text Giulia Santini
Lucca Comics & Games 2025
From 29 October to 2 November great guests, national and international previews, new publications, game sessions, workshops and exhibitions
Lucca Comics & Games 2025, the largest event dedicated to comics, video games, cinema and cosplay, will take place in Lucca from 29 October to 2 November.
This year the theme is a clear homage to France and its pop culture, with the French Kiss poster, specially designed by Rébecca Dautremer. The illustration combines several characters who, “breaking the mold”, meet and kiss: a powerful message that celebrates inclusion, freedom and imagination, expressed through refined art with great aesthetic impact. On the occasion of his presence at the Festival, the Limonaia of Palazzo Guinigi will become his artistic residence, where the artist will work in front of the public, making him participate in his creative process for the entire week.
Many guests also in this edition, which ranges from comics to fantasy to music, with big names such as Caparezza, Max Pezzali and Elio e le Storie Tese. For fans of cinema and TV series, the meeting with the cast and creators of Stranger Things, on the occasion of the release of the latest Netflix season, is highly anticipated.
The Comics area conquers the city center and continues to accompany visitors to discover all the nuances of the Ninth Art. An ever-expanding universe which, going beyond the city walls, ideally embraces four continents, with stands of international publishers from France, the United States and Taiwan, and authors arriving not only from all over Europe, but also from the United States, Canada, Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Morocco, Egypt and Tunisia.
Lucca Comics & Games 2023Programme and guests of Lucca Comics 2025
The full cultural program of this edition includes dozens of events designed to give great emotions to readers, who will be able to meet some of the most authoritative names in contemporary comics live.
Among the most anticipated guests is Takashi Murakami, bestselling author and winner of the Lucca Comics Award in 2016, along with big names in Korean comics such as Byeonduck and Kwang Jin. This year Japan Town (Polo Fiere) will have an exceptional godmother: Akemi Takada, famous character designer of iconic series such as Creamy, Orange Road and Patlabor. An exhibition on her work will be dedicated to her, curated by Giorgia Vecchini and Edoardo Serino.
During the Festival, not only authors from the international scene will be present, but also around ninety publishing companies distributed in the different areas of the event.
On October 29, Lucca Comics & Games will open with the preview of the film Dracula. The Lost Love by Luc Besson, which inaugurates the new format Le Notti Horror by Lucca Comics & Games: four evenings of cinema that will end on November 1° with the preview of IT: Welcome to Derry, a highly anticipated title signed by HBO.
Great music will feature prominently with Caparezza, who will present his project Orbit Orbit: the album, to be released on October 31, will be accompanied by a comic created in collaboration with Sergio Bonelli Editore. Max Pezzali will bring his fifth comic book co-authored with Roberto Recchioni to the San Francesco Auditorium as a preview. On 29 and 30 October it will be the turn of Elio e le Storie Tese, who will present their only and unpublished photographic book dedicated to the history of the band, published by Rizzoli. Also guest with Universal Music is Omar Padrini, who on October 31st will present the box set of the album recorded last year in Lucca.
The Festival will come alive further on November 1st, in the park of Piazzale Verdi, with DJ Matrix and Giorgio Vanni, for the great finale with the Festa delle Sigle. The Anime Vocal Contest and the Party Dance Cosplay with DJ V, hosted in the Garden of Observants Park, are also highly anticipated.
The Teatro del Giglio will be the setting for great shows, including the concert of the Poncle Live Orchestra, which will have as a guest Yoko Shimomura, composer of cult soundtracks such as Super Mario. In Japan Town, enthusiasts will be able to rediscover the underground origins of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with the exhibition of original drawings A Twisted Ronin Ninja, curated by Giovanni Russo. Foodmetti – Artists of the tables is also back, the “festival within the festival” that combines the excellence of comics and that of food and wine, hosted in the spaces of Palazzo Guinigi.
Lucca Comics & Games 2023Great anniversaries also for the Games area, hosted in the Padiglione Carducci, the space where you can discover the best of board and role-playing games, with hundreds of titles available, demonstration activities and signing sessions.
For the VideoGames area, Keiichiro Toyama, creator of Silent Hill and Siren, stands out among the guests, holding two talks dedicated to building the horror game. On October 29th, at the Teatro del Giglio, the famous composer Yoko Shimomura will be the protagonist, author of iconic soundtracks for the gaming world.
Il Giardino degli Osservanti will be transformed into a true paradise for gamers with the spaces of PQube and Clear River Games, while Palestra Ducale Maria Luisa will host over 400 square meters entirely dedicated to video games. The world of Cosplay will pay homage to France with a Lady Oscar-themed parade on November 1°, in which the French Consulate will also participate. Another parade inspired by the Star Wars universe is planned on the same day. There will be over 80 events dedicated to Cosplay, including rallies, parades, quizzes, games with the public, street theater shows, contests and awards ceremonies.
Audible celebrates twenty years of Twilight with the narrator Martina Levanto, while Beppe Vessicchio, who will present his novel "Bravo, bravissimo!", dedicated to Mozart, is highly anticipated.
A busy program that will accompany the public in five days dedicated not only to comics, but to the whole universe of creativity and imagination.
Movie Area
Lucca was chosen by Netflix to celebrate the arrival of the final season of Stranger Things, out on November 27 on Netflix, with a pavilion and an exclusive store entirely dedicated to the series. Inside the space, where the Exclusive Stranger Things Lucca 2025 Collection will be available, fans will be able to literally immerse themselves in the iconic atmospheres of the cult show. On October 31, the celebrations will be joined by Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin and Noah Schnapp, along with the creators of the series, Matt and Ross Duffer. During the meeting with the public, they will relive together with the fans the emotions that Stranger Things has been able to convey to entire generations.
Netflix, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in Italy in 2025, will also bring unmissable events and surprises by Zerocalcare, as well as the preview fan screening of Frankenstein, the highly anticipated film by Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro. The film, with Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi as protagonists, will arrive in some selected cinemas from 22 October and will be available on Netflix from 7 November.
The Walt Disney Company Italia also returns to Lucca with numerous titles and activities, including two highly anticipated new anime. It starts on Wednesday 29 October at Cinema Astra with the screening of Disney Twisted-Wonderland: The animated series: in addition to the first episode, which will debut on the same day on Disney+, the public will also be able to preview the second episode, scheduled on the platform on November 5th. 40 years after the debut of the famous manga, Cat's Eye – Cat's Eyes also returns with a brand new animated series.
Furthermore, to celebrate the 20° anniversary of the film Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, Disney will pay homage to fans of Lucca Comics & Games with a special screening scheduled for Sunday 2 November at Cinema Astra.
Lucca Comics 2023Prime Video will be among the protagonists of Lucca Comics & Games 2025 with a series of events dedicated to two of the most anticipated titles arriving in October: the first season of The Traitors Italia – Italian version of the psychological reality show awarded at the BAFTA and Emmy, out October 30th – and the second season of Hazbin Hotel, the dark comedy animated by unstoppable success, which will debut on October 29th.
Sky and NOW will bring IT: Welcome To Derry to Lucca, the new series that expands Andy Muschietti's blockbuster universe and renews the myth of the iconic dancing clown Pennywise. The series, exclusively for Italy on Sky and streaming on NOW from 27 October, will be accompanied by a special film festival with screenings of IT and IT – Chapter Two on 30 and 31 October and l’1 November. The final night will also feature a world premiere of the second episode and a screening of the first episode of the highly anticipated HBO series.
Games
Great anniversaries also for the Games area, hosted in the Padiglione Carducci, the space dedicated to discovering the best of board and role-playing games, with hundreds of titles available, demonstration activities and signing sessions. This year marks three important anniversaries that have marked the history of the game: 40 years of the “Red Box” of Dungeons & Dragons; 50 years of Chaosium and 50 years of Games Workshop.
The LEGO giant returns to Lucca with LEGO Adventure, an immersive experience that takes visitors through the most iconic worlds of pop culture, while also paying homage to the city. The heart of the experience will be a large brick diorama, set up in the historic center of Lucca and designed for the occasion by Riccardo Zangelmi. The journey will lead the public to discover some of the most beloved narrative universes, such as One Piece, Star Wars, Marvel and Minecraft.
