Excitement builds ahead of Dragon Con 2022

September 1st, 2022

Blast from Dragon Con past: Batman and the Riddler — aka Ray Deforest and Jim McGinnis — march down Peachtree Street during the 2006 Dragon Con Parade through downtown Atlanta.

John Amis / Associated Press file

Dragon Con is the largest multimedia, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction & fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music and film in the country. It’s been held in Atlanta since 1987.

The convention returns to full capacity this year after canceling in 2020 because of COVID-19 and holding a scaled-back version in 2021.

William Shatner and Walter Koenig from the original “Star Trek” are on the guest list — along with more than 400 actors, authors and designers from the sci-fi and fantasy worlds.

The annual five-day convention, which is to be held concurrently with Atlanta Black Pride and The Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game, is expected to bring in a whopping 60,000 visitors.

Dragon Con Director of Media Engagement Dan Carroll joined “Morning Edition” to talk about what makes Dragon Con appeal to so many fans each year.

“I think one of the things that is true about pop culture is that everybody likes something. If you’re not watching TV, you’re reading popular books or you’re enjoying other things,” said Carroll. “We are constantly striving to make sure we’re aware of not only what the new trends are… but we’re bringing back those classics.”

Events at Dragon Con 2022 are scheduled to run from Thursday, Sept. 1 to Monday, Sept. 5 with panels and activities across five host hotels: Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Marriott Marquis, Hilton Atlanta, Westin Peachtree and Sheraton Atlanta, as well as the AmericasMart Buildings Two and Three.

Christopher Alston contributed to this report.