Awesome Con 2026, Part 2: The Rest of the ‘Verse

While Firefly received the most headlines from this year’s Awesome Con, there were plenty of celebrity guests for fans to enjoy throughout the weekend.

It’s no secret that Firefly was the biggest story of Awesome Con 2026. with its cast reunion and its animated revival announcement. However, there were a variety of guests for fans to see over the course of the weekend. The panels that I attended were full of insight into past projects and some future teases.

Friday began with a panel featuring video game voice actors Neil Newbon and Devora Wilde from Baldur’s Gate 3. The two actors had a friendly rapport on stage, which has led to both of them starting a podcast together. Newbon also teased his involvement in a new space role-playing game that recently opened for early access, Starfinder: Afterlight, discussing his role as both a voice actor and director on the project.

While there were many fan questions about fun hypotheticals regarding their Baldur’s Gate 3 characters, both provided insightful details about the production of the game. The two described the motion capture process in great detail, revealing that kissing scenes are the most difficult scenes to capture with the headgear and bodysuits getting in the way. Newbon shared that he helped improvise one of Astarion’s last moments in the game, and that it ended up being his last moment on set for the game.

Wilde shared that she didn’t remember her last moment on set since she was called back in so many times after she was told that her work was finished. On playing the character of Clea in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, she shared how much she enjoyed playing a more villainous role and loved the opportunity to play the character, even if it was a smaller role than Lae’zel.

The next panel I was able to attend featured Gillian Anderson. While she answered numerous questions about her body of work, it was no surprise that she was asked about the legacy of Dana Scully and the currently in development X-Files reboot. Anderson admitted that she was initially hesitant to do television, and didn’t know at the time how impactful her character would be for generations to come.

When discussing her full body of work, she spoke about the variety of roles that she’s gotten the opportunity to play over the course of her career. When discussing the Netflix series Sex Education, she discussed how thrilled she was about getting the chance to try comedy and confessed that comedy is much harder than she expected. Anderson also shared how great the younger members of the cast were and how dramatically different it was to film season one of the series pre-COVID, and then returning to the set some time after the start of COVID.

On the upcoming X-Files reboot, Anderson gave no definitive confirmation that she would be a part of the project, but did not deny any involvement. She did share that she’s had conversations with series showrunner Ryan Coogler and that she’s read the pilot script. Though she admitted that the script would be a new take on the series, she expressed confidence in Coogler’s vision and urged fans to give it a chance when it’s released.

The final celebrity panel I was able to attend featured several cast members of Critical Role. Taliesin Jaffe, Sam Riegel, Alexander Ward, Luis Carazo, and Whitney Moore took the stage and provided insight into the current campaign as well as the extended universe of Critical Role.

There were numerous questions about the group’s characters in this campaign, as well as the fan reaction to the new characters and cast members. When asked their opinions about making a decision that benefits an individual character over the entire party, the cast indicated that a character making an independent decision makes for a more interesting story.

Jaffe and Riegel discussed the process of filming advertisements for sponsors during the campaign, admitting that many of the actors don’t know what they’re filming until before the cameras roll and that a few sponsors in the initial years balked at the campaigns as written, but less so as they’ve become more familiar with the series. The cast teased that the next season of The Mighty Nein is currently undergoing sound mixing and shared that the current campaign’s multiple tables will eventually convene for one massive table campaign later in the season, a chaotic endeavor that took quite some time to film.

Beyond these panels, Awesome Con 2026 also featured a number of panels with cast members of Star Trek, Stranger Things, The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Who, and many more. Though there wasn’t much room for guests from smaller fandoms, there was still something for nearly everyone.

Awesome Con will return in April 2027, and will hopefully continue to have an awesome array of guests.

Author: Jessica Wolff

Jessica Wolff is a graduate of Drexel University with a BS in Film/Video. She has a passion for entertainment and representation in entertainment. She currently resides outside of Washington, DC.

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