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SALT LAKE CITY — Doctor Who?
With time ticking away before the next Salt Lake Comic Con FanX event, "Doctor Who" stars Matt Smith and Karen Gillan have joined the celebrity lineup coming to Utah at the end of the month.
Smith, who played the 11th Doctor on BBC's long-running hit "Doctor Who," has been a sought-after guest for Salt Lake Comic Con, founder Dan Farr said. Gillan, who reprised Smith's companion, Amy Pond, in the series, came to Utah last April for the convention's first FanX event.
"We've been getting (Smith) for the past two events, and scheduling just didn't work out in our favor," Farr said. "We just got approval (Wednesday)."
Smith and Gillan join Billie Piper, who played a travelling companion to both the ninth and 10th Doctors and was previously announced as a FanX guest. Passes to an "ultimate experience" panel with the time lord and two companions are on sale, ranging from $15 to $80 on top of regular admission.
Gillan and Piper also will speak at additional panels included in the price of admission.
Farr was caught off guard by the popularity and passion behind "Doctor Who" when he first began attending comic and pop culture conventions. For fans, it's not Smith who will take the stage, "It's Doctor Who," he said.
FanX is coming close on the heels of September's Salt Lake Comic Con, the third and highest-attended event so far from the wildly successful local geek convention.
For the first time, ticket sales will be capped at only 50,000. The inaugural Salt Lake Comic Con in September 2013 was bursting at seams with 72,000 guests, and last year organizers drew 100,000 guests to the first FanX in April and 120,000 more to the second Salt Lake Comic Con in September.
"This time we'll have half the number of guests we had last time, but they're really heavy hitters," Farr said.
FanX will return to the Salt Palace Convention Center Jan. 29-31. Farr did not specify how many tickets have sold so far but said the convention is on track to possibly sell out before it begins. With no pre-registration offered, guests hoping to avoid day-of registration must purchase passes before Saturday in order to receive them in the mail.
The initial FanX guests announcement named Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia from the original "Star Wars" trilogy; Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy in the "Harry Potter" franchise; Morena Baccarin, who starred alongside past Salt Lake Comic Con guest Nathan Fillion in the short-lived "Firefly" series; and Christopher Lloyd of "Back To The Future."
Other guests include Steven Yuen ("The Walking Dead"), Brandon Routh ("Superman Returns"), Felicia Day ("The Guild"), Glenn Morshower ("24"), and Mark Pellegrino ("Supernatural").
