Dragon Con 2024: Special guest lineup for this year's convention

Dragon Con 2024 is set to be an unforgettable event, with a lineup of over 100 celebrity guests, including legendary figures from film and television. 

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Among the headliners are comedy icon John Cleese, Star Trek legend Walter Koenig, and action star Danny Trejo. These living legends will be joined by a stellar roster of fan-favorites such as Giancarlo Esposito, Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker, Marvel actors Vincent D’Onofrio and Cobie Smulders, Disney princess Ming-Na Wen, and Firefly stars Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk.

In addition to these Hollywood stars, comics legend Jim Steranko will also be on hand to meet fans, lead panel discussions, and sign autographs.

Fans of puppetry and classic television will have a special treat as Karen Prell leads a group of puppeteers from Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock television series. The group will bring along their famous Fraggle puppets for sing-a-longs, panel discussions, and live puppetry demonstrations.

For Gen X attendees, Dragon Con has something special in store with a reunion of the cast from the original 1980s animated series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Barry Gordon, Cam Clarke, Renae Jacobs, Rob Paulsen, and Townsend Coleman—who voiced the four pizza-loving, crime-fighting turtles and reporter April O’Neil—will be there to meet fans and participate in panels.

Beyond the celebrity appearances, Dragon Con will also feature around 300 authors, artists, game designers, puppeteers, scientists, engineers, and other experts. These professionals will engage with fans across 38 tracks of programming, covering everything from high fantasy to hard science.

Dragon Con is taking place Aug. 29 through Sept. 2 in downtown Atlanta. The con features more than 3.500 hours of comics, film, television, costuming, art, music and gaming over 4 days. 

Gaming

It's one of the largest gaming conventions in the nation, offering more than 3 acres of gaming in the AmericasMart Building.

Parade details

The Dragon Con Parade is one of the most popular events for attendees and residents of Atlanta. It will begin at 10 a.m. Aug. 31. The parade route remains the same as in past years. It will begin at Peachtree Street and Linden Avenue and travel south on Peachtree, east on Andrew Young International Boulevard and north on Peachtree Center Avenue, ending between John Portman Boulevard and Baker Street. 

The route is convenient to three MARTA stations – North Avenue, Civic Center, and Peachtree Center. Parking downtown is expected to be tight.

Cosplay

Dragon Con is also known for its quality of coplay. The nation’s top cosplayers will show off their best work during the show, participating in costume contests every night of the convention and promenading throughout the five host hotels and the streets of downtown Atlanta.

Official charity

This year's official charity is the Georgia chapter of the Arthritis Foundation. Through auctions, merchandise sales and other charity events, plus a dollar-for-dollar match up to $125,000 from Dragon Con, the convention will raise money to support this important organization.

Over the last decade, the convention has consistently raised more than $100,000 for each of its annual official charities – and more than $200,000 in each of the past two years – for a total of more than $1.3 million donated to Atlanta-based charities since 2014. In 2023, Dragon raised more than $270,000 for official partner CURE Childhood Cancer.