Our first day at WonderCon was Saturday, March 30th. While the convention starts the day before on Friday, I think Chris and I were amongst the majority in opting to attend the con only on the weekend.

The convention is held every spring at the Anaheim Convention Center. It’s organized by Comic Con International, the same group that organizes San Diego Comic Con. In comparison, I would say WonderCon is a lot smaller, but not in a bad way. More like there’s so much more space and it’s not as hectic (looking at you, Hall H).

Since the convention center is conveniently flanked by hotels, we went to the Hilton to grab some drinks to start our day. WonderCon, like many conventions, has many cosplayers in attendance. So in true convention fashion, the Starbucks was filled with people dressed as their favorite characters.

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We then headed into the exhibit hall. The great thing about WonderCon is that it takes advantage of how spacious the Anaheim Convention Center is. There are so many artists and vendor booths, but the aisles are wide and easy to navigate. We were able to browse for a while before heading over to the Arena for Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. panel.

If you’ve been to SDCC, the Arena would be the equivalent of Hall H. Only this time, we didn’t have to spend the whole day before sitting in line to get access; we showed up approximately 20 minutes before the panel began and were able to walk right in and still get seats in the front section of the arena, about 15 rows away from the stage.

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The panel was hosted by producer Jeph Loeb, who announced that the upcoming sixth season of the show would premiere on May 10th on ABC and that the first episode of the new season was directed by none other than Agent Phil Coulson himself, Clark Gregg. After that announcement, the panelists were introduced. In attendance were
members of the cast: Clark Gregg, Elizabeth Henstridge, Iain De Caestecker, Natalia Cordova-Buckley, Henry Simmons, & Jeff Ward, and showrunners Jed Whedon, Maurissa Tancharoen, and Jeff Bell. Lead stars and fan favorites Ming-Na Wen and Chloe Bennet were unable to attend due to their filming schedule.

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To everyone’s surprise, rather than a teaser for the new season, attendees were treated to the whole first episode of the new season. I won’t spoil anything, but it was pretty damn good. Great job, Coulson.

The screening was then followed by a fan Q&A. One person asked if the decimation that occured in Avengers: Infinity War would impact the show. In a very roundabout way Jeph Loeb fielded the question, saying that with Avengers: Endgame coming out two weeks before the season premiere, we would be able to see if or how the films tie in with the show.

After the panel, we headed back into the courtyard to see some more cosplayers, including the cosplay group Toxic Dawgs Cosplay. (Our interview with them will be up soon!)

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We went into the exhibit hall to do another round of browsing through the vendors and ended our day by strolling into artist alley, where we got commissions done by one of our favorite artists Bordin Marsinkul a.k.a. Hyperbooster Studios.

One out of two days down for WonderCon 2019! Follow our instagram to see what we’re doing in real time, and check back for our recap of our Sunday at WonderCon.

Written by Nik Jermaine
Photos by Chris Nelson & Nik Jermaine