In Pictures: Fan Expo Canada 2026 — Day Three

Fan Expo Canada, Canada’s biggest convention, held its 30th year this past weekend. Situated in both the North and South buildings of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, it took place August 27th-30th and featured guests from the comics and entertainment worlds, celebrity signings and photo opportunities, cosplayers, lots of panel discussions and events, and merchandise galore.

The crowds were out in full force during the day, so I tried to stick to Constitution Hall in the North Building, the show’s largest auditorium and one where they tend to bring major celebrities for talks/questions and answers. I’d seen Mr. T the night before, whom I remembered fondly from The A-Team and the Mister T cartoon. Full of energy, Mr. T got up and talked about how much he loved his mother, being the youngest in a large family, and keeping his nose clean and to the grindstone so that he could achieve his goals and not fall into trouble. He was still very much the Mr. T of old, despite his age. He talked about helping people, being a role model, his own interactions with his role model Muhammad Ali, and the various breaks that had come his way, including the first Wrestlemania, Rocky III, and The A-Team. He also talked about being invited to the White House and doing events with Nancy Regan. Mr. T said he wasn’t a Republican or a Democrat, but instead believed in Jesus, whom one couldn’t vote in or vote out.

Mel Gibson is a deeply problematic figure, but I have an enduring love for the first Lethal Weapon movie, which was one of the very first ‘adult’ themed films I saw and left a lasting impression. I had a real fondness for Gibson’s acting during that era, and seeing him now, he still had many of the same tics and mannerisms in his speech, a kind of relaxed but nervy everyman type of energy. Of course, Gibson isn’t an everyman anymore, though he stumbled into his role as Mad Max and subsequent fame after a night of drinking and fighting. He related this and talked a bit about George Miller (who’d just gotten out of medical school) and the corners that were cut on the first Mad Max film. He talked about why his character on Lethal Weapon is different from the protagonists of previous action movies and mentioned that he’s been working on a fifth film for the franchise but it’s stuck in development hell. The very large hall was packed, and no one seemed to mention any of his controversies, though Gibson did briefly touch upon the fact that he was criticized for historical inaccuracies in Apocalypto. He seemed adamant that he hadn’t made any mistakes and claimed he could produce sources that would validate his choices. I might have been the only person in the audience who didn’t know that Gibson is in Toronto editing and finishing up a couple of sequels to his movie The Passion of the Christ. Apparently, the first of them will be released in May.

The final talk I saw in Constitution Hall featured Mark Hamill. This one also really brought out the crowds, and anticipation was high. Hamill didn’t talk quite as long as Mr. T or Gibson, but he was incredibly funny and served up memories from Star Wars to his various voice-work jobs with commentary and enthusiasm. He was also incredibly funny. Hamill did not keep his opinions to himself. Some people in costumes were allowed on stage to ask him questions, and he quipped that a woman who was cosplaying someone with an orange face looked like the president. He also poked fun at the president for his latest trade wars with Canada and ridiculed the idea of naming Lake Ontario anything else. He also joked about missing running around doing action scenes with Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford in The Empire Strikes Back, as most of his scenes were on a separate set with puppets and eels and snakes — he said he was the only human on the call sheet. At one point, his daughter allowed their little dog to run onto the stage and greet Hamill. I’m not a Star Wars fan, but this was a really charming and wonderful appearance. I’m very glad that Fan Expo is doing these talks with celebrities in the large Constitution Hall, as the price of an autograph or photo (especially for someone like Hamill) can be very cost-prohibitive to the average attendee. I was quite moved to watch William Shatner last year on the same stage talk about his experiences in Toronto.

The last event I attended featured a discussion between Frank Miller and Klaus Janson, moderated by Mark Askwith. Miller and Janson talked a little bit about their partnership on Daredevil but the purpose of the panel was to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of The Dark Knight Returns. Miller tends to be sparky at these kinds of events and today was no exception. He ribbed Janson, who at one point said, “That’s why we love you, Frank!” They talked about the famous sixteen-panel grid structure that determined the compressed storytelling and pace of the first Dark Knight miniseries and how it came at the right time to capitalize on changes that had been happening in comics, including a growing adult readership, the direct market, and other advancements in the medium. Askwith, who was managing the Silver Snail comic shop in Toronto at the time, related the story of how he ordered an insane number of copies of issue one for the store (pre-orders in general for that issue were through the roof) and when the owner saw what he’d done, fired him. The demand was so high that the store sold through the copies in a week, and Askwith got his job back and was then interviewed about the phenomenon by various media outlets. Askwith credited this experience for the exposure that led to the TV shows he later worked on and creating the Space Channel. In general, both Miller and Janson were good-natured, smiling and joking their way through their reminiscences. The lineup to get into the event was intensely long, and I chatted with people while waiting, some of them wearing interesting t-shirts I’d never seen before or having brought rare artefacts to get signed by Miller.

For my last photo, let me post something utterly mundane which leaves me in wonder. Tucked away in a small side nook near Constitution Hall was a bank of three payphones. This arrested me because I haven’t seen actual payphones in many, many years. I didn’t see any others anywhere else in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Of the three phones, the first and the third worked. I picked up the receiver, heard the dial tone, and could have popped in quarters if I chose to call someone. Not just the sight, but the weight of the receiver and feel of it in my hand, the sound of the dial tone, the smell of the plastic even, took me to a feeling I hadn’t experienced in what feels like more than a decade. It was a bit like Marcel Proust‘s famous madeleine transporting me back, but I suppose so much of what drives people to Fan Expo in the first place is similar. The toys and anime and books and prints evoke a kind of nostalgia that is overpowering, some of it stretching back to our earliest childhood memories. It keeps us coming back (and calling back) to our younger selves.