is bringing “Shazam!” to Denver this summer — both of them.
The comics, sci-fi and fantasy gathering, which returns to the Colorado Convention Center May 31-June 2, today announced it will host actors Zachary Levi and Asher Angel at the event. Levi plays the title character in the well-reviewed DC Comics adaptation of “Shazam!,” released April 5, while Angel plays the boy who transforms into the red-suited superhero (Billy Batson).
“That will make two generations of Shazam! at this year’s Con,” a spokeswoman for the event said via email.
Denver Pop Culture Con also added authors to its lineup this week, noting that more than one-third of this year’s writer guests are from Colorado. Names span sci-fi and romance genres and include Jay Crownover, Peter Heller, Liv Hadden, Colleen Oakes, Bernadette Marie and Blake Crouch.
The Con previously announced appearances from Dave Bautista (“Guardians of the Galaxy”), George Takei (“Star Trek”), Catherine Tate (“Dr. Who,” “The Office”), Christopher Lloyd (“Back to the Future”), Michael Rooker (“The Walking Dead”), Charlie Heaton (“Stranger Things”), Ashley Johnson (“The Last of Us”), Patrick Warburton (“The Tick,” “Seinfeld”) and dozens more.
This is the first year the event — which is put on by the nonprofit Pop Culture Classroom — will operate under the Denver Pop Culture Con name. Organizers announced the change last fall amid a national legal battle for the “comic con” trademark on behalf of San Diego’s Comic-Con International. That company, also a nonprofit, won a lawsuit against Salt Lake Comic Con in 2017, netting San Diego’s Comic-Con $20,000 in damages.
Denver Comic Con, which , drew more than 100,000 attendees to downtown Denver’s Colorado Convention Center June 15-17. Covering 1 million square feet of convention space, the event featured hundreds of individual pop-culture panels, contests, celebrity guests, authors and — yes — comics and comic-artists.
