Let’s go to Fan Fusion 2025!
It’s time for Fan Fusion again!!
After attending for the first time last year, we have been watching closely for updates and who the big names were going to be.
We were honestly blown away by how many big names were being announced, week after week. Big enough that we locked down weekend tickets in April, knowing that we would need to be there the whole weekend to see them all!
*Use arrows on the left and right to navigate the album, or open in Google Photos to view*
Table of Contents
Friday
Check-in was a breeze and very similar to last year. It is always extremely entertaining to see the prop checks and what is and is not allowed.
Once in, we knew our first stop was Wild Bill’s Old Fashion Soda! This year, we remembered to bring our mugs and even came up with a nice storage solution.
After we had our drinks, we were off to our first event. Unfortunately, it was a bust 😔🤷🏼♀️. Nathan just finished The Boys, and they had a small panel talking about theories and the plot. It wasn’t very exciting, so we bailed and went to explore the Exhibit hall instead.
We found some awesome Supernatural T-shirts, but nothing else really called out to us.
(Don’t mind the wrinkles, sitting in a backpack all day probably wasn’t the best 🤣.)
They even had a flash tattoo section! We were kinda bummed that none of the flash interested us because we’re both ready to get something.
Up next was a Supernatural Improv Comedy show. They played “The Purge” with no sound, and the group provided improv voice-over of the whole episode. It was pretty funny, especially with some technical buffering issues.
We decided to skip the next big panel with Anthony Daniels. While cool that he was here, he wasn’t a huge draw for us. Sadly, that is where we probably messed up.
Our next big panel was John Rhys-Davies at 3:30 pm, so we had plenty of time to finish the Exhibit hall and check out the Game area.
The Game area was a total bust. Last year, they had tons of board game options for the “everyday” player, but this year was heavily focused on DND and other “hardcore” kind of games.
We ended up queuing for John Rhys-Davies a good 30 minutes early, but we started to hear a lot of talk about The Hobbits, which were scheduled for 4:30 pm, immediately following John.
At 3:40 pm, we finally started moving a bit, and they had us queue in these outcrop things with switchback lanes. We were lane 2, so we thought, alright, we have a decent chance of getting in.
And then we waited.
At 4 pm, a police officer came over to inform us that there were 20 VIPs waiting to get in and there was a full outcrop ahead of us 😬. Then said it was up to us, but that he would tell those behind us in line that they were flat out not getting in.
While I love LOTR, Nathan doesn’t care, and I wasn’t about to wait in a line for 2 hours to not be able to get in. So we left.
Had we gone to Anthony Daniel’s, we could have just stayed in the room the entire time to ensure we made it. Lesson learned for Day 2!
We actually had plans to play games with some friends, so we wandered around for a bit, but called it a night around 5 and left.
I will note that the really big name of the day was Hayden Christensen. They cleared the panel room after Hobbits and started with those who paid for premium access to the room. We didn’t really care about him anyway, and with the recent lesson, we knew there was no way we would be getting into that room.
Saturday
With lessons learned from Friday, we were prepared to maximize our time on Saturday! Not only to ensure we were able to see the panels we wanted, but it was also scheduled to be our longest day.
We got up and hit the road earlier so we could be there by 10/10:30 am.
Since we parked at the Arizona Center parking garage (great place to park for this event BTW), we walked right past a Bosa Donuts, so Nathan was able to grab a Boston Creme and Maple Bar for breakfast. Huss Brewing was our other option. They had a little breakfast bar set up right at the entry line for those who wanted breakfast while they waited in line.
Once inside, we hit Wild Bills for our morning refills and then went straight to the panel room.
The plan was to spend the whole day in the panel room. Partially so we would have seats for some of the later guests, but honestly, we just really wanted to see them all!
First on the docket was Marisa Tomei, or as we know her – Spiderman’s aunt.
She was … odd. Not personality-wise, but we just weren’t very entertained by her. She came out with sunglasses, which felt weird, though it was later explained that it was because the spotlights are incredibly bright.
Beyond that, she was just kinda there. Didn’t have a lot of passion for what she did.
Up next was the rockstar of the whole weekend! Simon Pegg came out looking like a rock star with tinted, edgy glasses and tattoos everywhere! It absolutely did NOT fit with the image Nathan and I had in our minds from Hot Fuzz or Benji from Mission: Impossible.
He was absolutely incredible! So much excitement and passion for the work he has done and the characters he has brought to life. He was funny, he remembered all the random, obscure roles and projects he had been a part of, and he was a writer on so many of the classics he has acted in.
Apparently, I need to watch the movie Paul 🤷♀️.
Last fun tidbit from him was that Shawn of the Dead was a loving spoof of Dawn of the Dead (which we 100% came home and watched Saturday night because it was on our minds 😄). But what we learned was that zombies weren’t zombies before Dawn of the Dead. It basically created the zombie we know today, which is fascinating! Also, another movie I apparently need to see to understand its significance.
We waved our goodbyes to Simon and welcomed the next guest! Keep in mind, besides bathroom breaks, we have just parked ourselves in this room for 2.5 hours at this point.
Now, Nathan and I have differing opinions on these two. I thought they were hilarious; he thought they were a little more quirky.
It’s time for Riker and Data!!
Knowing we would see them, I wore my Star Trek t-shirt, which I am so happy to have as a semi-nerdy thing to wear to events like these. 😜
Brent Spiner came out and immediately took on the persona of Patrick Stewart, accent and mannerisms included.
They spent a good 5+ minutes just talking at each other over this joke, and I thought it was great! Johnathan Frakes played along the whole time, but turned out to be a little more serious. Brent is absolutely the jokester of the group. In the end, they were just two old dudes having fun!
Johnthan kinda wandered around the stage for another few minutes. Randomly finding the ASL spotlight, and immediately made a joke about feeling like he was being beamed up.
He was also amused by our names as Phoenitians, clearly impressed at such a regal name 😜.
Brent was able to talk about his home being destroyed in the CA wildfires and how horrific that has been for everyone, even those who didn’t physically lose their homes to the fire have still lost their homes due to smoke or unsafe conditions.
Then, in the middle of answering audience questions, Johnathan stood up and said he was going to the bathroom and left! It was hilarious! Not only is it such an old man move, but also the comfort he has in these environments is impressive.
He came back a few minutes later and jumped back in like he never left! Though we did get to learn more about his transition to Director by shadowing everyone in the downtime of playing Riker. Brent had no ambitions to become a Director and is happy exactly where he is!
Brent had multiple running jokes throughout the panel. First that he wants a show called “Data” or “The Soongs” where he would play every character 🤣. He also made a hilarious joke about “Brent Coin” which was such a funny political statement.
They were easily my second favorite panel. It is such a subtle thing, but Nathan and I both agree that the best panels are with those who love what they do and are truly as interested in it as the fans are.
After 3.5 hours, it was finally time to get out of the panel room!
We explored the different areas for the rest of the afternoon, but we were exhausted by dinner time and decided to skip the late-night activities. I know, we are old and boring, but we had a great day, so I am ok with it.
Sunday
Our last day at Fan Fusion was very similar to Saturday, to be honest. We started the morning with lots of panels, specifically Chloe Bennet and Jeff Ward from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Jeff wasn’t originally scheduled to be there, so that was a fun surprise!
They were pretty fun. They had good chemistry and seemed to love their fans. Since Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is really the only thing they had to discuss, it was a bit more low-key than some of the other panels, but still good.
Chloe had a great personality, but you can tell she is a valley girl 😄.
Next up was another duo we were excited to see, Eugene Cordero and Manny Jacinto!
They had a great stage presence and immediately started joking around. Eugene is attempting to ride the phoenix in the photo above 😄.
We learned they are both Filipino, which more than one question around that representation in movies, which was great to see. Eugene talked a little bit about incorporating that into a ship name on Lower Decks, which is fun behind-the-scenes knowledge.
While not about these two specifically, someone did cosplay as Derek and asked a question. It was perfect, but I wasn’t fast enough to grab a photo… martini glass and all!
After the guys, we were onto Katey Seghal!
She was interesting because her career has been quite diverse, so questions came from tons of different shows. She had a good personality and had great responses.
I think we were a little tired by this point because Nathan was very excited for her, but it was good, not great.
Next up was Rainn Wilson! It wasn’t a huge surprise that he was a good panelist, I think comedy in general makes you so much more approachable and easier to talk to in things like this.
He talked about his time on Galaxy Quest and that he could not remember his line of techno babble, and his favorite prank on The Office was the desk in the bathroom.
His faith was a little interesting. Not something I would believe in, but it wasn’t a usual approach to religion.
One lady had mentioned that she ONLY watched the office on her honeymoon, and Rainn responded with “That’s terrible! You didn’t even fuck!?” Which was a perfect way to respond to that statement, and to be clear, she really did emphasize the word only so he just said the quiet part out loud 😄.
Once Rainn’s time had ended, we just had one more panel to finish out the day.
Ming-Na Wen was really sweet, and it was a great panel. She came out on stage with us on Instagram Live, which was fun and different. Her answers were great, and she connected with her fans well.
With Ming-Na as our last panel, it was time to leave the room for good! We did a last lap of the exhibit hall to make sure we didn’t miss anything, and then we were done for the day.
Fan Fusion 2025 was another successful year, and hopefully, next year’s schedules will work better for friends and family to join us!
