Marty McFly and Doc Brown are back in action! Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd reunited at New York Comic Con Sunday, for an official Back to the Future reunion, where they reminisced over their iconic roles in the beloved film trilogy.
The panel kicked off with the actors recalling how Fox was called in to replace Eric Stoltz, who was originally cast as Marty McFly, a little over a month after filming had begun. Lloyd said he remembered the announcement as it came after a series of night shoots dedicated to the moment Doc Brown finally cracks the code to time travel.
“The announcement — at one o’clock in the morning after we were shooting for six weeks — was that the actor playing Marty would no longer be playing Marty, and that tomorrow, we would start shooting with Michael,” Lloyd, 83 recalled. “I felt that I barely made it through the [first] six weeks and now I was gonna have to do it again?!”
Fox, 61, who was filming Family Ties at the time, was apprehensive to sign on, noting that his mother was worried that he’d be too exhausted trying to spread himself between the TV show and filming a feature film, but ultimately, Fox decided to hop on board of what would become a career-defining film for both him and Lloyd.
“The chemistry was there from the first scene we had, it was alive, and it remained that way for three movies,” Lloyd added of the pair’s onscreen presence. “It hasn’t gone away, by the way.”
Fox called working on the film and working with Lloyd in particular “a thrill,” adding that anytime he got to work with the Taxi actor was a “good day.”
“All I had to do was just react,” Fox said, referring to his co-star’s performance. “Just take it in and let it wash over me. I thought he was brilliant. That was the whole thing: be with Chris and let it be Chris, and enjoy it … It was a thrill. Anytime I got to work with him, I knew it was gonna be a good day.”
In addition to photos taken at the event, video of the pair reuniting was shared on social media, with Fox stepping on stage ahead of Lloyd who then joined his former co-star. The sweet moment was met with plenty of applause from the audience who enjoyed seeing the dynamic duo embrace.
The reunion comes as a stage musical based on the original movie is currently playing in London, with the plan to have it arrive on Broadway next year. After praising the project, Fox, who has long battled Parkinson’s disease, shared with the audience why it was so important for him to show up in person at NYCC.
“You guys have given me my whole life,” Fox declared, before adding that he would not change his diagnosis if given the chance. “The best thing that happened in my life was this thing. Parkinson’s is a gift. I’ve said to people it’s a gift and they say, ‘You’re nuts.’ I say, ‘Yeah, but it’s the gift that keeps on taking.’ But it’s a gift and I wouldn’t change it for anything … It’s not about what I have, it’s about what I’ve been given.”
Before ending the panel, the pair were asked to leave the audience with a few pearls of wisdom. In true Doc Brown fashion, Lloyd delivered a line of his own from Back to the Future Part III, telling the audience, “Your future is what you make of it, so make it a good one!” For his part, Fox shared a quote from his favorite movie, Stanley Kubrick’s Doctor Strangelove: “You can’t fight in here, this is the war room,” telling the crowd no matter how crazy things become, just “suck in your breath, go ahead, and carry on.”
The panel marks the latest reunion for the pair, who most recently came together in Aug. 2021 at Awesome Con.