I can’t even imagine what the world was thinking when Aliens was coming out in 1986. I was two years old, so I wasn’t thinking about much of anything probably, but I can imagine a lot of people were like “Huh? What? They’re doing a sequel to Alien, that movie from seven years ago?” While there were loads of haunted-house-in-space ripoffs following the 1979 original, it took James Cameron, hot off the success of The Terminator, to re-enter the world of Xenomorphs using a completely different genre. And now, 30 years later, the legacy of Aliens will be celebrated at Comic-Con International.

Entertainment Weekly shared the news of a retrospective panel about Aliens in the coveted Hall H during this year’s SDCC festivities which will allow 6,500 fans to share in a nostalgia overload and Q&A sesh with the cast and crew of the film, including Cameron, stars Sigourney Weaver, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, Michael Biehn, Carrie Henn, and producer Gale Anne Hurd. That’s a pretty damn great panel if we do say so ourselves.

Aliens was a massive hit and an incredibly influential film. Cameron himself had worked on Alien-ripoff movies (like Galaxy of Terror) before embarking on his directing career, and the movie proved an improbable hit, earning seven Oscar-nominations, winning best sound effects editing and visual effects. The other nominations were best actress for Weaver, editing, original score, sound, and art direction. That’s amazing.

There will also be a 30th Anniversary Blu-ray set which will be available for pre-order at the Fox booth and will include collectible art cards featuring concept sketches by Cameron and a book featuring art from the Dark Horse Comics Aliens series.

This is going to be an amazing experience for people in Hall H, so, you know, line up now, I guess.

Let us know what you think of this whole mabob in the comments below!

Images: Twentieth Century Fox

Kyle Anderson is the associate editor for Nerdist. He writes the weekly look at weird or obscure films in Schlock & Awe. Follow him on Twitter!