Wales Comic Con December 2022 Panels – Star Trek, Walking Dead, Last Kingdom, Doctor Who, Stranger Things & More!
Wales Comic-Con returned once again to take over Telford once this weekend and brought with them their usual impressive array of guests from across the geeky spectrum, and we managed to be there to bring you some of the panels!
If you’ve not been to Wales Comic-Con before, they often have some of the best line-ups of guests in the UK convention calendar, and this year was no exception. They included people from tv shows such as ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Star Trek’, ‘Star Wars’, ‘The Walking Dead’, ‘Gotham’, ‘Rings Of Power’, ‘Outlander’, ‘Stranger Things’, along with video games such as ‘The Last Of Us’, ‘Resident Evil’, and ‘Halo’, plus so much more.
The event itself takes place across three massive halls of The International Centre in Telford. The layout consisted of three large halls, filled with artwork, posters, comics, toys and all the usual wallet-draining geeky paraphernalia you would expect from a convention. There was also a small “Talk Stage” room off the main corridor, along with another stage out on the main floor. The atmosphere at the event, as it is with a lot of Comic Cons, felt inviting and very inclusive, with lots of people enjoying the merch, and chatting away with friends and cosplayers. Unfortunately, due to the number of panels I was covering this time, I didn’t really get to see much of the cosplay this time around, but the few bits I did see as I wandered around were impressive!
There was a slight change this year from previous years, where they were only utilising the downstairs of the venue, rather than the larger upstairs theatre room. I don’t know if this was a financial choice, or whether the larger theatre wasn’t available for some reason, but this rather reduced availability for some of the panels, which seemed like an odd choice given the guest lineup. The panels themselves were brilliant though, with many packed to capacity.
Generally, Wales Comic Con is extremely well-organised and a lovely friendly place to be. They did have a few issues with guests cancelling last minute, but when you have so many guests, that really can’t be helped. If the guest is ill, gets an unexpected acting gig, or clash with a project, these things happen. There was still a fantastic gathering of faces from tv, film and games, and I would highly recommend picking up a ticket for the event when it returns in 2023.
The Guest Panels
Both Saturday and Sunday were packed full of guest panels across two stages at the venue. Unfortunately, I can’t record all of them, either because there is only one of me, and I can’t be at two places at once, or in some cases, the guest had requested not to be filmed. However, I can bring you eight of the panels from both days at Wales Comic Con. This was also a new hosting gig for the lovely WeeClaire, who will be a familiar face for those of you who attend other Cons around the country, or if you caught our interview with her a few weeks ago on the Behind The Scenes podcast.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Panel – Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, Christina Chong & Jess Bush
The first panel we have is for the brilliant ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds‘, which featured four of the cast – Anson Mount who plays Captain Christopher Pike, Ethan Peck who stars as Science Officer Spock, Christina Chong who portrays La’an Noonien-Singh, and Jess Bush who plays Nurse Christine Chapel. Oh… and a little four-legged extra special guest, who happily settled on Ethan’s lap for most of the panel!
If you haven’t yet caught the show, ‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’ is based on the years when Captain Christopher Pike manned the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise, prior to a certain Captain Kirk taking command. If you want to catch up with the series, you can find it on Paramount+ in the UK and USA. Season 2 is set to debut in 2023.
The Walking Dead Panel – Ross Marquand, David Morrissey & Michael Cudlitz
The next panel was for a show we love here at Geektown… ‘The Walking Dead‘. The apocalyptic zombie drama came to an end recently (or at least the main show did, there are a multitude of spin-offs!) so Ross Marquand, David Morrissey & Michael Cudlitz came along with Wales Comic Con to talk about it.
Ross Marquand starred in the series as Aaron, one of the leaders of Alexandria. David Morrissey played Philip “The Governor” Blake, the main antagonistic of seasons 3 and 4. Michael Cudlitz played Abraham Ford, a former military sergeant taken in by Rick’s group in season 4. Cudlitz also returned to the show in later seasons as a director.
You can find all 11 seasons of ‘The Walking Dead’ on Disney+ in the UK.
The Last Kingdom Panel – Mark Rowley & Arnas Fedaravicius
Next up is the panel for Netflix series ‘The Last Kingdom‘, which featured stars Mark Rowley and Arnas Fedaravicius.
Adapted from Bernard Cornwell’s bestselling series of books, Netflix’s epic historical drama ‘The Last Kingdom’ is a story of redemption, vengeance and self-discovery set against the birth of England, as it follows young warrior and outsider, Uhtred (Alexander Dreymon), on a fierce mission to reclaim his birthright.
Mark Rowley stars as Finan, the fierce Irish warrior sworn to Uhtred. Arnas Fedaravicius plays Sihtric, the bastard son of Kjartan who Uhtred took into his service.
If you want to catch up with ‘The Last Kingdom’, you can find all five seasons on Netflix. There is also a follow-up movie, ‘The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die’, due to land in 2023 on the streaming service.
Resident Evil Panel – Neil Newbon
I must confess, I’m not hugely into horror video games, however, the ‘Resident Evil’ panel with Neil Newbon was delightfully entertaining! And if you’re wondering about the person in the audience he points to when he talks about “people of a certain age”… Yes, that was me…
Neil is an actor, voice-over artist and motion capture performer. For the ‘Resident Evil’ franchise, Neil played Nicholai and Nemesis in ‘Resident Evil 3: Nemesis’. He also performed as Karl Heisenberg in ‘Resident Evil Village’. His other video game work includes playing Elijah Kamski and Gavin Reed in ‘Detroit: Become Human’, and work on ‘Star Wars: The Old Republic’. You may also know him as Simon Walker in ‘Hollyoaks’.
Doctor Who Panel – Sylvester McCoy, Peter Davison, Jemma Redgrave, Janet Fielding & Sophie Aldred
Doctor Who panels at comic cons are always a bit of a crap shoot as to exactly who will turn up, but we landed a really great group with this one. We had two Doctors – Sylvester McCoy and Peter Davison, alongside two companions – Janet Fielding and Sophie Aldred, and the head of UNIT, Jemma Redgrave.
All five of the panel were in Jodie Whittaker’s finale episode, ‘The Power Of The Doctor’, so much discussion about that, along with some suggestions for new spin-offs now Russell T Davies is back in charge, and they have those Disney+ bucks to spend! A wonderfully fun panel all around!
Torchwood Panel – Eve Myles & Gareth David-Lloyd
After a ‘Doctor Who’ panel, what better than a ‘Torchwood’ panel! Here we were joined by Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd to chat through their work on the series, alongside talking about their continuing work with Big Finish on the audio dramas.
We last saw ‘Torchwood’ back in 2011 with the ‘Miracle Day’ miniseries, but with Russel T Davies now back behind the TARDIS controls, there is a bit more of a chance we might see some of the team return to our screens… Well, we can live in hope!
Stranger Things Panel With Brett Gelman, Alec Utgoff & Andrey Ivchenko
Whilst they might not be the main cast, Brett Gelman, Alec Utgoff & Andrey Ivchenko were brilliant guests for this ‘Stranger Things’ panel. If you need a little reminder, Brett Gelman plays the wonderfully entertaining former investigative journalist Murray Bauman, introduced in season two. Alec Utgoff played Russian scientist Dr. Alexei in season three, whilst Andrey Ivchenko played Grigori, a Russian soldier and hitman, also in season three.
Gotham Panel With Drew Powell
The last panel on Sunday was for ‘Gotham’, the much-loved drama which followed the story of the crime-ridden city prior to the arrival of the Dark Knight. Drew Powell played Butch, who went through something of a major transformation over the seasons! Butch was initially second-in-command to Fish Mooney in the Falcone crime family, before being brainwashed to serve her former umbrella boy Oswald Cobblepot/Penguin. However, in later seasons, after being “murdered” by Penguin’s other henchmen, he returns as supervillain Solomon Grundy!
On a side note, apologies for the last few minutes of the panel. As it was the last panel on Sunday, and the battery on the camera finally gave out, but the audio was still recording, so it ends with some photos and audio only.
Mark Sheppard Panel
Lastly, we have a panel with the irrepressible Mark Sheppard. You may know him as Crowley in ‘Supernatural’, for his role as Willoughby Kipling in ‘Doom Patrol’, or his current gig as Hagan in ‘Walker: Independence’. However, you may also know him from (deep inhale…) ‘Battlestar Galactica’, ‘Doctor Who’, ‘Warehouse 13’, ‘Leverage’, ‘Chuck’, ‘CSI’, ‘White Collar’, ‘Dollhouse’, ‘Firefly’, ‘Burn Notice’, ’24’, ‘MacGyver’, or any of the other hundreds of shows he has popped up in over the years!
Mark is always interesting and has a wonderful perspective on life and the world, so I wanted to post this video, however, there were a couple of issues with the recording. Firstly, a technical one, as the separate audio feed didn’t record, so this is the audio direct from the camera, which isn’t as clear. Secondly, Mark moves around… a lot… This is great for the crowd in the room (which is what he is there for!), but do make it much trickier to film, so there is a lot of the back of Mark’s head! So apologies for the quality here, but still worth a watch and listen!
If you want to know more about Wales Comic-Con, you can find their website at walescomiccon.com. It’s a really fun event I can totally recommend, and well worth a visit when they return in 2023!
