I attended my first WonderCon and it was an amazing few days. There was so much to see and do that as someone covering the event, you need a minimum of three on your crew…or you need to work in tandem with other colleagues from other outlets to cover all the panels and one-on-one interviews.
Ratchet and Clank: Bella Thorne, James Arnold Taylor, David Kaye, director Kevin Munroe and producer Brad Foxhoven. Bottom: Bella Thorne taking a selfie with the audience for Entertainment Weekly
Here’s my recap on the things I covered at the event:
We started with the Futurecasting and Timeline Salad panel that featured writers Charlie Jane Anders (All the Birds in the Sky), James Morris (The Three Kingdoms Trilogy), Greg Van Eekhout (California Bones trilogy), and Elizabeth Briggs (Future Shock). They talked about Dragons, witches, elemental forces, alternate timelines, time travel and so much more!
TMNT2: Stephen Amell, Megan Fox, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller
Our second panel brought back so many memories of my son’s pre-teen years and one of his favorite PlayStation game, Ratchet and Clank. And now we have the movie coming out at the end of April. The panel included director Kevin Munroe (TMNT), joined by Bella Thorne (voice of Cora), James Arnold Taylor (voice of Ratchet), David Kaye (voice of Clank), producer Brad Foxhoven and moderator Tiffany Smith, host of Fandango’s Movie3Some series. They talked about their understanding of the love for the Ratchet and Clank characters and described how they really tried to do them justice in this first film based on the game. The snippets of the film we saw were really cool and fun. The producer and director gave Bella Thorne all the credit for the social media awareness for the film’s fan base. And my son and I can’t wait to check out the film.
Scorpion: Ari Stidham, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Robert Patrick
Wayward Pines: Ashwin Rajan, Donald DeLine, author Blake Crouch, M Night Shyamalan, Djimon Hounsou and Jason Patric
Later in the afternoon we checked out the panel about one of the summer’s most anticipated movies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, the newest film in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The panel included actors Stephen Amell, Megan Fox, producers Andrew Form and Brad Fuller. They spoke about how excited they were to introduce characters in this film that they weren’t able to ‘fit in’ to the last film. And I have to admit, what they showed us was really fun to watch. The Turtles are in theaters, June 3.
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Jeff Bell, Luke Mitchell, Henry Simmons, Elizabeth Henstridge, Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Zoe Bennet and Clark Gregg
Day Two was a busy day; I started with the Wayward Pines panel, then later I did interviews with the producers and a couple of the new cast members (watch the video below), Wayward Pines season 2 to begin on May 25.
I followed up with Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; they talked about losing two of their longtime characters and how it has been hard but good for the series too.
Sleepy Hollow: Nikki Reed, Lyndie Greenwood, Zach Appelman and Jessica Camacho
Later, we watched a full episode of fan favorite geniuses, Scorpion. After the Scorpion screening, I did a round of interviews with some of the cast of Sleepy Hollow, whose third season is winding down.
I ended the day by walking the floor to see what else was going on. You can see some of the photos here.
I thank Jesus Figueroa of thisfunktional for our tag teamwork on the interviews below. — A.O.
Photos: ©2016 Angela María Ortíz S.
