An estimated 4,000 pop culture enthusiasts came through the doors of the Killeen Civic and Conference Center for Giganticon on Saturday and Sunday.
Giganticon is a “premier pop culture event that brings fandoms together,” said Giganticon Co-Founder Brian Fletcher. “We celebrate superheroes, cartoons, anime, big-screen actors and more — we bring them all together.”
The event featured a plethora of celebrity guests, headlined by American actor Doug Jones. Jones is well-known for playing non-human characters, often with the use of heavy prosthetics, makeup and visual effects. He has collaborated with acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro for multiple roles, including the romantic lead “The Amphibian Man” which won the 2017 Academy Award for Best Picture, The Shape of Water. He also worked with del Toro in Mimic (1997), Hellboy (2004), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), and Crimson Peak (2015).
Other celebrity guests included a reunion of four voice actors from the English dub of the Japanese anime Jujutsu Kaisen: Ryan Bartley, Nicolas Roye, Lex Lang, and Anne Yatco, the voice of Nobara Kugisaki.
Fans of the anime-stylized video game Genshin Impact were treated to a reunion of voice actors for the English version of the game, including Paul Castro Jr. and Stephanie Panisello. Panisello gained recognition for voicing Claire Redfield in the video game Resident Evil 2, which won the Golden Joystick Award for “2019 Game of the Year.” She has since reprised her role in the Netflix series Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness and lends her voice as Betty Ross in Marvel’s What If…? animated series.
With Halloween around the corner, Fletcher and the Giganticon organizers brought in actors from the 1993 Halloween-comedy movie Hocus Pocus for a reunion. Omri Katz, who played the main protagonist Max, reunited with his romantic interest Vinessa Shaw (Allison) and Jason Marsden, the voice of the immortal black cat Thackery Binx.
One way fandoms express their love for favorite characters, shows, and games is by dressing up in cosplay. Giganticon featured a cosplay contest, a cosplay lounge that included an informative panel and cosplay appearances by Silverbacks Props, Cosplay Til Midnight, Lauren Bay, Loopy Lopez, the Sanderson Sisters of ATX and more.
Also present at Giganticon was Harker Heights Public Library and Activities Center Director Lisa Youngblood, bringing her energy and imagination to life in the Harry Potter activities room. Children young and old had the opportunity to make their own wands and brew potions with the Harry Potter house emblems hanging from the ceiling — all with Youngblood dressed in her signature witch costume.
The event also included plenty of activities for gamers. Trading card tournaments for multiple games were hosted by local stores Evolutions Trading and Fantasy Fortress from Killeen and Underground Games in Copperas Cove. Trading card games included Pokémon, Lorcana, Magic: The Gathering, and Yu-Gi-Oh!. Console gaming tournaments were held throughout the weekend, featuring head-to-head matchups in games like Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros., Street Fighter, and Tekken.
Fletcher said the event was a big success, with more than 140 vendors and dozens of attendees dressed in cosplay.
Outside, more than a dozen food vendors were set up in case visitors got hungry. Nearby, there were family-friendly activities like a giant bounce house and a giant inflatable climbing wall.
Fletcher doesn’t have a date for the next event in Killeen but said to keep checking his website at giganticon.com.