Comic Con London: From cosplay gatherings to games, to family activities, here’s everything that’s going on

After a six-month wait, MCM Comic Con is back, running for three days across this coming weekend. There’s loads going on, including games rooms, workshops, famous guests, activities for children, dance shows and more. Here’s our pick of what’s going on at this major London convention.

When and where is it happening?

MCM Comic Con is taking place October 28 to 30 at the ExCeL Center in London, located in east London. It’s easy to access on the DLR and the Elizabeth Line – just get off at Custom House and you are there.

What can you expect?

The roster of events ranges from celebrity guests and a cosplay room, to board games, a family activities space, manga drawing classes, to a first look at some of this year’s major TV and film releases. A detailed breakdown of every event can be found here.

Celebrity guests

Fans will be thrilled to know that both Michael Sheen (Good Omens, Underworld) and Tom Sturridge (The Sandman) are set to be attending the convention. The exact times they’ll be meeting fans is yet to be announced, but they are certainly bringing the star power.

Among the other beloved actors and artists also set to attend, are Mason Alexander Park (The Sandman), Andy Serkis (Lord of the Rings), David Bradley (Harry Potter), Anthony Daniels (who played C-3PO in 10 Star Wars films), Tom Welling (who plays Marcus Pierce in Lucifer), John Rhys-Davies (Lord of the Rings), Conor Leslie (Titans) and Amanda Abbington (Sherlock).

Plus, four Doctors from Doctor Who will be attending: Peter Davidson (the fifth doctor), Colin Baker (the sixth), Sylvester McCoy (the seventh ) and eighth doctor Paul McGann.

There is the opportunity to book photo ops and autographs with some of the special guests, and you can reserve your slot here.

There will also be panels: executive producer Andy Serkis along with the cast of The Bastard Son & The Devil Himself, will be talking about the forthcoming fantasy-drama series. The cast (including Joe Thomas and Amanda Abbingdon) of Dave’s new alien invasion comedy series We Are Not Alone will also be taking part in a panel and live Q&A.

Cosplay Central stage

Cosplay is one of the best bits about Comic Con – not only is it fun getting dressed up yourself, but it’s great to see everyone else’s costumes too.

This October, Comic Con will have a special changing area plus a team of volunteers at their ‘Cosplay Hospital’ who will stick your costume back together, for free, should the worst happen. There’ll also be panels, cosplay showcases, and talks offering cosplay-related advice, such as how to take part in competitions.

The Treehouse

There’s a room specially dedicated to family fun: face-painting, drag queen story hour, storytime sessions, a singalong with Laura Cameron, a colouring and drawing section with worksheets for comic creation, mug decoration, mask making, and there will be a scavenger hunt going on around the MCM floor, too.

Pop Asia

Then there’s going to be a dedicated area for all things to do with East and Southeast Asian pop culture, too.

There are Manga drawing sessions hosted by A Thousand Cranes, Origami workshops run by members of the British Origami Society, Japanese letter learning (with the help of Hai! Japanese), martial arts presentations and a live Sumo demonstration from the current British Sumo Champion, Mandeep Singh Kundi.

Plus there will be traditional and non-traditional dance sessions, including from Kpop dance group New Vision Dance UK, anime soundtracks being played by City String Ensemble, and East and Southeast Asian foods such as Onigiri, Lumpia and Udon noodles, Bao Buns and Bubble Tea will be available to buy.

Side Quest

There are two areas dedicated to gaming too. Firstly, there’s the console gaming corner, where there will be lots of games (including the classics The Legend of Zelda, Mario Party, Final Fantasy, Spyro, Jak and Daxter and Burnout) available to play.

There’s a family gaming area, a gaming library area (where there will be Xboxes, Nintendo Gamecubes and Playstation 2s and 3s), a gaming championship and a multi-player lounge where there will be both “classic games and family favourites”.

Melanin Gamers will be running a Smash Bros and Mario Kart! area too, plus, there’ll be some old-school game consoles, from Sega Mega Drive, N64, Atari, Amstrad, Vectrex, to Intellivision to try out.

Tabletop gaming

MCM Comic Con also has an area for board game lovers.

There’ll be a card corner with demos and tournaments, a free-to-play tabletop gaming area where games will include Invasion of the Cow Snatchers, City of Zombies, Katamino and Tumble Tree and there will be the opportunity to take part in beginner Dungeons and Dragons games.

Imagination Gaming, which works in schools across the country to bridge games and learning, will also be hosting a tabletop zone, where games from across the world will be available to play.

Fan meets

There are dozens of official MCM photo meets going on too, more details of which can be found here.

So whether you are a fan of Legend of Zelda , Lord of the Rings, Stranger Things or a Marvel and Disney (to name just a few) there is a meet-up of like-minded enthusiasts happening over the weekend.

Meet the MCM Community

Finally, there will be numerous MCM Universe groups at the convention, so you will have the opportunity to meet some of the UK’s MCM community.

You can meet the Silver Sabres Combat Academy (an LED sabre school), Quidditch UK, Gaming the Mind (a mental health in video game community charity), Star Wars costume club Imperial Outlanders and The 501st UK Garrison (a charity-focused Star Wars costuming community).

Plus there’ll be a Lip Sync Battle, an opportunity to learn traditional Tai Ji and the chance to practice swordcraft (and there are group classes available).

Can I still buy tickets?

Yes. Tickets day with Saturday priority cost £32.50 and tickets for Sunday priority cost £29.50. Tickets for Friday with general entry cost £20.00 (Friday priority tickets are sold out) and tickets for Sunday with general entry cost £22.00.

Unfortunately, weekend tickets are now sold out.

MCM Comic Con will take place October 28-30 at London’s ExCeL Center. More information can be found here