Fan Expo Canada has come and gone this past weekend and it was filled with excitement, a little bit of chaos and tons and tons of fans and nerds celebrating their beloved fandoms. In all of the years I’ve attended Fan Expo I have never seen more chaos and excitement for one Joseph Quinn, and I’m talking about previous years when celebrities like the entire cast of Star Trek TNG were at the show, Mark Hamill and Kevin Conroy, Stan Lee (who we all dearly miss), but Joseph Quinn managed to top them all and made Fan Expo do something, I don’t think they’ve ever done before, but more on that later.
On Thursday we had an amazing sketch Duel between Dan Parent, Scott Chantler, and John Delaney who all told stories as they had to quickly sketch some audience suggestions which were aimed to be retro ideas. Nathan Mitchell and Jessie Usher from the hit Amazon show THE BOYS also gave fans a sneak peek into the behind-the-scenes making of The Boys with stories about the show and a fan Q&A. Paige O’Hara the legendary voice behind Belle from Beauty and the Beast also lead a panel too much fanfare and excitement, as well as a Q&A session with My Hero Academia’s Jason Liebrecht! To round out Thursday, there was a second sketch duel with Arthur Adams, his wife Joyce Chin and Yanick Paquette, that provided to have a more adult-themed Q&A as they sketched with what Arthur Adams described as some of the most insane and terrible ideas for drawings. Such as The Hulk doing Yoga and Sasquatch attached to a bumper. The fun truly is never predictable and can never stop at Fan Expo!
Some of the Friday highlights consisted of a Q&A panel with Cowboy Bebop star Steve Blum, a Q&A with legendary voice actor Troy Baker, a conversation with the Canadian Cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, more sketch duels a Q&A with the legendary Captain Kirk himself William Shatner, a panel with LeVar Burton, another legendary voice actor panel with Nolan North himself and that was just the first half of Saturday! There is so much fun and variety of fandoms that go on within Fan Expo that there truly is something for every fandom going on all weekend. It is an event unlike anything else in Canada and has to be experienced to be believed.
Continuing with our Saturday, some more highlights of Saturday afternoon into the evening were, a panel with Samwise Gamgee himself, Sean Astin, a spotlight on current Batman writer Sean Gordon Murphy, a spotlight on some of the actors from the smash hit Kevin Smith movie, Clerks, Brent Spiner, and a Q&A with Stranger Things Star, Grace Van Dien! All of this was packed into one incredible day at the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto, Ontario. Lastly, a special ticketed event for THE KIDS IN THE HALL! It truly makes one wish they had a DeLorean so they could go back and see every single panel as there is truly not one event you could miss from this year’s expo!
Saturday is one of the most insane days at Fan Expo, as not only is it the busiest body-wise, but it is also the most jam-packed with panels and fun things for the whole family to enjoy. Some of the memorable highlights from Saturday were Billy Boyd from the Lord of the Rings franchise, Katee Sackhoff from Mandalorian, Superman and Lois with Tyler Hoechlin and Bitsie Tulloch, a Star Wars Legend himself, C3P0 – Anthony Daniels, Dominic Monaghan from Lord of the Rings, Caity Lotz and Jes Macallan, a panel on one of the most inventively messed up family-friendly creature flicks, PSYCHO GOREMAN, Matthew Lewis aka Neville Longbottom, Michael Rooker, Jamie Campbell Bower whose everyone’s favourite child-murdering monster VECNA, Eric Bauz and friends who did the most incredible rendition of Drake’s Hotline bling in character voices such as Bugs Bunny, Professor Farnsworth, Yako, and Sombra from Overwatch. An extended, intense, insane panel with all four hobbits, and Jay and Silent Bob Do Toronto. There is always so much madness and excitement on a Saturday at Fan Expo that there is never a shortage of incredible nerd culture to be devoured and enjoyed by all.
Sunday provided more signature nerdgasms, with Breaking Bad and Mandalorian star Giancarlo Esposito who managed to scare the entire audience while inspiring them delivering lines with gusto and terror as he breathes fear into his victims, I mean audience. Elijah Wood, Frodo made a rare appearance, and shockingly most if not all of the panel was related to video games or Over the Garden Wall. Lastly, legendary voice actors Billy West and Rob Paulson came and talked about their incredible careers from Futurama to Ren and Stimpy and Pinky and the Brain, these masters of their craft have so much love and appreciation for their fans and acknowledge that without the fans they wouldn’t be able to be where they are today.
Now that is a wrap on Fan Expo 2022 and we hope to see you next year at Fan Expo!
