All photos by Marielle Bokor & Julian Ramirez Fan Expo Chicago 2026 has come and gone, and while we're still missing the fun and freedom of being in our fandoms with other fans, and more than a little exhausted, we've got lots of great memories to hold onto until next year. And? Some great cosplay photos. You guys killed it, and we're glad we got the chance to meet and photograph all of your hard work.

But one weird thing - despite having Keith David, John Carpenter, and Kurt Russell on the list of celeb guests, there was no The Thing panel. For horror fans (and movie fans in general) this was pretty glaring. It's not like Fan Expo hates a reunion. We had almost the entire cast of The Boys and The Goonies AND The Hobbits, so ...what gives?

Time for Fan Expo. Oh Dear God. Don't worry though, we've got your back.

Have you ever seen anything more beautiful than Earthset? No one has. Via NASA. I’ve got a weird relationship to the moon. I’m not quite Gen-X, not quite full Millenial, so I’ve got a weird relationship with everything, really, but the micro generation known as X-ennials, which is me, has a very unique perspective on things, because of our fluency in an analog then digital world. We get the best of both worlds. I can work a card catalog and I can touch a computer like it’s

In 2005, the second live-action attempt at Fantastic Four was released, starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis. It received decidedly mixed reviews and spawned one sequel, the Rise of the Silver Surfer, before being rebooted in 2015 to an abysmal reception, and again in 2025, garnering overwhelmingly positive reviews.

What's one person's Sunday bests is not another's though. For example, you might be in a classic floral, and I might be covered in EVA foam and LED lights stomping around as the coolest damn mech you've ever seen. Getting all dressed up means a lot of things to a lot of people, but when the effort is there, you can't deny it.

Project Hail Mary is still going strong at the box office, so it’s no wonder that Andy Weir was in such a great mood during his panel at C2E2. And that room was packed. I’ve never seen a side panel room get filled to the brim, but Mr. Weir attracted a sizable chunk of Sunday’s C2E2 attendees.

We weren't the only ones ready to show out though - there was a ton of great cosplay even for a first day of the convention. We had our roving photographers - Aaron Cynic, Julian Ramirez, and Marielle Bokor - out on the floor to capture all your amazing 'fits - and you didn't disappoint.