In 1966, Shatner was a cast in the original STAR TREK as Captain James T. Kirk, a role that would make him a cultural icon. Though the series initially had difficulties finding a wider audience, Shatner’s unforgettable persona across three seasons helped spark a revival of Star Trek as a popular movie series. Shatner reprised the role of Kirk in seven Star Trek films, ending his run in Star Trek Generations with the death of his beloved character.

For weeks now, Wizard Entertainment has been promoting the heck out of their Chicago Comic Con (a.k.a. Wizard World Chicago) convention, and the fact that Star Trek’s William Shatner and Sir Patrick Stewart would be there. However, Wizard has just informed fans that Stewart has canceled his appearance at the convention. The reason was cited as “production scheduling conflicts.”

A few weeks ago we reported that Star Trek’s William Shatner (Captain Kirk) and Patrick Steward (Captain Picard) would be attending Wizard Entertainment’s Chicago Comic Con. Yesterday, amidst all the crazy San Diego Comic-Con news, Wizard announced that they have added five additional Star Trek guests to their Chicago Comic Con 2010 line up.

Wizard World Chicago Comic Con attendees can check out dozens of the latest and greatest gaming titles when SFX360 (www.SFX-360.com), a worldwide multi-platform, multimedia gaming community, introduces “The Gamers Haven,” a mix of free play and tournaments of the most popular games like Transformers. Singularity, Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, Modern Warfare 2, Gears Of War 2, Halo 3, Crackdown 2, Red Dead Redemption, Super Street Fighter IV, Madden 11, and Kane & Lynch 2. SFX360 will be showcasing the Mafia II Demo all weekend as well.

It will be like a trip to the Batcave for “Batman” fans as Burt Ward, who played “Robin” in the original television series, makes his first trip to Wizard World Chicago Comic Con, August 19-22 at the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill. Ward, who was a huge hit at Anaheim Comic Con in April, joins Adam West (Batman) and Julie Newmar (Catwoman) as Chicago Comic Con guests from the popular program, which ran from 1966-68 and has lived on for decades in syndication.