CULTURAL ICON GEORGE TAKAI, LEADING MAN BRUCE BOXLEITNER AND PERFORMANCE CAPTURE SPECIALIST ANDY SERKIS LEAD THE PARADE OF STARS AT DRAGON CON

Marty Krofft, Famed Producer of Saturday Morning Television Staples, Joins the Fun.

Convention Sets Expectations for Fan-Actor Interactions During a Strike Affected Year

ATLANTA – Aug. 9, 2023 – Cultural Icon George Takei, leading man Bruce Boxleitner, and Andy Serkis, the performance capture specialist known for bringing monsters to life are among the most recognizable stars and celebrity guests headed to Dragon Con, Atlanta’s internationally known pop culture, fantasy, science fiction, and gaming convention, for Labor Day weekend.

They will be joined by Paul Bettany, Nathan Fillion, Adrianne Palicki, Anson Mount, D.B. Woodside, Ian Anderson, Tom Cavanagh, Tested.com’s Adam Savage and 1970s action tv stars Lee Majors and Lindsey Wagner, leading a legion of actors who are well known to fans for their work in television, animation, and movies.

Marty Krofft, of Sid & Marty Krofft Pictures, will also be In attendance. Often referred to as the Kings of Saturday Mornings, they dominated children’s television with programs including H.R. Pufnstuf, Lidsville, Sigmund & The Sea Monsters, Land of the Lost, and Mutt & Stuff – a run that started in 1969 and ran through 2015 – plus primetime variety shows including Donny & Marie, the Brady Bunch Variety Hour, and Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters.

An estimated 65,000 people are expected to attend Dragon Con over the five-day Labor Day Weekend – Aug. 31 to Sept. 4 – with events and activities across AmericasMart Buildings Two and Three and five host hotels – Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Marriott Marquis, Hilton Atlanta, Westin Peachtree, and Courtland Grand (formerly Sheraton Atlanta).

While Dragon Con will bring in some 400 guests to interact with fans this year, only about a quarter of them are actors. The rest are authors, artists, scientists, engineers, roboticists, podcast hosts, video game designers and other experts to talk with fans and lead discussions.

While interacting with the actors whose characters bring popular shows and movies to life is one of the many reasons fans come to Dragon Con, the recent decision by the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, to declare a strike means that some things will be different this year.

“The actors, and in fact all of the guests who come to Dragon Con, are our friends and the fans who come to see them are our family. We are happy to work with our friends so they can have the best possible time with our family,” said convention co-chair Rachel Reeves. “We are working extra hard this year to make sure that actors can attend Dragon Con, meet with fans, sign autographs and lead panels without bumping up against the limitations that govern the SAG-AFTRA strike.”

Guests who are members of SAG-AFTRA – which is almost all of the actors – will participate in panels, but they can’t talk about the shows or movies they have worked on. In all cases, panel conversations will be closely moderated.

Guests can sign autographs, as they always have, but can only provide generic headshots at their autograph table and nothing that shows them as the characters they play in shows or in movies. Fans can ask guests to sign a favorite photo or other item brought from home or purchased from vendors in other areas of the convention, but it’s up to the guest to decide if they will sign it.

There are no changes to photo opportunities. Dragon Con’s actor guests can take photos with fans.

None of these rules apply to guests and experts who are not actors in television and movies. This includes the authors, artists, scientists, engineers, roboticists, podcast hosts, video game designers and other experts who help make Dragon Con great.

About Dragon Con

Dragon Con is the internationally known pop culture convention held each Labor Day Weekend (Aug. 31 -Sept. 4, 2023) in Atlanta. Organized for fans, Dragon Con features more than 3,500 hours of comics, film, television, costuming, art, music, and gaming over four days. For more information, please visit www.dragoncon.org and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.