Fan Expo Canada had many panels this year (as per usual), and while much information is old news, there were a few things we learned.
Fan Expo Canada is now at an end. After attending multiple panels throughout the weekend, we’ve rounded up the highlights. Information varies from vague teases on yet to be released shows, to interesting facts and stories from old movies you may not already know. Take a look below and see what you find the most interesting!
Hayley Atwell – ‘Agent Carter’
- Hayley started Dubsmashing backstage as a way to pass the time.
- While season 1 of Agent Carter was about dealing with grief, season 2 shows Peggy moving on. She’s processing something as painful as loss, and has hope that life will provide an opportunity for greater contentment and companionship.
- Season 2 will also explore Peggy’s background a bit more, providing explanations for some of Peggy’s torments.
- We also haven’t seen the last of Dotty, and there will be more of her in season 2.
- Hayley thinks that there are more men than women who inspire Peggy.
- Peggy would definitely survive the Hunger Games!
- As to who would win in a fight, Peggy or Melinda May, Hayley said that each have such different fighting styles, and they would probably stop fighting just to admire each other’s moves. They’d then realize they have no reason to fight and would get drinks together.
- In one of the scenes when Peggy is at the cafe where Angie works, Angie asks if Peggy wants the ‘regular.’ So what is Peggy’s regular? “Black coffee with a shot of bourbon.”
Jenna Coleman – ‘Doctor Who’
Much like Karen Gillan (see below), Jenna’s panel was not too informative. There were many kids who asked questions, most of which were not very good questions, and quite a few were repeated.
- If Jenna could be another companion, she’d be Amy Pond.
- She has taken three things from set. First, Clara has a line about a clockwork squirrel, and the props department made one for no apparent reason. Jenna got to take this. The other two props are from the new season, so she couldn’t say what they are.
- Jenna does not know how to make a soufflé!
- On Clara’s future, she said that she’d like if Clara could stay a teacher.
- Teasing the new season, she revealed that Clara has new perspective on life. She’s lost much of what’s important to her and doesn’t fear her mortality anymore. She’s more reckless this season.
- This season we’ll see vikings and the return of the Zygons.
- Moffat makes Jenna do the Dalek voice in the new season.
Tom Felton – ‘Harry Potter’
- Firstly, Rupert Grint also attended Fan Expo Canada, and it was his first ever convention. Hopefully there’ll be more to come in other cities!
- You probably already know that Tom initially auditioned for Harry before landing Draco, but what you may not know is that he also auditioned for Ron. He did about five auditions, and dyed his hair each time (brunette, red head, and blond).
- In the first couple of films, the child actors were afraid of one of the crew members. Chris the neon whistle blower would get the kids’ attention to focus by blowing on his (neon) whistle.
- Despite popular belief, there were only two copies of each wand, one regular version and another made of foam used for running scenes.
- For the last few Harry Potter films, the cars were searched for stolen props as cast and crew left the lot. Tom and the others joked about handcuffing Daniel Radcliffe and putting him in the trunk of one of their cars to see what the reaction would be. To no one’s surprise, Dan was completely down for the plan.
- Items may have been difficult to take from the Potter set, but Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a different story. Tom managed to get the stun baton and the utility belt.
- Tom explained what the ‘red card system’ was on the Harry Potter set. Every time you interrupted the shoot with laughing or your phone going off, you’d have to put 10 pounds in a jar (this money would then go to charity). Rupert’s jar was the most full, with about 2000 pounds.
- Given the opportunity, Tom would play Lucius Malfoy in the ‘4D remakes’ that are sure to come in the future.
- Finally, Tom graciously said that he has no bad memories of Canada. But more importantly, the craft services (the food on set) here is amazing.
Karen Gillan – ‘Doctor Who’
Unfortunately, Karen’s panel didn’t enlighten too much. Many questions were repeated, and most of the discussion consisted of things we already knew. Of course, Karen was a delight nonetheless, full of energy and enthusiasm, and she tried her best to give different answers.
- We really didn’t get any information on Guardians of the Galaxy. All Karen revealed is that her character, Nebula, won’t necessarily be bald in the second installment. And by that she means that she hasn’t yet been told whether she’ll need to shave her hair or not.
- During Matt Smith’s regeneration episode, everyone was rather somber, especially Matt and Jenna Coleman. Karen felt a certain responsibility to ‘cheer the mood’ so she thought it would be funny to sing Another One Bites the Dust.
Mads Mikkelsen – ‘Hannibal’ + ‘Casino Royale’
Spoilers for season 2 finale and beyond
- There was a rather unfortunate incident in the interrogation scene with Daniel Craig in Casino Royale. The chair was made of plastic and had a false bottom, and after a couple of blows it broke (“I think it’s actually in the film, you can hear a scream that is slightly different”).
- The bodies in the morgue were a combination of both live actors and fake dummies.
- The crazy fight scene between Hannibal and Jack in season 2 was done almost entirely by Mads Mikkelsen and Laurence Fishburne. Stunt doubles were only used once or twice. They trained for about 3 weeks and filmed it in 16 hours.
- In season 3, episode 12, the part where Hannibal eats Chilton’s lips was not in the script.
- Mads was recently cast in Star Wars: Rogue One, but he admitted that he hasn’t actually seen a Star Wars film (“yet”).
James and Oliver Phelps – ‘Harry Potter’
- In The Goblet of Fire, there’s a scene where Fred and George attempt to put their names in the Goblet. Their entrance is rejected and they begin to age rapidly, growing long beards and gray hair. According to James and Oliver, those beards/hair wigs were roughly $10,000, so the hair and make up department was quite apprehensive of rough housing and ruining the wigs.
- When James and Oliver went to the first read through, they still didn’t know who would play which part. The casting director walked around the table to consult with director Chris Columbus, producer David Heyman, and JK Rowling. She then came back around and pointed saying “You’re Fred, and you’re George.” They jokingly (or perhaps not so jokingly) suspect that they were just given their part randomly.
- Oliver said that his Patronus would be a sloth, and James said that his would be a hedgehog “because they’re cute…”
- Setting the record straight, Oliver explained how he really prepared for Fred’s death scene. In order to cry, Oliver said that he thought of sad things, but additionally, a make up artist blew eucalyptus powder in his face.
- They also cleared up the rumors about them switching places during filming. The truth is that the absolute only time they ever ‘switched roles’ was during a wide shot of the Great Hall. During rehearsal they sat in a certain spot beside each other, and for the real take they switched spots. That’s it.
- J.K. Rowling told them who their characters were based off of (but they didn’t go into more details during the panel).
- Lastly, while at the Wizarding World in Orlando, they were super excited to meet Kobe Bryant. To their surprise, Kobe Bryant was super excited to meet them. Apparently he is a huge Harry Potter fan.
Robin Lord Taylor – ‘Gotham’
Robin answered many ‘favorites’ questions that can be heard in many interviews, as well as giving a lesson on how to do the Penguin walk, but some questions did allow for some newer responses.
- In the new season, Edward Nygma/Riddler and Penguin will be in each other’s lives in some capacity (“They live in the same city!”).
- Geoff Johns hand picks comics for each cast member to read specific to their characters.
- Penguin did consider Jim Gordon a friend, so when Jim left him to die, there was some sense of hurt on Penguin’s part. In season 2, Penguin doesn’t forget Jim’s betrayal, so this will cause tension in some capacity.
- After trying and failing to remember exactly how his favorite quote is worded (for the record it was “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light”), he jokingly said that “Honk honk!” was his favorite quote.
‘The Walking Dead’ Cast
The Walking Dead panel can be summed up by two phrases:
- #askChandler
- #it’sComing
- ‘The best (fill in the blank) is in the upcoming season’
- Norman, Chandler, and Lennie all said that many of their favorite things are from the upcoming season. Specifically from Carl. For example, each of their favorite line from the show is Carl’s in the upcoming season.
- In addition, Norman had a lot of bandaids on his fingers from filming a fight scene the previous day with Andrew Lincoln. It’s unclear whether they were fighting against each other, or on the same team, but the former would certainly be a very interesting development.