Supanova Gold Coast: Temuera Morrison among the guests for this weekend’s expo

An impressive star-studded guest line-up has been confirmed for Australia’s largest pop culture expo, which is coming to the Gold Coast this weekend.

An impressive guest line-up has been confirmed for Australia’s largest pop culture expo, which will return to the Gold Coast this weekend.

The Supanova Comic Con & Gaming expo is held annually in six major cities around the country, including the Gold Coast and Brisbane.

Queenslanders will have their first opportunity to attend the convention in their home state this year, with the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre hosting the event on April 9th and 10th.

Attendees will have the chance to celebrate pop culture across two days of timetabled events.

The star-studded line-up includes comic book creators, authors and cosplayers. Actors from iconic franchises are also among the talented group of confirmed guests.

Fans on social media appear especially ecstatic to see Star Wars actor Temuera Morrison this weekend.

There has been over 1,200 comments on Facebook since the New Zealand-born actor was announced on the Supanova Comic Con & Gaming page last month, and around 275 shares.

The 61-year-old initially played Jango Fett in 2002’s Star Wars Episode 2: Attack of the Clones, before returning to the franchise in a post credit scene in The Mandalorian as Boba Fett.

But Mr Morrison has since had the “honour” of reprising that role as the titular character in The Book of Boba Fett.

“I got the call to go have a meeting with Jon Favreau,” Mr Morrison told the Courier Mail.

“I got to the meeting about four hours early, that’s how excited I was. I sat in the car and went out and had breakfast, but I still entered their offices out in Santa Monica about an hour (early).

“They took me in a room to wait and while I was waiting, I could see the concept drawings on the wall. There was a bald headed guy with robes and I said, ‘gee I’m sure that guy looks like me.’

“Just one of those times in your life where you’re really excited but you don’t want to show it too much.”

Episode one of The Book of Boba Fett aired on Disney+ in late December 2021, with the series running for seven episodes.

“You’d never know if you’re onto a winner or not,” Mr Morrison said. “I actually thought some of that early stuff was a bit slow, and I was wondering, ‘what the hell’s going on here, people are gonna fall asleep.’

“But it started to turn and there are things going on in The Book of Boba that maybe the Star Wars enthusiasts don’t know about.”

Mr Morrison has previously attended three Supanova Expos, including another on the Gold Coast in 2014.

While he admitted he was excited to visit his favourite Gold Coast restaurant, The Lamb Shop, he seemed eager to meet fans at the convention.

“I’ll be at the convention during the daytime on the Gold Coast, signing autographs, meeting the fans, just giving them that little glimmer. It’s only a brief moment but some of them really enjoy that, just that little personal touch.

“But yes, it is about the fans at the end of the day.

“They’re the ones who paid the money to go to the movies, so I like to give them a little brief hello.”

Following the success of the recent Spider-Man film, fans may also be interested to meet the first person ever to pull on the famous red costume in a live action movie.

Nicholas Hammond’s first movie credit came at the age of 10, when he played a role in Lord of the Flies. Mr Hammond also played Friedrich Von Trapp in one of the world’s most famous films, The Sound of Music.

But from 1977, he entered almost uncharted waters by playing the famous wall crawler.

“I mean that kind of worked two ways because in one way there was no pressure on it because it had really never been done before, nobody knew if it was going to work,” Mr Hammond told the Courier Mail.

“There’d been Batman, which had been … sort of a comedy version of superheroes.

“I was very reluctant because at first I thought, my image of those superheroes was a guy who looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Lou Ferrigno, and I thought, ‘well I don’t look like that.’

“In a funny way, despite it being so limited with budget and wonky special effects and all that, I’m really quite proud of what we did with what we had at our disposal.”

While his career has spanned decades and is truly incredible, Mr Hammond said that his career highlights were acting in The Sound of the Music and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time … In Hollywood.

Mr Hammond has attended one Supanova Expo before, and that was last month in Melbourne.

Although he didn’t keep any of his Spider-Man suits, Mr Hammond has had a decorated career which will no doubt interest fans of all interests this weekend.

“I want to hear what they have to say, I’m fascinated to hear.

“I want to give back to the people who for many years have supported me and gone to my movies and watched me on television.

“I am told that it’s a really good show up there (on the Gold Coast).

“It’s very popular and all kinds of extraordinary costumes that people come in, which is pretty cool to look at, and so I’m looking forward to it.”

Other guests include Katie Leung, who played a love interest of Harry Potter in that series.

Legendary actor John Noble has also been confirmed to attend, as has Josh Lawson from Mortal Kombat.

The full list of guests can be found here on the Supanova website, as can the timetable for each of the two days.