GalaxyCon bringing superhero, sci-fi and horror icons to San Jose

An Avenger, Capt. Kirk and Ivan Drago will be in downtown San Jose this weekend as GalaxyCon returns for its second year.

The “festival of fandom”, which opens Friday afternoon and runs through Sunday at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, is expected to draw more than 30,000 people over the weekend — including many cosplayers whose elaborate outfits will make for great people-watching.

But the real draws are the celebs, who encompass a wide range of pop culture including movies and TV, comics, gaming, pro wrestling, voice acting and podcasts.

The big names scheduled to attend include Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye from Marvel’s Avengers movies), cult-movie fan favorite Danny Trejo, Dolph Lundgren from “Rocky IV,” and William Shatner, who is the closest thing to a Patron Saint of Pop Culture that we have in Silicon Valley.

There are also some great treats for horror movie fans, with cast members from “Terrifier” (Elliott Fullam and Laura Lavera) and the 1998 “Scream” (Matthew Lilliard, Skeet Ulrich, Jamie Kennedy and original Ghostface Lee Waddell) taking part in Q&A panels.

Barry Bostwick, who played Brad in 1975’s “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” also will have a special meet-and-greet event Saturday night before the 10 p.m. showing of the cult classic film, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. This will be similar to one of the regular “midnight” shows at theaters (including San Jose’s 3Below): a “shadowcast” performance with the Barely Legal live cast. Could Bostwick be persuaded to take part in the Time Warp? We can only hope.

Beyond those events, there are countless photo opportunities, panel discussions, late-night events and costume contests available to conventiongoers (some involve an extra charge). You can get the full schedule and tickets at www.galaxycon.com/sanjose.