Examining Fan Expo Vancouver’s upcoming guest list
By Brittney MacDonald, Life & Style Editor
For those of you who have lived in Vancouver for more than a year, you may recall Fan Expo, our large-scale, annual comic and sci-fi convention. This year, the convention will take place November 11–13 at the Vancouver Convention Centre, near Waterfront Station. As per usual, the guest list for the event has been a carefully-guarded secret, but as we slowly near that fateful weekend, various celebrity and artist names have been released, much to the excitement of many a nerd.
The convention staff have already proven they want to go big, offering up a plethora of guest names that are obviously meant to appease all kinds of fans. To be honest, there are some hits, though also some definite misses so far. Going section by section, let’s take a look at the highlights.
In the category of TV and Movies, we have returning fan-favourites Carrie Fisher, best known for her role as Princess/General Leia from the Star Wars franchise, and John Barrowman, who will be joining us from the Doctor Who and Arrow universes. Joining Barrowmen from the Arrow crew will be David Ramsey, Paul Blackthorn, Caity Lotz, and Neal McDonough. Whovians will also be pleased to know that Alex Kingston will be gracing us with her presence, Vancouver’s Browncoat population will be glad to see Firefly’s Jewel Staite, and Potterheads will be excited to meet Tom Felton. But the stand-out new face that most Vancouverites will be excited about has to be Dean Cain, better known as Superman!
Anime fans have much to rejoice about, considering that the feature voice actors this year will include Sailor Moon herself, Linda Ballantyne. She will be joined by Susan Roman, who voiced Sailor Jupiter. Alongside them we have an impressive line-up from Dragon Ball Z, including Chris Sabat, Eric Vale, and Ryo Horikawa—the original Japanese voice actor for Vegeta. For those of you looking for something a little more recent, Trina Nishimura, the voice of Mikasa from Attack on Titan, will also be in attendance.
Fans looking for something a little more literary will have the pleasure of meeting Bruce Timm of DC writing and artist fame, best known for his works in the Batman franchise. Other notable names will be Kevin Smith, Jae Lee, Brian Stelfreeze, and Matt “Batt” Banning. Examining the comic guest lineup, we can see a definite DC theme going on, so get your bat-shark repellant ready.
Moving on to the cosplayer guest list, there’s definitely some room for improvement. Besides Vancouver favourite Evilyn13 and headliner Meg Turney, the names they’ve announced so far are relatively unknown to the masses at large. This has left many fans scratching their heads, seeing as in previous years Fan Expo has attracted bigger and better costuming superstars.
As we draw closer and closer to November 11 you can expect to see more and more names announced, so stay tuned and keep your eyes opened for some familiar faces.
