October is the season of haunted houses, corn mazes and Halloween costumes. This year’s student costume forecast calls for a lot of Avengers and Star Wars characters.
BYU students often pull all the stops to design the perfect individual, couple or group costume. They showed up to campus on Oct. 31, 2014, dressed as Scooby-Doo and his gang, Team Rocket and even Tinder profiles.
This year, it looks like many students will dress as their favorite Marvel superheroes in honor of the release of “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” according to a Qualtrics survey.
Sophomore Soren Larson said the Ultron installment was one of the first movies he saw after his mission and the inspiration for his Halloween costume. Larson will dress as Thor, and his roommates will dress as other characters from the superhero squad.
The Avengers aren’t the only box-office toppers that will roam Provo this weekend. “Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens” won’t open in theaters until December, but students are already picking up lightsabers and putting on helmets.
Mickey Comp, a senior majoring in media arts, is wearing 13 costumes in the 13 days leading up to Halloween. She said she’s excited to dress as a Jedi on one of those days.
“I’ll take any excuse to pretend I’m a futuristic knight that flies through space,” Comp said. “I’m definitely going to the midnight premiere dressed as a Jedi, so this is just another chance to get psyched for the new movie coming out.”
Students will also continue the popular Provo trend of dressing as characters from animated movies. BYU becomes an unofficial kingdom for Disney princesses and Pixar heroes every Halloween, and characters from other studios make their way onto the scene too.
Freshman Amayrani Gonzalez is debating whether she should dress as Penelope from “Wreck-It Ralph” or Agnes from “Despicable Me.” She said she wants to go shopping before making her final decision.
Other students’ costume of choice will reflect back on the biggest movements and trends of the year. The Qualtrics survey showed that Donald Trump will be a popular costume choice.
Sophomore Cory Pinegar said he is going to wear jeans and a T-shirt that says “Netflix,” and one of his friends will wear a T-shirt that says “Chill.”
“I think it’s a funny costume, and it’s not prototypical,” Pinegar said. “Two years ago, no one would have known what that means, and two years from now, it won’t be funny. It’s trendy.”
But not everyone is quite ready for the holiday. Junior Mikela Rindlisbacher said her friends are dressing as everything from a ladybug to the Hulk, but she’s still looking for her costume idea.
There are only a few days to go until Halloween, but costume-less students still have time to plan before Saturday arrives. And for those who don’t like to dress up, October still offers its fair share of corn mazes and haunted houses.
