This past weekend we flew up to Sacramento to attend the latest Wizard World convention. We don’t travel outside of Southern California often to attend conventions but this year we attended both Sacramento and Las Vegas, due to the number of Marvel celebrities at both events. With Sebastian Stan, Hayley Atwell and Evan Peters scheduled to appear, we excitedly made the trek up north for a weekend of fun and nerdiness.
We flew up Friday evening, checked into our hotel right across the street from the convention center and walked around to get the lay of the land. Saturday morning we headed into the convention to take it all in. The convention opened at 10am and we hopped into line for entry.
The #1 reason we went to Wizard World Sacramento was for photo ops with Stan and Atwell, two of our favorite characters in the MCU. Celeb Photo Ops was already walking the line, checking in people who had pre-purchased photo ops which was great.
At 10am the doors opened and we were inside. It was a good sized convention, and very well attended on Saturday (but not too crowded). The exhibit hall was a good size and had a variety of nerdy goodies such as Legos, Funkos, airsoft guns, shirts and of course plenty of artwork in Artist Alley. There was something for everyone.
There were also a number of video games to play, and Gavin spent entirely too much time at the Bandai Namco booth playing classics like Pac Man and Galaga as well as more current games like Dark Souls III (which I was told we MUST buy for our XBox after we got home).
After prying Gavin’s hands from the video game controller, we did a little shopping then grabbed lunch. Next it was into our Bucky Cap costumes and time for a photo with Sebastian Stan! As you can see, we brought a prop with us – I had made a book like the one in Civil War that contained the trigger words for Winter Soldier.
The line was fairly long but moved quickly. The second we got in to the photo op booth, Sebastian Stan saw us and said just two words: “DUDE…..YES!!!!” He totally loved our costumes. Gavin and I had a plan and knew what to do, all I had to do was explain to Stan that Gavin was reading the trigger words from the book, reprogramming us and that he and I were screaming in the photo. I think we nailed it. I will cherish this photo forever.
Want some tips about proper photo op etiquette? Here is an article I had written previously on just that:
Saturday afternoon was the Marvel group photo shoot outside the convention center. A huge thank you to Photographer Annette Wamser who took the time to coordinate the whole thing, and create a Facebook event to help bring it all together. The meetup was well attended and everyone had a blast.
Here are a few photos from the Marvel cosplay meetup. To see a full gallery of all of the Wizard World Sacramento photos taken by Annette Wamser just click here.
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Next we went back inside to get Stan’s autograph. But not just an autograph…he signed the cover of our Civil War journal, and (after I looked them up on my phone) he wrote all ten of the trigger words inside the front cover. As he was writing them he said “Homecoming….hmm…..I wonder if that has anything to do with the Spider-Man movie? You know they don’t do anything in these movies without a reason.” He has an excellent point! Again – I will cherish this book forever.
After a quick dinner we decided to see the Warcraft movie for a second time at the big IMAX theater just down the street from the convention center.
Afterwards we happened to run into Sebastian Stan and actually got to talk to him a few minutes. He was amazing and talking to him one on one about Bucky, you can really feel his passion for the character and the MCU. Before we left, Gavin dug into his bag of Legos and gave him a Winter Soldier Lego figure. It was adorable.
Sunday we headed back into the convention as Skinny Steve Rogers and Captain America. The Sebastian Stan panel was at noon, followed by the Hayley Atwell panel. Both were extremely entertaining, and moderated by Mo Lightning who is a fantastic panel moderator. A brief introduction, a few quick questions and then the rest of the panels were fan Q&A (which is how it should be).
Gavin and I got up and asked Sebastian Stan a question about shooting the scene in the Volkswagen in Civil War, which was fun. He recognized us and pointed at us and smiled when he saw us again.
After the panels it was back to the exhibit hall floor for our photo with Hayley Atwell! We had something hilarious planned for this one and I’m pretty sure she enjoyed what we were doing. I had printed out the picture in advance and brought it with us. Again, nailed it.
Not long after that the convention was over. Overall our experience at Wizard World Sacramento was fantastic. Sadly we didn’t make it to the Evan Peters panel or get a photo with him. It was simply a case of “too much to do and not enough time to do it” which is always the best problem to have at a convention.
Thank you so much for a great time, Wizard World! We will see you again soon.