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Feb 27, 2025 By Mark Redfern Photography by Wendy Lynch Redfern and Mark Redfern Web Exclusive

My wife Wendy and I have been to a lot of comic book conventions in recent years, as our 12-year-old daughter Rose has really embraced the experience. She loves seeing all the cosplay and dressing up herself, she gets excited being in the same room with (and sometimes even meeting) actors from some of her favorite TV shows and movies. We’ve been regular attendees of Big Lick Comic-Con (a small local event in Roanoke, Virginia), GalaxyCon in Richmond, VA (which William Shatner speaks at each year), and Awesome Con in Washington, D.C. All of those are fun and recommended events, but Orlando, Florida’s MegaCon felt a little next level in terms of the caliber of the guests and the size of the convention room floor. It felt closer to San Diego Comic-Con, which Wendy and I covered in the mid to late 2000s, although not quite as massive as that.

What attracted us to our first MegaCon was a slew of guests from a trifecta of entertainment properties that our family loves. Firstly, there were multiple notable actors from Doctor Who, the long-running British sci-fi show that I grew up watching and that I made sure Rose also grew up watching. Wendy loves it too. Secondly, there were three actors from Stranger Things. Last year we binged watched with Rose all four seasons and last Halloween she dressed as Max from season 4 and one of her best friends, Sally, dressed as Eleven from season 1. Thirdly, four out of the five main actors from The Breakfast Club, one of Wendy’s all-time favorite movies, were scheduled to appear. Sprinkle in actors from Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Flash. Superman & Lois, Smallville, Arrow, House of the Dragon, The Karate Kid, Star Wars, and Fall Out, as well as major movie stars like Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, and Bryce Dallas Howard, and you had an epic lineup of guests that was hard to resist. The 11-hour drive to Orlando and having to take Rose out of school for three days (taking into account the travel time and a four-day event) certainly gave us pause, but then we decided we’d certainly have a long weekend of amazing memories vs. a forgettable weekend of being home if we didn’t go. So we went for it and had no regrets.

But first, a disappointment. The soft start of MegaCon was on Thursday, but most of the big guests weren’t there until the Friday to Sunday window. Well on Thursday, while we were still driving to Orlando, Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown, Eleven herself, announced that she would no longer be attending MegaCon due to “unforeseen circumstances.” Guests do pull out of conventions all the time. Often it’s due to some sort of scheduling conflict, such as unexpected filming commitments, and it’s understandable that an actor needs to prioritize their career over public appearances. Although guests rarely pull out of cons the day they start. Still, while Rose was super excited to see Brown and maybe even get her autograph, no tears were shed with such a strong MegaCon lineup, including two other Stranger Things actors: Jamie Campbell Bower (Vecna) and Joseph Quinn (Eddie Munson). Jodie Whittaker, the Thirteenth Doctor on Doctor Who, had also pulled out of MegaCon, announcing it over a week before the event but promising to be at MegaCon 2026. We had already met the wonderful Whittaker at Awesome Con in 2023, so her non-appearance was less of a disappointment.

We arrived in Orlando late Thursday afternoon, too late to really do much at MegaCon so we started fresh on Friday morning instead. Our first impression was that the event was a well-oiled machine, with short lines to get in and a well-organized entry system. We arrived in enough time to catch part of the Q&A with Priscilla Presley. The 79-year-old actress was at first best known for being Elvis Presley’s wife (as chronicled in Sofia Coppola’s 2023 film Priscilla), but post her divorce from Elvis she embarked on a successful acting career that included a role in the 1980s primetime soap opera Dallas (she was in 143 episodes!) and starring opposite Leslie Nielsen in the three Naked Gun movies in the late ’80s and early ’90s. “I don’t watch TV,” Presley admitted to Scottish moderator Claire Lim. “We had so many great shows back in the day.” Presley also discussed downsizing from her bigger house to a condo. When asked which role people may not know her for that she loved, Presley replied with a non-acting role: “I really loved being a mom.” Presley’s daughter, singer/songwriter Lisa Marie Presley, tragically died in 2023. Her son, Navarone Garibaldi, is also a musician and fronts the band Them Guns.

Superman & Lois aired its series finale in December. The show’s cancellation was a victim of circumstance. Its network, The CW, was bought by another company that wanted to phase out all the DC superhero shows that had been the backbone of the network’s schedule for years and put in their place cheaper reality shows. Simultaneously, James Gunn was brought in to take over DC’s film and TV efforts and his first movie for the new DCU is this summer’s Superman. Not only did it not make much sense to have two competing live action Supermans, Gunn’s ideal for future DC projects is for most of it to take place in one shared universe. Executive producers Todd Helbing (also the showrunner) and Greg Berlanti would’ve happily kept the series going for several more seasons, but were at least given warning ahead of time that season four would be the last, allowing them a chance to go out on their own terms. Despite being given a smaller budget for the final season, they more than delivered, sticking the landing with an emotional and touching series finale.

The show was a more grounded take on the Superman mythos, with Clark Kent and Lois Lane married with two teenage boys and needing to move back to his hometown of Smallville. At MegaCon the show’s two main stars Tyler Hoechlin (Superman/Clark) and Elizabeth Tulloch, also known as Bitsie Tulloch, (Lois) were on hand to unpack the finale. “I thought it was very bold,” Hoechlin said.

“We wanted Lois and Clark to be really solid in their relationship,” Hoechlin said of the show as a whole, adding that they never wanted there to be a hint of a love triangle with Lana Lang, Clark’s high school sweetheart. Tulloch said she was happy to play a version of Lois who’s a mom, as she has a six-year-old herself, and she also liked that Lois fell in love with Clark first, as opposed to the traditional take of the star reporter falling for Superman and then discovering he’s also Clark. “It ended up being more of a family drama,” she said.

That’s not to say that Superman & Lois didn’t have its share of heroics and action scenes and over the course of the show (as well as his prior appearances on Supergirl and in crossovers with other CW DC shows), Hoechlin wore various versions of the Superman suit. He said his favorite was the one modeled after the costume featured in the early 1940s Superman theatrical cartoon shorts produced by Fleischer Studios (brothers Max and Dave Fleischer), which were the first cartoons to feature the Man of Steel only three years after he first debuted in Action Comics #1. “There was a lot of joy in that suit,” Hoechlin said. In the show it was used in flashback scenes that showed the early exploits of Superman. “As actors we both really loved the flashbacks,” said Tulloch.

Tulloch said she strongly identified with her character. “I think I have quite a lot in common with Lois Lane in terms of the feistiness and determination,” she said. The actress also went to Harvard and is a self-confessed grammar nerd.

Tulloch revealed that she was not a fan of the famous red dress she had to wear in a pivotal episode connected to Lois’ developing cancer storyline in season three, that she also wore again in the series finale, admitting it was very uncomfortable. And she said she wished they had done an episode where Lois got superpowers (as happened in the comic books several times over the years).

Tulloch and Hoechlin had great chemistry onscreen and off and at one point during the Q&A she tried to finish a story he was telling. “We’ve been married for a long time,” Hoechlin joked (for the record, in real life Tulloch is married to fellow actor David Giuntoli, her co-star in the NBC show Grimm).

There are two interesting things that are different about MegaCon Q&A panels when compared to other cons I’ve attended. Most panels at other cons end with questions from audience members, who line up in front of a microphone. Instead at MegaCon fan questions were submitted ahead of time online and preselected by the moderator. While this robs the spontaneity of watching fans interact with the actors, it does mean that the best questions are selected. Some MegaCon panels also incorporated games involving dry erase boards. In the case of Superman & Lois, Hoechlin and Tulloch were asked trivia questions about each other, writing the answers on the white boards. Tulloch knew that Hoechlin had played baseball in college, but Hoechlin couldn’t remember the name of Tulloch’s character in Grimm and eventually lost the game.

From Superman to Lex Luthor, our next panel was with British actor Nicholas Hoult, who is playing the infamous DC Comics villain in this summer’s Superman movie. Hoult has had a varied career that started as him playing the titular boy opposite Hugh Grant in 2002’s About a Boy. Hoult got into acting because his older siblings were doing it. “You’re a kid and you’re aware about this terrible doom that’s impending,” Hoult said, referring to the child actor curse that many warned him about. Luckily Hoult easily transitioned into adult roles, such as playing Hank McCoy / Beast in various X-Men prequels, a role originally played by Kelsey Grammar (Hoult said he watched a lot of Frasier episodes to try and match his performance to Grammar’s). He said he kept the furry feet he wore as part of the Beast costume. “I remember going home one time and my mom was wearing them as slippers,” Hoult revealed. “I’d be open to playing that character again,” he said of Beast.

For his role of Nux in Mad Max: Fury Road Hoult lost 20 or 30 pounds. “It’s an intoxicating, weird place to be,” Hoult said of filming the George Miller film. He also admitted that some of the stunt work seemed quite dangerous at the time, such as when he was hanging from the bottom of a moving vehicle, right next to one of the wheels.

In the last year Hoult has appeared in Nosferatu, The Order, and Jurour #2, which was directed by Clint Eastwood. He’s already appeared in films by some impressive filmmakers, but cited Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Ari Aster, and Sean Baker as some directors he’d still like to work with.

Next up is James Gunn and Superman. While Hoult apologized about not being able to reveal too much about the blockbuster (“I have to be careful about what I say”) he described Gunn as “wonderful” and said “the way he’s approached this world is very smart.”

The early 2000s TV drama Smallville was Hoult’s first real exposure to the Superman mythos and he said he’d spoken to that show’s Lex Luthor, Michael Rosenbaum, about the role. Hoult also said he watched the 2024 documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story before filming Superman. Hoult had originally auditioned for the part of Superman before being offered Luthor, but seemed excited about the role. “There’s so much I want to do with Lex that I hope to play the character for a while,” he said.

In between panels we headed down to the autograph area of the main convention floor. All of the celebrities at MegaCon have their own booths where they sign autographs and meet fans when they aren’t doing panels or professional photo shoots with fans (which you can pay extra for). Autographs can run you anywhere from $40 to over $100, depending on the actor and how big a career they have, and autograph lines can sometimes take hours to get through for the most notable performers, so you do have to be selective on who you try to meet or you’ll spend a whole lot of money and all your time at a convention waiting in line. We had already met Anthony Michael Hall of The Breakfast Club at GalaxyCon in 2024, so we had our sights on meeting Molly Ringwald this time. As the star of several iconic John Hughes teen movies in the 1980s (The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, and Pretty in Pink), she had a huge impact on Wendy’s childhood. We were warned by Ringwald’s handler that the actress doesn’t like to chitchat when meeting fans, but when we met the actress she was interested to know that we had just shown Rose The Breakfast Club for the first time the week prior and inquired about how old Rose was.

Later there was a panel for The Breakfast Club featuring Ringwald and Hall, alongside their co-stars Ally Sheedy and Judd Nelson (only Emilio Estevez was missing from the core teen cast of the film). Moderator Claire Lim got the crowd to sing Simple Minds’ hit song from the movie, “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” before introducing the stars.

Ringwald was still in high school when they made The Breakfast Club and was happy to leave school to make the movie. She joked about hearing “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” in supermarkets these days and being transported back to the movie. At the time of filming The Breakfast Club she was listening to The Cure and David Bowie. Music was a big part of John Hughes’ teen movies and he gave all the actors mixtapes when they were filming. Ringwald said she didn’t like the Bratpack label put on her and other teen actors at the time. “I think in a way it minimalized the work we were doing,” she said.

Ringwald is now 57 and has three kids, two 15 years olds and a 20-something. “Because I did all these teen movies I thought I’d be an expert. I know nothing,” she joked about parenting teens.

Sheedy said that she particularly identified with her more insular character in the movie. “I got to be on the outside with Allison how I felt on the inside all through high school,” she said, adding, “I love that I didn’t have to speak through half the movie.”

Hall was the funniest and most outgoing of the actors at the panel. “I used to joke with my family, I called it ‘The Puberty of Film Trilogy,’” he said of the three films he did with Hughes—Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Weird Science. The actor has had a long and varied career since then and at now 56 years old he joked that he was now a spokesman for the AARP.

Nelson is 65 and the oldest of the main cast. At the panel his cast members kept having to remind him to talk into the microphone so that everyone in the room could hear him. Nelson praised Hughes, saying “John wanted us to be collaborators and allowed us to be collaborators,” which wasn’t the case with all directors they worked with at the time. In fact in 1985 Nelson, Sheedy, and Estevez all also starred in Joel Schumacher’s St. Elmo’s Fire, an experience Nelson and Sheedy compared unfavorably to filming The Breakfast Club.

The actors were all asked where they thought their Breakfast Club characters would’ve ended up as adults.

“I think Bender’s clearly the principal of the school,” said Nelson.

“I think Allison would’ve ended up being a writer. An editor, a writer—something intellectual,” said Sheedy.

“I think Claire got married a few times and then decided she loved women,” said Ringwald.

“Brian might have ended up in Canada and started a tech start-up,” said Hall, referencing his character’s fake Canadian girlfriend.

Before John Hughes died in 2009, he had told Hall he was thinking of writing a sequel to The Breakfast Club. All four actors said that if Hughes was still alive and had written a sequel they’d all agree to appear in it. “We knew that we were filming something unique,” said Nelson, summing up the experience.

We were torn about attending Mel Gibson’s panel. On the one hand he’s had a legendary career as both an actor and director, on the other hand his political views are less than desired and he has an unfortunate history of controversial statements and actions. Still, we caught some of his Q&A and were surprised to find him to be fairly balanced and not as off-kilter as one might expect. One of his most iconic characters was playing Mad Max in George Miller’s original trilogy of films. “I think the second installment was the best. It was just pure. It was just a chase,” Gibson said of 1981’s Mad Max 2 (aka The Road Warrior).

He also spoke about Braveheart, Payback, and Chicken Run and revealed that at age 26 he was offered the part of James Bond, but declined it because he felt that Sean Connery was in a Bond prison for much of his career, not being able to truly move on from the role until he did The Untouchables. Surprisingly there were no questions about Lethal Weapon, probably his biggest franchise (co-star Danny Glover was also at MegaCon but not at Gibson’s Q&A), in the part of the panel we saw, although we left a little early to also catch the panel for the 1970s sitcom Happy Days, featuring stars Ron Howard (Richie), Anson Williams (Potsie), and Don Most (Ralph), who reminisced on creator Gary Marshall, who died in 2016. Howard also remembered Robin Williams, who guest starred as the alien Mork before being spun off into his own show, Mork & Mindy. “Man do I miss him as a talent,” said Howard. “He blew our minds.”

Saturday’s MegaCon crowd was clearly larger than Friday’s. No doubt many bought one-day Saturday passes, which is often the case at comic-cons. Our day began with a panel for the long-running CW show The Flash, based on the DC Comics character. The Flash ran for nine seasons, ending in 2023, and was one of The CW’s most popular shows. In attendance at MegaCon were Grant Gustin (Barry Allen / The Flash), Candice Patton (Iris West-Allen), Danielle Panabaker (Caitlin Snow / Killer Frost / Frost), Carlos Valdes (Cisco Ramon / Vibe), Tom Cavanagh (Harrison Wells / Eobard Thawne / Reverse-Flash), and John Wesley Shipp. Shipp actually played Barry Allen and The Flash in the short-lived live action CBS show The Flash, which ran for one season from 1990 to 1991. He was brought back to the modern Flash to play Henry Allen, Barry’s dad, and later the Jay Garrick version of The Flash, before finally reprising his role as the 1990s Flash thanks to the multiverse being a big plot point in the show. Shipp pointed out that he has been connected to the character of The Flash for 35 years, “as many years as Grant Gustin has been alive,” he joked. “I’ve gotten to look at this franchise from so many different perspectives,” he later said.

“The father-son scenes will always be some of the most memorable in my career,” Shipp also said of working with Gustin.

“Trying not to suck was my main goal,” said Gustin of working on the show. His take on the character was beloved by fans and many wished that he had played The Flash in the movie version instead of Ezra Miller.

Patton said she initially had difficulty playing Iris. “I had trouble rooting for her because it was so one-note on the page,” she said, adding that she found it easier as the show progressed and the character gained more agency.

Panabaker, meanwhile, had lost her voice on the day of the panel (“I’ll find it somewhere”) and had difficulty speaking.

We stayed in the world of DC for the next panel, which brought together several actors who had played Superman over the years, either in live action or as a voice actor: Dean Cain (Lois & Clark), Tim Daly (Superman: The Animated Series), George Newbern (Justice League and Justice League Unlimited), Tom Welling (Smallville), Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), and Tyler Hoechlin (Superman & Lois). Welling came out on stage first, as the other panelists were all running late. He played a teenaged Clark Kent who actually never went by the name Superman in the show. “I think I appreciate the Jonathan-Clark relationship more than I did at the time,” said Welling of his character’s relationship with his father, in relation to Welling being a parent now. “My kids think I’m Superman,” Welling added.

Then the rest of the actors all came out on stage in quick succession. They were asked what the most challenging aspect of getting into the character of Superman’s head was. Newbern said he channeled his older brother, who was an Eagle Scout, when doing the voice.

Hoechlin imbued the character with imposter syndrome (“I think everybody experiences that in some way”) since he is an alien living on Earth. “I played him almost embarrassed of being Superman,” Hoechlin added.

Daly told the story of once being interviewed by Al Roker and how he explained to Roker that a lot of the voice acting involved fight scenes and him making “grunting, straining, screaming, and yelling noises.” And he said to Roker, “Come to think of it, it’s a little disconcerting to think that the children of America have a pretty good idea of what I sound like in bed.” This sent the MegaCon audience into fits of laughter, and Daly added: “The woman from Warner Bros. who was there was like, ‘Cut! Cut! Cut!’ And they sent me a very nice letter asking me to please desist from saying things like that in public.”

Routh said he modeled his version on Christopher Reeve’s take on the character. Cain was also impressed by Reeve’s version and intimidated to take on the role, but decided to just lose himself in the scripts from Lois & Clark, which was a new take on the characters, and not focus too much on the weight of it all. “It’s way too much to think you’re playing Superman,” admitted Cain.

Welling said that he wasn’t really playing Superman, he was playing Clark Kent as a teenager who didn’t know what he was going to grow into. “Clark didn’t know who he was going to be, and I didn’t know what I was doing, so it was kinda great,” Welling joked. He actually had it written into his contract that he wouldn’t ever wear the full Superman suit in the show. And yet Welling said that around episode five they tried to write into the script that Clark would put his Superman suit on and Welling said it “was a business affairs call” to remind them that his contract forbade it. “I think if Clark had put the suit on in the first three seasons we would have never done 10,” said Welling. He did finally wear the suit in the last scene of the series finale, although even then it was just a T-shirt he wore, with the S symbol revealed as he ripped open his Clark Kent shirt.

Catherine Tate did things a little differently. There was no moderator, just her on stage and mainly in the audience, with a microphone getting questions directly from the fans. I’ve witnessed William Shatner do something similar at GalaxyCon, although he sticks to the stage. Tate is at MegaCon mainly because of playing Donna Noble in Doctor Who, although the British actress is also a comedian and had her own sketch comedy show, The Catherine Tate Show, so she was quick on her feet when interacting with the audience. Tate admitted that unlike most of those in the audience, her geek-knowledge was a bit weak. “If you ask me deep cut sci-fi questions—I don’t know,” she said. And to illustrate that point, at her panel she learned for the first time that the TARDIS, the time and space machine in Doctor Who, used to be able to change its outward appearance instead of always looking like a police box. She asked if anyone in the audience could explain it to her and picked Rose, who made me proud by explaining that the TARDIS’ chameleon circuit had broken at some point, leaving it in the police box form.

Tate said that her first episode, “The Runaway Bride,” was her favorite Doctor Who one. She wasn’t available to attend the table-read for the episode and was worried how her chemistry with then star David Tennant (the Tenth Doctor) would be. Luckily they got along great and reunited in 2023 for three 60th anniversary special episodes. She said she felt Donna would’ve also paired well with the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston). Her favorite other Doctor Who companion is the robot dog K9, who was paired with the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith. “Because I like dogs more than people. No offense,” Tate joked.

“I love comedy. I love people who make me laugh. I love to make people laugh,” Tate said and that was evident from her panel, the most hilarious and energetic one of the weekend.

But in a more somber moment, Tate spoke about Bernard Cribbins, who played Donna’s grandfather Wilfred Mott. The beloved actor passed away in 2022 but was able to film some final scenes as Wilfred in one of the 60th anniversary specials just before his death. “I spoke to Bernard days before he passed,” Tate revealed. “And I still have the message he left on my phone.”

Tate ended the panel by inviting fans up on the stage to stand in a line while she walked down it and answered questions in a rapidfire fashion. Rose was one who got up and asked her a question, about the giant bugs she encountered in Doctor Who. If Catherine Tate is at a convention you are attending, make sure to seek out her panel, you likely won’t be disappointed and will be highly entertained.

Tom Welling was back on stage for a panel devoted to Smallville. He was joined by Michael Rosenbaum (Lex Luthor), Kristin Kreuk (Lana Lang), and Erica Durance (Lois Lane). Rosenbaum, who also hosts the Inside of You podcast, was the most energetic of the quartet. “It’s just innate, I always want attention,” he admitted when it was brought up that he was the biggest prankster on set. Smallville debuted in 2001, 11 years before Arrow kicked off the shared Arrowverse world of CW DC Comics shows that included The Flash, Supergirl, and others and eventually led to Superman & Lois. And in the last decade Marvel have also expanded their MCU with various TV shows on Netflix and Disney+. In Smallville’s time there were hardly any superhero shows on the airwaves. “They saw that it worked and they copied us,” said Rosenbaum bluntly of all the superpowered shows that followed Smallville.

Next up was the cast of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, which debuted on Disney+ in December. In attendance were the four main child actors from the show: Ravi Cabot-Conyers (who plays Wim), Ryan Kiera Armstrong (Fern), Kyriana Kratter (KB), and Robert Timothy Smith (who plays Neel, an alien boy whose head looks like an elephant’s). They were joined by the show’s main adult star, British actor Jude Law. There was also a surprise guest, actor/director Bryce Dallas Howard, who directed episode six of the show (and has also directed episodes of two other Star Wars shows, The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett).

The child actors were all incredibly excited to be at MegaCon, as it was their first convention appearance. Howard praised the young cast: “They are unbelievably professional.” She went to college with Jon Watts and Christopher Ford, the creators of Skeleton Crew, which is how she got involved in the show.

The kids seemed to enjoy the experience of shooting Skeleton Crew, which centers on four kids who end up lost in space, far away from their home planet. In their efforts to get home they are aided by Law’s Jod Na Nawood, a pirate captain who was also trained to use the Force. “It was like going to Disney World every day,” said Armstrong.

“It was the weirdest thing when you’d be acting with a droid and doing a math test later,” observed Smith.

Cabot-Conyers spoke about a stunt he had to do in episode one where he fell down a hill. “That was probably the scariest day of my mother’s life,” he remarked. Cabot-Conyers’ birthday was coming up soon, so the whole audience sang “Happy Birthday” to him.

We ended Saturday with the cosplay contest, which featured some next level cosplay and was also the finale of the year-long Masters of Cosplay competition, in which best in show winners from last year’s MegaCon, as well as other cons put on by Fan Expo across the country, competed to take the prize as the best in the country. While Rose and I disagreed with the eventual winner (an amazing MechaGodzilla should’ve won but didn’t even make the Top 3), there was still lots of impressive cosplay to marvel at with the regular cosplay contest that followed. There was also a DJ on stage who played songs specifically suited to each contestant and the character they were dressing up as. And while the judges were deciding on the eventual winner a violinist came out to perform, backed by dance music.

Sunday began with a panel featuring the companions of Doctor Who. In attendance were Billie Piper (who played Rose opposite the Ninth Doctor and Tenth Doctor), Freema Agyeman (who was Martha alongside the Tenth Doctor), Arthur Darvill (the lone male on the panel, he played Rory with Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor), Alex Kingston (who was River Song, The Doctor’s wife, and who acted with the Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Doctors), Jenna Coleman (who played Clara opposite the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors), and Mandip Gill (who was Yaz, the companion of Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteenth Doctor, the first female Doctor). Interestingly Catherine Tate was nowhere to be found, even though she was at MegaCon that day, perhaps preferring to just stick to her solo panel.

The actors were asked about the Doctor Who episodes that most stuck out to them. Kingston responded with “Vincent and the Doctor,” and especially the ending where Vincent van Gogh is taken to a museum in the future to see the true impact of his paintings considering he was so underappreciated in his own lifetime, even though Kingston wasn’t in the episode. Gill brought up “Rosa,” the episode she was in about Rose Parks. “The episode also taught me things I actually should’ve known about history,” said Gill. Piper loved “Father’s Day” because if she had a time machine she’d also go back and visit her parents when they were younger. Agyeman said “The Shakespeare Code” was her favorite, because they got to film at the Globe Theater at night and she got to be on that stage, whereas Coleman was partial to “The Snowmen.”

Darvill said that looking at the variety of different types of episodes that were favorites of his fellow companions illustrate how Doctor Who is deeper than most sci-fi series. “It really shows what this show can do at its core,” he said. “It’s such a positive force and I think it’s the reason why it’s lasted so long. It’s a really rare thing and that responsibility is taken by the writers whilst also having loads of fun. I think that’s why everyone’s here. It’s about family. It’s about community and being nice to each other. It’s wonderful.”

The panel concluded with a game called Stars in the Know, where the actors were asked trivia questions about their fellow companions.

Next it was back to the autograph area, where we met Matt Smith, the Eleventh Doctor himself, after waiting in a long line. He was incredibly nice and gracious and complimented Rose’s purple hair (it was a wig as part of her Murder Drones cosplay), but just before it was our turn someone working with Smith encouraged him to hurry it along because there were still so many people in line behind us and time was running out. So our time with Mr. Smith was brief, but we did come away with an autographed photo.

Later we also met Freema Agyeman, who was as warm as could be and also liked Rose’s hair. Her line wasn’t quite as massive, so she had a bit more time to chat. I told her that one of my favorite episodes she was in was the two-parter “Human Nature” and “Family of Blood” and she agreed that they were some of the best and said she’d heard that from several other fans this weekend. We also joked about how when she was younger Rose was deeply scared of the Weeping Angels, the iconic villain that debuted in an Agyeman episode, the all-time classic “Blink.”

I caught a little bit of the Q&A with Jamie Campbell Bower. The British actor was mainly there due to playing the villainous and monstrous Vecna (aka Henry Creel, 001, and Peter Ballard) in season four of Stranger Things. “Vecna just needs a friend,” Bower joked. He also said that while the extensive Vecna makeup could last for up to 12 hours, “it starts to get a little funky four or five hours in.”

Unfortunately Bower was scheduled against the panel for House of the Dragon. Having binged the two seasons thus far of the HBO show in the weeks prior to MegaCon in anticipation of the event, it was an essential Q&A for me to cover. As well as Matt Smith, who plays Daemon Targaryen, also in attendance was Fabien Frankel (who plays Ser Criston Cole). The two seemed to be friends off-set as well. “We work hard. We play hard,” Smith joked.

Moderator Claire Lim asked the duo about movies and TV shows that were important to them as they were growing up. Smith mentioned The Goonies and was excited that at MegaCon he had met Dante Basco, who played Rufio in 1991’s Hook. Frankel brought up The Mask of Zorro and Star Wars. “And also the cast of Smallville,” he added. “That was a big show for me. I had a huge crush on the lady who plays Lois Lane. I saw her [here at MegaCon] and was very overwhelmed. Every time I look at her I’m like, ‘Oh jeez, don’t look at me.’”

“Oh yeah, that’s who you said good-bye to yesterday,” interjected Smith, referring to Erica Durance. Smith was also excited to see Elizabeth Shue at MegaCon.

Smith and Frankel first met at a bar in London. They had both worked with Jenna Coleman and she had told Frankel that she thought he’d get along well with Smith. So when Frankel spotted him that night he introduced himself. “And five or six or 10 drinks later, that was that,” said Frankel about the start to their friendship.

Lim asked them what they did to unwind at night after a long day at a convention and Frankel admitted that the night before he had rented the Disney animated film Tangled in his hotel room. “You bought Tangled!” Smith exclaimed in disbelief. That led to Lim bringing up that Smith is a known fan of Disney films.

“My favorite Disney films are, in no particular order, but maybe, Beauty and the Beast, Sword in the Stone, Jungle Book, and do you know what I used to like, the Russian one with Michelle Pfeiffer, Anastasia,” said Smith, with help from the audience in terms of the last film’s title. But then he realized Anastasia wasn’t actually a Disney film. 20th Century Fox released it and Pfeiffer wasn’t actually in it, instead it starred Meg Ryan. But during the panel Smith also expressed his admiration for the violent Marvel vampire superhero film Blade, starring Wesley Snipes, and mentioned the opening blood-rave scene, so his tastes certainly weren’t wholly PG.

The panel got quite personal at various points, where they discussed Smith’s challenges with procrastination and both of the actors’ feelings of imposter syndrome. “This is the deepest comic-con panel I’ve ever done in my life,” praised Smith.

Smith and Frankel were asked about their favorite musicians and albums. Frankel mentioned Moon Safari by the French band Air (his mother is French), The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main St., Nas’ Illmatic, and also a Serge Gainsbourg album. When he was a kid he loved Avril Lavigne. Smith cited Oasis, Arcade Fire, Radiohead, and the soundtrack to The Boy and the Heron. He said he loved the film The Boy and the Heron and also loved the recent animated movie The Wild Robot. As a teenager Smith was into Blur and Oasis, but also liked a lot of rap, such as Nas, The Notorious B.I.G., Method Man. In general he said he had broad musical tastes that stretched across genres. “I like to bounce around, mix it up,” said Smith.

The start of Joseph Quinn’s panel conflicted with the end of the House of the Dragon one, but I caught the end of Quinn’s Q&A. The British actor’s career has really skyrocketed in recent years. In 2022 he played Eddie Munson in the fourth season of Stranger Things. Last year he had major roles in A Quiet Place: Day One and Gladiator II. This summer we will be seen as Johnny Storm (aka The Human Torch) in the Marvel film The Fantastic Four: First Steps. He’s also rumored to be playing George Harrison in an upcoming biopic, one of four interconnected movies about each member of The Beatles (Quinn refused to comment on who was his favorite Beatle).

Quinn said he was a big Lord of the Rings fan and would also be up for joining that franchise. Andy Serkis from the original trilogy was also at MegaCon and Quinn said he was starstruck meeting him (even though he’d met him before) and in his mind when he’s talking to Serkis he’s just thinking “Gollum, Gollum, Gollum,” referring to Serkis’ character.

Quinn said that Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman “had a very singular vision for the film,” which takes place in an alternate universe where it’s a futuristic version of the 1960s. When looking at himself in the mirror in his Human Torch superhero costume for the first time, Quinn joked that his first thought was, “I’ve got to do some sit-ups.” He was excited to see everyone else in their suits. The film also stars Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm / The Invisible Woman, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm / The Thing. He said he got along with his castmates right away in the week before they started filming and were doing a read through of the script. “It was a relief that everyone around the table was a funny, silly, talented person.”

Of joining the MCU, Quinn said: “I was very shocked. I couldn’t believe I was being invited to the party. It’s a fantastic party and one that brings so much joy to so many. I’ve been so fortunate to be part of something like Stranger Things that people adore as well.”

And with that, MegaCon was over. Quinn’s panel ran until closing time and when it was over they weren’t letting anyone into the convention floor.

MegaCon was an exceptionally well run convention. Their crowd-control and line-management efforts were impressive. The two main theaters for panels were right next to each other and weren’t far from the convention center floor, so it was easy to get around and to attend many of the panels. Even though the long lines were intimidating, we always got into every panel we wanted to.

With the end of a comic-con always comes a tinge of sadness. You’ve just spent three or four days soaking in fandom for some of your favorite movies, TV shows, comic books, and fictional characters. Sharing rooms with, or even meeting, the actors behind those characters. Being around so many people who share your passion for all things geek. It’s a giddy state to be in and takes awhile to come down from it all. It’s a long drive to Orlando, but if the MegaCon 2026 lineup is as good as the 2025 one then we very well might be back.

www.fanexpohq.com/megaconorlando/

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