Event Recap: WonderCon 2026 Brings Star Wars, "Aliens," "Marvel Rivals," Jim Cummings, and More to Anaheim

Yesterday I shared my experience with the Send Help escape room at WonderCon 2026, but I also spent two full days exploring the rest of the event at the Anaheim Convention Center. Below is my photo recap of what I saw.

I arrived at the Anaheim Convention Center (just across Katella Avenue to the south of Disneyland Resort) around 10:30 AM on Friday morning to pick up my badge, and found cosplayers already gathering outside WonderCon.

Just within my first ten minutes or so at the event, I saw Disney-related cosplays like Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Boba Fett from Star Wars, K-9 from Doctor Who, Donald Duck from Kingdom Hearts, and Spider-Man from the Marvel universe.

But I knew I was truly at WonderCon Anaheim when I spotted a BD-series droid riding a MSE-series droid and dancing to Shakira's song "Zoo" from Zootopia 2.

Star Wars trooper cosplayers (likely from the 501st Legion) and Mandalorians helped guide attendees along the way after checking in.

Here's a photo of the line of people waiting to get into the exhibit hall floor on Friday morning.

One of my favorite things to look at during WonderCon are the always amazing custom Star Wars action figures made by creators like Tim the Toy Guy and Centerpoint Studios.

I also stopped by the booth for Anaheim's Muzeo Museum and Cultural Center, which will be hosting a new exhibit from the Walt Disney Archives later this year.

The first panel I attended during WonderCon 2026 was called "Star Wars: Inside the Creatures, Droids, and Puppetry." I found this to be really fascinating, and it featured a lot of folks who had actually worked on the Disney+ Star Wars series, not to mention puppeteering Grogu himself in his upcoming movie The Mandalorian and Grogu-- not to mention his hilarious appearance interacting with host Conan O'Brien during this year's Academy Awards ceremony. One very funny side note about this panel is that for the first 15 minutes or so, I thought someone in the audience in front of me was snoring, but it turned out to be an electronic Rancor toy that was on the stage next to the panelists.

The Aliens 40th anniversary panel was also interesting and featured a lot of great stories about the making of the film from two of its stars: Jenette Goldstein (who played Private Vasquez) and Mark Rolston (Private Drake). However, attendees like myself were disappointed that actor Michael Biehn (Corporal Hicks) did not show up for the discussion, despite being advertised on the convention's schedule. The moderator did hint that a bigger Aliens 40th anniversary celebration might take place at San Diego Comic-Con this coming summer.

In-between panels I had to stop by the booths for Star Wars fan groups like the Rebel Legion, the 501st Legion, the Droid Builders, and the Mandalorian Mercs.

Jeff the Land Shark was the toast of the town ahead of the Marvel Rivals panel on Friday afternoon. I even happened to sit next to three attendees dressed as Jeff.

The voice cast of Marvel Rivals took the stage to talk about what it's like being part of such a popular video game. A few of them even displayed their Twitch handles on-screen so that fans could follow along as they play.

The voice cast members were asked to choose their favorite Marvel Rivals character skins.

Before the panel ended, even more Marvel Rivals cast members took the stage, including the voice of Jeff the Shark himself, though he only made a very brief appearance. They gave away some posters and art to fans in the crowd and then posed for a group photo.

Late in the evening on Friday, our friends at Skywalking Through Neverland hosted their Star Wars Trivia Party, which was a ton of fun, as always, and a great way to wrap up the first day of WonderCon 2026.

Saturday kicked off with me spotting some X-Men cosplayers outside of the WonderCon entrance.

The big Disney-related panel on Saturday morning was a spotlight on voice actor Jim Cummings from Winnie the Pooh, Darkwing Duck, The Princess and the Frog, and many more roles. Over the weekend we already shared that Jim's wife Margaret encouraged fans to sign a petition for Mr. Cummings to become a Disney Legend for his work.

In the X video below, you can watch as Jim Cummings talks about the legacy of Winnie the Pooh on the character's 100th anniversary. I also posted other videos of Cummings on the Laughing Place X feed, including Jim talking about how and why he took over the role of Tigger from Paul Winchell, the fact that he sometimes doesn't remember how his own characters sound because he's voiced so many of them, how he came up with the voice of Darkwing Duck, the fact that the voice of Hondo Ohnaka from Star Wars is a combination of impressions of Yul Brenner and Charles Bronson, legendary voice actor Mel Blanc being an early influence, coming up with a certain infamous verse in the song "Hakuna Matata" from Disney's The Lion King, the first time he went on Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run in Galaxy's Edge, and how Robin Williams as the Genie got rid of Jim's character in the third Aladdin movie.

Other notable cosplays that stood out to me were the Ronin and his droid R5-D56 from Star Wars: Visions, Uatu the Watcher from Marvel Comics, and Orko from Masters of the Universe (I know that's not Disney, but I had to share it anyway). But my absolute favorite was an attendees dressed as Super Mario as he would exist in the Fallout universe-- such amazing detail!

The final panel I attended at WonderCon 2026 was a spotlight on author Claudia Gray, who has written a number of books for licenses under Disney's publishing arm, including Star Wars, The X-Files, and The Haunted Mansion. This was a really great, intimate conversation, and it definitely made me want to read some of Gray's original stories.

That's it for WonderCon 2026. The 2027 iteration of the event will take place from Friday, March 26 through Sunday, March 28 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Southern California. For additional information, be sure to visit WonderCon's official website.