, 2024. (Photo by Diya Chacko, Contributor)

Azalea Ortega, Nico Takacs and Misty Johnson, exhibitors at DragonMarsh Apothecary & Teas in Riverside, Calif., pose at their booth at Los Angeles Comic Con at the LA Convention Center on Friday, October 4, 2024. (Photo by Aum Nadkarni, Contributor)

Members of the cosplay group “Chaos!_inCosplay” Justin Divall as Spider-Man, Sarena Divall as Spider-Gwen, Desi Santos as Madame Web and Cameron Santos as Miles Morales pose at Los Angeles Comic Con on Friday, October 30 at the LA Convention Center 4, 2024. (Photo by Aum Nadkarni, Contributor)

EC Shahriari and Brad St. Patrick of Los Angeles pose as Xenomorphs from “Alien” at Los Angeles Comic Con at the LA Convention Center on Friday, October 4, 2024. (Photo by Aum Nadkarni, Contributor)

Bailey Jorgensen, Jonathan Molina, Gabriel-Philip Santos, LT Sauvage and Nancy Chen pose in the “Cosplay for Science” pop-up museum at Los Angeles Comic Con at the LA Convention Center on Friday, October 4, 2024. (Photo by Aum Nadkarni, contributor)

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Delaney Sargent stars as Gamora and Thomas Barr as Star-Lord from Marvel's “Guardians of the Galaxy” at Los Angeles Comic Con at the LA Convention Center on Friday, October 4, 2024. (Photo by Diya Chacko, Contributor)

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In addition to elaborate cosplay, this year's LA Comic Con will feature several cast reunions on the main stage – including, for the first time, actors from the 1991 classic black comedy The Addams Family: Anjelica Huston, Christopher Lloyd, Christina Ricci, Carel Struycken and Jimmy Workman will appear Saturday afternoon to remember the making of the film and talk about its lasting impact.

On Friday night, Lloyd also took part in a paid Back to the Future panel with Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson and Thomas F. Wilson, which was rebroadcast on the main stage Saturday morning. Other reunions expected on Saturday: voice actors from “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “Rick and Morty,” as well as Harvey Guillén, Kayvan Novak and Kristen Schaal from “What We Do in the Shadows.”

These panels often inspire large groups of fans to wear “really pretty” costumes, said Misty Johnson, who represented longtime Riverside business DragonMarsh Apothecary & Teas on the show floor.

“For 'Back to the Future,' I saw a lot of people in '50s costumes and also (Marty's) futuristic jackets and shoes, carrying hoverboards,” she said. “It's actually quite nice because people say, 'Oh, that's right!' I really liked the film. I want to try dressing up as this character.”

Johnson says the DragonMarsh booth has been in the same spot on the show floor at LA Comic Con for four years. When you enter the floor, “walk in, look to your left, look for the lights,” she said.

“I love this place because everyone walks past us. I love being able to look at everyone’s costumes,” Johnson said. Your favorite costume so far? An exact hand-sewn replica of Michelle Pfieffer's Catwoman costume from the 1992 film Batman Returns.

“She looked amazing in it and she just nailed it. It was beautiful,” Johnson said. “As someone who sews, I was really amazed.”

The enthusiasm for cosplay was felt all the way to the other side of the convention hall, where the nonprofit group Cosplay for Science had set up a pop-up museum. The organization was founded by four paleontologists, including Gabriel-Philip Santos, education director of the Raymond M. Alf Museum in Claremont and co-host of the PBS show “Eons,” about the history of life on Earth.

“There is so much science in all of our favorite pop culture stories,” Santos said. “Science definitely has a place here at LA Comic Con, and we’re excited to bring that to people.”

This year, Cosplay for Science partnered with the Los Angeles Zoo and Bone Clones, Inc. to educate visitors about the animals in the natural world that have inspired creatures in science fiction and fantasy.

“We have so much fun talking about how dinosaurs inspire fantasy creatures like dragons and how 'Star Wars' aliens are inspired by cool creatures on our planet,” Santos said, adding that the concept for the organization was based on a Conference arose at which, while representing the Alf Museum, he and others dressed up as characters from “Jurassic Park”.

“People want to talk to us a lot more when we cosplay,” he said. “People see our cosplays and our themes — we’ve done Star Wars and Pokémon — and they get really interested.”