Awesome Con 2022: Washington DC’s Premier Fan Convention

It’s that time of year again! Time for PopCultureManiacs’ resident East Coast American to trek into Washington DC to report on the goings-on at the biggest fan convention in the Capital area: Awesome Con! While last year’s convention was all about recovery and the return of fan events during “Difficult Times”, this year celebrated much more of a return to normal, with high profile celebrity guests and an overall relaxed attitude. The show was still somewhat small in comparison to Pre-COVID events, but the energy was high, with fans eager to gather together and share their passions with like-minded nerds. 

In my recap article from last year, I was mostly just able to report on the convention’s existence in the landscape of the pandemic. The programmers were clearly more focused on making sure the event actually happened than on creating headlines in the fandom community. This year, however, was packed with high-profile guests talking about their current and upcoming film and TV projects. From Stranger Things’ Noah Schnapp to Shang-Chi stars Simu Liu, Meng’er Zhang, and Florian Munteanu, to Captain Carter herself, Hayley Atwell, this year’s Awesome Con was not messing around in regards to its guest appearances. 

While the Shang-Chi panel was incredible, the cast is unfortunately very well trained on how to not spoil future projects they might appear in, frequently joking that Disney was listening in on the event to monitor them. They did, however, shed some fascinating insight into the action and impact of their initial MCU appearance. You can tell these three really got to know each other well through their months of fake fighting each other. Simu Liu is incredibly charming and hilarious in person, which makes sense given his foundation in the Canadian comedy scene. Although he campaigned hard on Twitter for the role of Shang-Chi, he explained that his eventual casting in the film actually had nothing to do with that, as Kevin Feige told him he didn’t check Twitter. And although he couldn’t say if this could ever actually happen on film, Liu does want to “have a friendly conversation” with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man after No Way Home destroyed pandemic box office records previously set by Shang Chi. 

The real highlight of the weekend, however, was C3PO actor Anthony Daniels, who didn’t do a traditional fan panel so much as he did a 45-minute one-man show. Daniels is 76 years old, but was still running all around the auditorium (he did most of his panel from the audience), taking questions, telling stories, and interacting with fans. Unlike some performers who are somewhat ashamed of their iconic roles, Daniels happily did the voice and said the lines we all wanted to hear. I was particularly struck by his love for both the prequel and sequel trilogies, stating that Rise of Skywalker gave him his favorite scenes to act. His high energy and thespian love for the craft had the crowd hooked from the start. I have been covering Awesome Con for various websites for the better part of a decade now, and yet this unconventional performance was hands down my favorite thing they’ve ever done. If Anthony Daniels is appearing at a fan convention near you, I could not recommend going more if I tried. 

All in all, this was a very successful year for the convention. It’s clear that they still have some more growing to do to build back up to the level they operated at pre-pandemic, but all things considered they put on an incredible fan event. If you find yourself on the East Coast this time next year, I’d definitely suggest grabbing a mask, buying a ticket, and wading through the crowd of Variant Loki cosplayers to experience this one-of-a-kind DC spectacle. 

Stay weird, DC.