MCM Comic-Con London May 2022 Round-Up – Cosplay Photos, Videos & Special Guests!

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It was a (mostly) sunny weekend in May, and MCM Comic-Con returned to London for their first event of 2022, much to the joy of geeks around the UK.

If you’ve never been to MCM Comic-Con London before, the three-day celebration takes place at London’s ExCeL Exhibition Centre and is filled with everything a geek could wish for. There are guests from tv, film and comic book, alongside piles of geeky merchandise, video games, comic books, and lots of stunning cosplay.

The show this time around was an interesting one, as it was the first show since all the COVID restrictions had been completely relaxed, and everything felt “normal”… Well, as “normal” as you get for a Comic-Con where multiple Spider-men are dancing around with Batman and a Disney princess… The show was also back at full capacity, with a number of the days sold out, so very much MCM back in full, and in a big way!

I’ve been covering the MCM events for a number of years now, and the people you meet there always impress me with their openness and friendliness. You would be hard-pressed to find a more tolerant, diverse, and inclusive environment to be in. MCM is one of the most friendly places in the world where you can be yourself, whatever that may be. If you’re a six-foot guy with a beard and want to go as Cinderella, feel free. If you’re five foot nothing and cosplay as the Hulk, paint yourself green and have fun! You’re awesome, you look great, and no one will judge you (unless you enter a cosplay competition, then judges will judge you, but you rather signed up for it, and they will be lovely about it, so it’s all good!)

Below is a walkthrough video from our friends over at Comic-Con News, to give you a taste of the fun you can have at MCM Comic Con London.

The Guests

MCM Comic Cons have multiple elements which draw the crowd. Some come for the cosplay, some just to meet friends and soak up the atmosphere, and many to buy their geeky merchandise. However, one of the big things you can do is meet many of the guests who work on tv, film and in comic books.

Back at the October event last year, they featured big-name Marvel stars such as the cast of ‘Loki’ and ‘Daredevil’. This time around, MCM seemed to have chosen to focus the guest selection on a more specific genre, in this case, animation and anime. This meant stars of series such as ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ and ‘Legend Of Korra’ with Dante Basco and Janet Varney; The cast of ‘My Hero Academia’; And voice artists such as Erika Harlacher, Doug Cockle and Ross Marquand.

In addition to those people, there were a few other tv guests such as Ross Marquand’s ‘Walking Dead’ castmate Dan Fogler; David Ajala from ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ and ‘Supergirl’; Tracy-Ann Oberman from things such as ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Toast of London’, and ‘Friday Night Dinner’; And the always entertaining Robert Sheehan from ‘The Umbrella Academy’ and ‘Misfits’.

In addition to those people, there were a number of popular online stars such as CDawgVA & Trash Taste guys, the group from D&D podcast Oxventure, along with legendary(..?) filmmaker and comedian, Ashens.

So, overall, not as many “big name” stars, but an interesting selection nonetheless. The only issue we had in covering the event was the guest’s popularity… Due to the number of people queuing for photos and autographs, it was proving impossible to drag them off the main floor and into a press room for the exclusive chats we usually manage to record. However, we did manage to film clips of some main stage panels with a few of the guests, which you can find below.

Avatar: Last Airbender/Legend Of Korra Panel At MCM Comic-Con London with Dante Basco (Zuko) and Janet Varney (Korra)

This panel featured Janet Varney, the voice of Korra in ‘Legend Of Korra’, and Dante Basco who voices Zuko in ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’. I have to admit, I know nothing about either of these shows, but it was lovely to see the enthusiasm they brought to the stage and the love they clearly have for both series and their characters. NOTE: MCM only allow us to post short clips, not the full panels, so this is a playlist of all the clips from this panel together (7 videos in total).

Robert Sheehan Panel (‘The Umbrella Academy’ and ‘Misfits’)

The next panel featured the wonderful Robert Sheehan, probably best known for his roles as Klaus in Netflix’s ‘The Umbrella Academy‘ which returns for Season 3 this week, and playing Nathan in Channel 4’s ‘Misfits’. He was such a fun guest to watch as he told stories ranging from working through COVID on ‘Umbrella Academy’ Season 3, to the joke that went a little too far on ‘Misfits’… NOTE: MCM only allow us to post short clips, not the full panels, so this is a playlist of all the clips from this panel together (5 videos in total).

Voice Artist Panel With Doug Cockle, Erika Harlacher & Ross Marquand

The last panel featured three great voice actors – Doug Cockle, best known as the voice of Gerald in The Witcher games; Brilliant mimic Ross Marquand, who is actually best known for his live-action role as Aaron in ‘The Walking Dead’, but also is an amazing voice talent having played Ultron in the ‘What If…?’ series, along with providing voices in ‘American Dad!’, ‘Family Guy’ and ‘Invincible’; And lastly, prolific voice actress Erika Harlacher, who has worked on things such as ‘Violet Evergarden’ (Violet), ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’ (Elizabeth Liones), ‘Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler’ (Yumeko), ‘Genshin Impact’ (Venti), ‘Persona 5’ (Ann Takamaki), & so much more! NOTE: MCM only allow us to post short clips, not the full panels, so this is a playlist of all the clips from this panel together (3 videos in total).

Indie Comics

I’m not sure what happened to the time this weekend, but I really only managed to get a quick look around Artist Alley. However, it was packed full of extremely talented indie comic book creators and artists. I did spot a few books I’m familiar with, such as the folk at TPub who have a great and varied selection from the hugely popular ‘Twisted Dark’ series, to the 1920s set ‘Theatrics’, to twisted sci-fi ‘The Theory’. Check them all out here.

Other books worth checking out include ‘Robyn‘, a gender-flipped take on Robin Hood, with an interesting ‘Oliver’-type twist to it; Reckless Hero comics with ‘Knights vs. Pirates‘, which sees Blackbeard face off against King Arthur; And Lyndon White’s dark and sinister storytelling in ‘Hexes‘.

The Cosplay

No Comic-Con would be complete without the cosplayers, and they were out in full force with some spectacular creations! Along with wandering around taking photos of the brilliant cosplay at the Con, I also managed to get some shots from the Cosplay Masquerade on Saturday, along with the Cosplay Central Crown Championships: UK Qualifier. Below you’ll find all of our cosplay photos from MCM Comic-Con London in May 2022.

If you are in any of the photos, thank you for posing, and if you want the high-res version of the pictures, just message me via the contact page, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram and I’ll send them over.

I’ve also included some of my cosplay photo edits below, but I’m still working through them, so even if your unedited photo is here, make sure you subscribe to our Instagram feed, as a full-edit version may pop up!