WonderCon 2026 - Highlights

WonderCon, a place where nerds gather to share their art, show off their cosplay and sell merchandise based off some of their favorite film franchises. The Anaheim Convention Center welcomed attendees from March 27 through March 29th in Anaheim, CA. I was there covering the convention as Press and things were a little bit different this year than previous years. Lower attendance levels, a lot of open space in the vendor halls, and not as many big panels or cosplayers. WonderCon has always been a smaller convention, but I had never seen it this empty before.

There were a lot of factors that played a role in this. This event was held the same weekend as three other major conventions. They also raised the price for general admission. With gas prices in California being what they are, I understand people deciding to skip the con to save money. That said, I hope they have a better outcome next year and do more marketing for the convention. I love attending WonderCon, so whenever I get the chance to go I always do. I went on Saturday and Sunday. I was excited to shop in the vendor hall and was a bit let down. They seemed to have a lot of the same vendors selling the same stuff and vendors reselling things at twice the price. That’s normal to find at conventions, but the frequency of it kind of turned me off from shopping, to be honest. Somebody referred to it as a “swap meet” and I genuinely felt bad for the vendors and independent artists there who had to put up with being placed next to some of these other vendors. I think the biggest pro with the vendor hall was Artist’s Alley. I noticed that part of the hall was always packed with people. I had a friend who went there first thing in the morning when it opened to get a commission from one of his favorite artists. I’m happy people were showing up to support artists. There were also some cool autograph opportunities like with the cast of Marvel’s Rivals. Spenser Starke, the lead designer for Daggerheart was there. They had some of the Aliens cast as well. At one point I saw a booth for Jim Cummings and was like, “Winnie the Pooh is here??” I don’t even think he was announced on WonderCon’s website. 

One of the other activities I enjoy at WonderCon is attending panels. I like that they do a lot of behind the scenes panels with film industry professionals who have worked or currently work in the film and TV industry. I sat in on a panel about the set design for the Disney+ show Wonder Man. Panelists included: Lizzie Boyle, Nicole Riley, Avery Ferguson, and was moderated by Rae Deslich. These ladies talked about all of the different jobs that make up the set department. It was interesting to hear the process of how decisions get made and who handles which aspect from sourcing the materials, to working with vendors, to physically dressing the set. 

There was another panel I sat in on that was about storyboarding for commercials, movies and TV. The panel was made up of artists who work in those specific genres of media. Something interesting that I learned was that they all have to know camera angles. Not only do they need to be good artists, but they need to know how to draw camera shots and movements and they need to know what those shots mean and how it affects the scene. They’re kind of doing the work of a camera op, director and artist at the same time when they’re building out these storyboards.

If you’re big into D&D or the tabletop game space, then this convention has a ton of panels themed around that as well. I attended a panel for ProgCore Fantasy Dark Age of Theer. Panelists included: David Nett, Todd Stashwick, Brian Ward, Drea Letamendi, and Charity Stashwick. They talked about their system agnostic tabletop multi-media project that leans heavily into the themes of Wonder, Mystery and Danger bringing back that old school D&D vibe. Panelists talked about some of their own personal influences behind creating this world lore. In their sourcebook there are a number of short stories written by some of the panelists as well as by other contributors that are there to help inspire your own creative thinking. It’s easy to put a step by step “This is how you use our materials/resources” but instead they give you examples which is way more helpful, in my opinion.

Another panel I sat in on was about nerds raising their nerd children. While I am not a parent, I enjoyed this discussion. It was interesting to hear how different generations cling onto certain things. Like I grew up watching a lot of 80’s and 90’s movies even though I was a 90’s baby. I wasn’t old enough to see Jurassic Park in theaters and I wasn’t born when E.T. or Jaws came out, but I love those movies. We hold onto a lot of the things from our childhood and from the past. I don’t think there will ever be a time where no Star Wars fans exist. Some things are timeless and will live on forever. It’s nice to see that even the younger generations are still open to exploring “old” content and technology.

The last panel I saw was about the psychology of The Lord of the Rings moderated by Brian Ward. Panelists included Todd Stashwick, Drea Letamendi and Miranda where they were randomly given a character from either the book or films and had to dissect them. I am not well versed in Tolkien at all, so I had no idea who most of these characters were. However, that kind of made it fun because I learned a lot about them just by listening to the panelists talk about them. I felt like I was in Tolkien class. It was great. That room by the way was PACKED with people. An 8PM panel being that full, especially a WonderCon panel kind of blew my mind. Lord of the Rings fans don’t play. They show up in droves to support the thing that they love. I respect it.

I had a good time at WonderCon 2026 despite the vibes feeling off. There were more photographers there than cosplayers, which is never a good sign so hopefully next year they can pull in more people or come up with some kind of compromise for increasing ticket prices like offering more entertainment or bringing in higher profile guests to the show.