The Gateway to the Capital
Despite being frequent con-goers on the East Coast, we’d never heard of Awesome Con. It’s likely due to Awesome Con being primarily for celebrity autographs, with more focus on talent than fans. It also seems to move timeframes quite a bit — this year it was in March, next year it’s in April. Stepping into the Walter E. Washington Convention Center immediately made it clear how Awesome Con has matured into the Mid-Atlantic’s premier pop culture hub, with over 60,000 fans in the heart of Washington, D.C..
The convention center itself is enormous, with an Exhibitor Hall rivaling Gen Con’s in size (if less vendors present), with the Main Stage—Ballroom A, B, and C—reserved for the big announcements and panels. The programming for 2026 was fairly balanced, offering a blend of celebrity panels, a Science Fair, Artist Alley, and a dedicated focus on Pride Alley for LGBTQ+ creators. To put Awesome Con’s sheer size in perspective, it has over 700K square feet of space compared to Gen Con’s 566K (to be fair, Gen Con has an additional 152K from Lucas Oil stadium). The convention center is so large, it somehow makes the attendance (600K remember!) feel small.
Awesome Con 2026 has a sprawling Tabletop Gaming Room that ran sessions from morning until late night. There was a heavy emphasis on D&D 5E and Pathfinder, with several Learn to Play workshops specifically designed to onboard new players into the hobby. The programming featured high-energy events like D&D Improv, where professional performers took audience suggestions to build chaotic live adventures, and niche panels deep-diving into world-building and indie RPG design. Beyond the dice-rolling, the Exhibitor Hall was packed with specialized TTRPG vendors—perfect for scouting those premium metal dice or custom minis—and the Cosplay Competition saw plenty of heavy hitters from the Critical Role and Baldur’s Gate 3 fandoms taking the stage. I bought some really great Inspiration chits and spell trackers from Fyre and Ashe.
The TTRPG scene was headlined by heavyweights from the Critical Role and Baldur’s Gate 3 cast, including Neil Newbon, Devora Wilde, Sam Riegel, and Taliesin Jaffe, who hosted packed panels on the Main Stage discussing narrative design and their iconic characters. Beyond the celebrity draw, the gaming floor featured a robust Indie Showcase where players could dive into systems like Trench Crusade, Monster of the Week, and Blood on the Clocktower, or even playtest unreleased titles at the “Break My Game” booth. The programming balanced these high-profile Q&As with hands-on sessions for Vampire: The Masquerade and Cypher System, ensuring that fans of both mainstream actual-plays and niche indie mechanics had a dedicated space to roll dice and explore new worlds.
Friday the 13th
The first major panel we attended was the collaboration between Adam Savage and space history curators from the National Air and Space Museum. This session focused on the “interrelationship between fictional visions and possible real futures.” Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame, editor-in-chief of Tested.com and a board member of the Smithsonian), explained how he bridged the gap between making and myth-busting.
The curators discussed why icons like the X-Wing or R2-D2 are on display at the National Air and Space Museum, arguing that these sci-fi artifacts embody the public’s enthusiasm for imagined space futures—some of which eventually become reality. Savage emphasized that many of the technologies we see in the Museum’s “Futures in Space” exhibition—such as resource extraction and commercial tourist spaceflight—were first play-tested in the minds of writers and filmmakers.
Later that evening, in Room 204 ABC, we attended the “X-Files Fan Retrospective: Celebrating The Legacy of The X-Files“. This session provided an exclusive look at a new documentary featuring 100 original interviews with cast and crew. The creators, Lauren and Carly, have spent years documenting the show’s cultural impact, including Zoom interviews during the pandemic with legends like Melinda McGraw and Nicholas Lea.
The retrospective wasn’t just a highlight reel; it was an archival deep dive. We learned about the ordered chaos of the original production from prop master Ken Hawryliw. Hawryliw, who passed away recently, was instrumental in creating the look of the series, from the faceless alien fire wands to the specific types of photographs used as crime scene evidence. He noted that the props were often built to feature film quality because they knew they would face extreme high-definition close-ups.
The discussion also touched on the return of writers Glen Morgan and James Wong in the legendary episode “Home,” and how they drew inspiration from Charlie Chaplin’s autobiography. The takeaway was clear: the fandom keeps the series alive decades later by treating the show’s mythology as a living, evolving world. That would hold true for the Firefly panels later on.
Once We Were Spacemen
Saturday is the true test of any convention: crowds are denser, cosplay is more ambitious, and the Main Stage is where the action is. It’s worth noting that though the convention center is enormous, this year seemed like the largest yet — that was no doubt due to the anticipation of Nathan Fillion’s announcement about Firefly. That would have to wait until Sunday, but that didn’t stop us from arriving two hours early to get a seat for the 10:00 AM “Once We Were Spacemen” panel, a live recording of the podcast hosted by Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk. The podcast is a Collision33 production where the two former spacemen (from their Firefly days) get to know fellow creatives and explore who they once were.
The atmosphere was electric. Before the show started, audience members handed out glow sticks with instructions to sing “Happy Birthday” to Nathan and Alan, both of whom were celebrating March birthdays. When they hit the stage, the ballroom erupted in song. Fillion and Tudyk spent the session sharing stories that were whimsically nostalgic, touching on everything from their first impressions of guests like Molly Quinn to the challenges of eating on camera. A standout moment occurred when they teased handmade gifts for question-askers but ended up giving away the actual watches from their wrists. We sat next to a little girl and her dad who got a chance to ask a question (jury’s still out on whether or not she knows what a watch is!).
At noon, the Main Stage transitioned to “Oh My! It’s George Takei,” a conversation moderated by Kevin Gilligan. George Takei, a living legend of the Star Trek franchise, arrived to our surprise in a wheelchair due to recent foot surgery. He discussed the delicate balance between his career as an actor and his life as a social activist and shared anecdotes ranging from his journey fighting for the rights of people everywhere to the systemic silences he has fought against throughout his career.
The Saturday marathon continued at 1:00 PM with “Ron Perlman: From Hell to Anarchy,” moderated by Maggie Lovitt. Ron Perlman’s career spans decades, from the unforgettably stone-faced Hellboy to the gritty, high-stakes world of Sons of Anarchy. Perlman and Lovitt were not a good fit for each other. Lovitt likes to explicate on her questions in detail; Perlman is a simple guy who was suffering from jet lag. Her first question elicited a “huh?” from him. It was a little painful to watch.
Perlman discussed how his roles often involve characters who are eccentrics from far-flung lands or figures in absurd, often violent situations. He touched upon the intense storytelling of Sons of Anarchy, noting that the consistent freshness of the show over seven seasons was due to an exceptional cast. But mostly he made it clear he’s a working actor who does what he’s told, when he’s told, and loves the energy from fans but is surprised to get it at all — to him, the character is owned by the creators, not the actor.
The Big Reveal
Sunday at Awesome Con 2026 is usually a lighter attended day for most cons, but since Awesome Con started later (Friday afternoon) the schedule was packed with heavy hitters that prevented any late-weekend burnout. The highlight of the entire convention occurred at 10:15 AM: the full Firefly reunion. Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Gina Torres, Morena Baccarin, Summer Glau, Sean Maher, and Jewel Staite took the stage to discuss heists, romance, and “cursing your sudden but inevitable betrayal”. We all knew there’d be an announcement — several of the actors are no longer on the Hollywood scene — so it was just a question of what they would announce that could possibly justify all of them showing up to teh conventionat once?
The panel reached a fever pitch when they finally announced it: a brand-new Firefly animated series is currently in development. The show is set during the chronological gap between the original television series and the film Serenity. The cast revealed they already have a pilot script, showrunners, and an animation house. However, they emphasized that the project’s future depends on the fans. They launched a mission for Browncoats (Firefly fans): engage with the announcement on Instagram and show “the powers that be” that the fanbase is still ready to fly.
Directly following the Firefly high, Gillian Anderson took the stage at 11:15 AM. Moderated by Dory Jackson, the session celebrated Anderson’s legendary career, from the skepticism of Dana Scully in The X-Files to her powerful roles in modern television. Anderson reflected on the lasting impact of her characters and how they helped shape the modern landscape of television and film. Like Perlman, she professed surprise and real pressure in being the embodiment of a character she didn’t feel she fully owned; but then came to embrace Scully as someone SHE could aspire to as well.
A Big Con
Awesome Con 2026 is big. The enormous convention center is so large it’s easy to feel like there’s not that many people in attendance. This year, there certainly were, enough that it strained the food services available and staff openly expressed dismay about how crowded it got. To that point, Awesome Con also seemed to struggle with lines. The lines to enter the main ballroom (which we avoided the first two mornings since we came so early) snaked all away around the upper floor and then blocked access to the elevator, a legally-required egress for a significantly disabled population.
Awesome Con also moves daters frequently. The reason for this is understandable; the convention center is quite popular, so Awesome Con “fills in the blanks” for when there is availability. But this unpredictability means fans show up when they can, and one year’s experience can be very different from another. Unlike the steady, inevitable growth of Gen Con, Awesome Con hops weeks and even months year-to-year. This year, the stars aligned for us and the for the Firefly cast, which is likely why Awesome Con’s staff seemed surprised by the sheer volume of attendees.
And of course, the reason for all that popularity was surely the Firefly announcement. In a world where AI can be fed data on past shows to make new ones, Fillion is making an early claim to ownership of a brand that — like Anderson and Perlman explained — they don’t typically own. Fillion surely knows this, and the announcement of an animated series maps out a path that can’t just be fed into an AI generator with their voices. The fan excitement in the room was palpable, straining the ballroom’s space to the limit, but it was also something only real flesh-and-blood actors can bring.
Awesome Con next year is April 23-25 (see what I mean?). We probably won’t go. But for my wife’s birthday, over Friday the 13th, on a special weekend in DC where Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk decided to share some very special news…this year, it was magic.
Your Turn: Ever been to Awesome Con? What were your past experiences there?
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