Category - News
40 Years Later, 'Back to the Future' Stars Recreate One Iconic Moment
Depending on your age, you may or may not be able to recall the name of the Principal of Hill Valley High in Back to the Future. If you said "Mr. Strickland" without thinking, you are definitely of the generation that watched the trilogy on repeat on VHS tapes. But, even among that group, can you name the actor who played him?
The man is James Tolkan, who also played an FBI agent in WarGames (1983), the cop in Masters of the Universe (1987), and the guy who rides Maverick's ass in Top Gun (1985). But, his role as Mr. Strickland in all three Back to the Future films is easily his most famous, especially the moment when he calls Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) a "slacker."
Recently, at the in-person convention FanExpo New Orleans, Tolkan and Fox recreated this iconic moment in which Mr. Strickland sticks his finger in Marty's face. It's all part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of the original film, which will be happening around the world throughout 2025.
The convention also saw Michael J. Fox reunite with Huey Lewis of the band Huey Lewis and the News. In the original film, Huey Lewis contributed two epic songs to the soundtrack, "The Power of Love" and "Back in Time." In the film, Lewis cameos in an early scene in which Marty's band, "The Pinheads" plays at High Valley High's Battle of the Bands.
In the scene, as the band plays an instrumental version of "The Power of Love," Huey Lewis busts out a megaphone, and says "I'm afraid you're just too darn loud." At Fan Expo New Orleans 2025, Huey Lewis put a megaphone right in Michael J. Fox's ear.
And if that wasn't enough, at the same convention, Fox also got his picture taken with William Shatner. Just one year after Back to the Future, in 1986, Shatner starred as Captain Kirk in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home in which he and his crew traveled back in time in a spaceship that they stole from a Klingon commander played by...Christopher Lloyd, AKA Doc Brown in Back to the Future!
So yes, in the '80s both Shatner and Fox traveled through time using vehicles that were previously owned by Christopher Lloyd. Maybe that's why, in this 2025 photo, Shatner is wearing a vest that looks like he was 100 percent inspired by Marty McFly.