‘Stranger Things,' Video Games and French Comics to Light Up Lucca
Netflix, Cartoon Network and Crunchyroll will lead the entertainment lineup at Lucca Comics & Games 2025, the international pop culture festival, which returns to the Tuscan city for this year's event, running Oct. 29-Nov. 2.
Netflix will spotlight the fifth and final season of Stranger Things with a special event at Lucca on Oct. 31, ahead of the show's multi-part release starting in late November. Cartoon Network will unveil The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball, an interactive pavilion experience inspired by Ben Bocquelet's cult animated series, which has been revived for a final, seventh season, that will premiere on Hulu and Cartoon Network International. Crunchyroll will return to Lucca with a dedicated anime space featuring screenings, previews, and exclusive merchandise.
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Headline's Lucca's video game section this year will be Japan's Kojima Productions, presenting Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding 2: On The Beach. Fellow Japanese game designer Keiichiro Toyama, the creator of Silent Hill and Gravity Rush will also attend, to discuss his career and his most recent title, the action-horror game Slitterhead, developed Bokeh Game Studio, and partially inspired by Hong Kong film auteurs Wong Kar-wai and Fruit Chan. Also on the Lucca lineup this year is indie developer Luca Galante (Vampire Survivors.)
This year's official poster, unveiled in advance of the event, was designed by French illustrator Rébecca Dautremer. The artwork, titled 'French Kiss' — a tribute to this year's country of honor —imagines six fantasy figures, including a witch, a werewolf and a manga-style monster, suspended in the moment before a transformative kiss. Dautremer will debut her new graphic novel, Ruby Rose, at Lucca and the festival host an exhibition of her work at a new space in the city's Palazzo Guinigi.
Lucca will also showcase trailblazing figures in the French comics scene, including Moebius, Claire Bretécher, Jacques Tardi, and Florence Cestac.
Check out this year's poster below.
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