Aweseome Con, Part 2: From New York to a Galaxy Far, Far Away

Guests from Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe provided interesting insights and fun moments at their Awesome Con panels this past weekend.

Fans turned out in droves for this past weekend’s Awesome Con in Washington, DC. The headliners of this year’s event included Ahsoka’s Rosario Dawson, Hayden Christensen, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Marvel’s Alaqua Cox and Charlie Cox. The enjoyable panels provided interesting behind-the-scenes details and fun moments throughout.

Saturday opened with Echo star Alaqua Cox, which required a unique setup with two sign language interpreters to help Cox answer moderator questions. Cox discussed her struggles being deaf and an amputee. One of her favorite parts of playing Echo was the costume, enjoying the indigenous symbols woven in and the impact of being an indigenous, deaf superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

She explained how thrilled she was that the crew took the time to learn basic sign language to communicate with her on set. When filming scenes with Kingpin, who doesn’t use sign language, the crew put a buzzer on her to indicate when it was her turn for her lines. Cox also shared that her favorite superhero other than Echo is the Hulk, stating her admiration for Mark Ruffalo and his advocacy work.

Staying in the Marvel Universe, Charlie Cox was next to the stage. Like his panel at GalaxyCon Columbus, Cox had to be careful in answering questions since the newest iteration of Daredevil, Daredevil: Born Again, has yet to air. While continuing to answer questions regarding filming previous seasons of Daredevil, Cox shared a funny story about how he and Andrew Garfield went out to lunch during the filming of Spider-Man: No Way Home, but quickly realized that they had to remain incognito in the restaurant due to their appearances in the movie being secretive.

When Ahsoka’s Natasha Liu Bordizzo took the stage, she admitted that she initially didn’t know what she was auditioning for. She was instructed to read a scene from Top Gun and encouraged to play the scene as cocky as possible. Upon getting the part, she initially believed that she was joining the cast of The Mandalorian rather than spinoff Ahsoka. Bordizzo shared that Rosario Dawson was one of the funniest people on set, expressed her admiration for creator Dave Filoni’s wealth of Star Wars knowledge, and paid tribute to late co-star Ray Stevenson as she discussed how much she enjoyed working with him.

The most attended panel of the convention was the last one of Saturday evening: Hayden Christensen and Rosario Dawson. Fans could pay for premium seating access, but thankfully there were still seats available for general admission guests. Christensen and Dawson opened the panel by discussing their friendship, which began years ago in acting school. When discussing filming their scenes together for Ahsoka, Dawson discussed how the crew was in awe when Christensen stepped onto set due to their lifelong love of Star Wars.

Christensen shared that he enjoyed getting to explore an aspect of Anakin that hadn’t previously been portrayed in live action. Despite the well-publicized backlash to the prequel trilogy, Christensen praised the positivity of the Star Wars fandom. Dawson expressed similar sentiments regarding the fandom and mentioned her own experience meeting the late Carrie Fisher years ago.

When asked about their potential legacies, Christensen was excited that playing Anakin and being a part of something as impactful as Star Wars would transcend his own career. Dawson confessed that she wanted to be remembered as a storyteller and cited the numerous roles she’s gotten to play and the casts she’s gotten to be a part of throughout her career, including her reunion with her Josie & The Pussycats cast mates that day.

While Awesome Con 2024 featured a variety of panels for guests to attend, the biggest ones featuring the event’s headliners were entertaining. Though a relatively standard part of the major convention experience, the fun of getting to know the guests for a short period of time made the experiences worthwhile for fans.

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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