Wizard World Chicago took over the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois this past weekend and Hypable was lucky enough to attend and experience everything it had to offer!
When it comes to comic cons, Chicago really pulls out all of the stops. Wizard World Chicago not only had some of the best talent that’s currently on TV and the silver screen, but also drew in large crowds of dedicated fans. There’s nothing quite like the con atmosphere and Wizard World Chicago totally nailed it.
Over the course of three days, we experienced quite a few panels and saw so many awesome things. Here are just a few highlights that we think you’d really enjoy.
The Cosplay
While there actually weren’t as many cosplayers at Wizard World Chicago as we had expected, the ones that were there were awesome. From video games, to movies, to TV shows, all mediums were represented by some pretty hardcore fans. We loved the enthusiasm demonstrated not only by the cosplayers themselves but by the other attendees as well when they would take pictures with the cosplayers.
One trend that we noticed was that there were SO many Black Widow cosplayers. It was AWESOME. Little kids, adults, even men. The appreciation for Black Widow was definitely present. (Can we get a movie now?!)
We posted a few of our favorite cosplayers on our Instagram, including a really great Kaylee Frye cosplayer (who does that for a living), a pretty impressive Peter Quill and Gamora duo (pictured), and a Captain America who donned his classic motorcycle mission outfit. We also saw quite a few Groot cosplayers (mostly kids, interestingly enough) and a pretty great Rocket Raccoon. Other notable mentions include a Lego Captain America, a pretty impressive Stan Lee, and zombie Star Wars characters. To see more photos of cosplayers at Wizard World Chicago, check out their photos from their costume contest!
The exhibitors and artists
There were no Groot Funko Pop Vinyls to be found anywhere. They were sold out within the first few hours of the first day (Thursday). Even though we were really disappointed that we couldn’t find one, we have to admit that that’s pretty impressive, especially since the upcoming Baby Groot Funkos were announced before Wizard World Chicago started.
There was, however, Groot art aplenty in the Artist’s Alley, quite a few which included Rocket as well. We actually bought a print that had both Groot and dancing Baby Groot on it and may or may not be totally in love with it. Winter Soldier art and gifts were also pretty popular, as were Power Rangers and Star Trek merch. We especially loved to see quite a few booths dedicated to Harry Potter and other literary works, as well as just word art in general.
There was really a wide variety of artists and vendors at Wizard World Chicago which meant that there was a little bit of something for everyone, including those who may not be huge Marvel or superhero fans. We’re not lying when we say that after just an hour of walking around the convention center, we truly wanted to buy everything.
The panels
Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan’s ‘Winter Soldier’ panel/comedy hour
Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan are quite the duo. Even though they didn’t have many scenes together in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, they have a ton of chemistry. The two of them know it too because when asked what kind of genre they would like a Bucky/Sam Wilson Marvel movie to be, they answered a buddy cop or rom-com kind of movie. Mackie took it a few steps further, saying that he imagines the two fighting over Black Widow as a love interest and having Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers in a sort of wacky neighbor-like role (which we’d totally love to see!).
On a similar note, when asked what they think Captain America 3 will be about, Mackie said that he could see Steve and Sam looking for Bucky and then the three of them becoming a sort of “three-man duo” (his words, not ours). They’d “save the world, beat up Batman and Superman, and have a theme song.” Again, we’d be all for this.
One more item of note during this panel is that both Stan and Mackie each have another Marvel character in mind that they would want to play if they didn’t already have their roles. While Stan would choose Dr. Strange, Mackie would totally go for the ever-feisty Rocket Raccoon. We could definitely see both of them in those roles, especially Mackie.
So many other hilarious things happened during this panel that we couldn’t possibly touch on all of them. But we know from experience that you’ll be able to read about a lot of them on Tumblr! Just search for “Sebastian Stan” or “Wizard World Chicago.” It’s all there (including Stan and Mackie’s response to “Chris Evans’ left boob grab” tendency).
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