There is so much happening at L.A. Comic Con that it’s almost impossible to see everything. Sometimes the best way to experience it is simply to start walking and see where the convention floor takes you.
That was certainly true for us at L.A. Comic Con 2026.
Between elaborate LEGO creations, familiar movie-inspired vehicles, enormous character displays, vendors selling almost anything imaginable and a packed schedule of panels, there was always something around the next corner.
And yes, one of the big highlights was getting to see Hayden Christensen.
Arriving at L.A. Comic Con
The convention took over the Los Angeles Convention Center, with a huge L.A. Comic Con graphic overlooking the entrance and plenty of attendees making their way inside.
Once through the doors, the scale of the event became much more apparent.
Even the areas outside the main exhibit floor were packed with conventiongoers taking a break, grabbing something to eat or heading toward the next thing on their schedules.
Then it was time to explore.
An Incredible LEGO Display
One of my favorite discoveries on the convention floor was a massive LEGO display filled with an almost ridiculous amount of detail.
One section depicted “Port Lunar Angeles,” complete with a huge container ship, shipping containers, cranes, smaller vessels and futuristic equipment.
Elsewhere, the layout transitioned into an elaborate space and industrial setting with machinery, vehicles, elevated transportation and a huge field of solar panels.
There were little details everywhere.
Naturally, I noticed the train.
Another section featured a detailed cityscape with an operating railway running directly through it. Buildings, businesses, vehicles, figures and all sorts of little scenes filled the layout.
This was the kind of display where taking a photograph wasn’t really enough. You wanted to stop and actually look at everything the builders had put into it.
Of course, it was difficult to miss the gigantic inflatable figure advertising Bricks & Minifigs nearby.
Subtle it was not.
A Trip Through Movie and Pop-Culture Cars
Another area of the convention floor was essentially irresistible for anyone who grew up watching movies and television.
A DeLorean outfitted in Back to the Future time-machine style was on display with its gull-wing doors open, providing a close look at the interior and all the futuristic equipment added to the car.
Nearby was a Mystery Machine-inspired van.
Rather than just photographing the outside, we got a look through the open rear doors at the colorful custom interior.
The display also included several other recognizable pop-culture-inspired vehicles.
Among them was a bright red No. 95 car inspired by Lightning McQueen, complete with windshield eyes and Rust-eze graphics.
It made for one of the most colorful areas of the convention floor.
Superheroes, Life Size
The vehicles weren’t the only oversized attractions.
A Thor display presented the perfect opportunity for a photograph that was considerably more entertaining than simply standing beside it.
And then there was this.
The enormous red-and-gold Hulkbuster-style armor towered over just about everyone standing beside it. Having a person in the photograph really puts the size of the display into perspective.
These are exactly the kinds of things that make wandering around a comic convention fun. You can turn a corner without really knowing what you’re going to encounter next.
Only at Comic Con…
And then there are the things that don’t quite fit into any category.
For example: chicken-shaped bags.
Not one chicken bag. An entire selection of them, including pink, teal and a gloriously shiny iridescent version.
Because apparently sometimes you go to Comic Con and discover that what has been missing from your life is a chicken-shaped purse.
Fair enough.
Hayden Christensen
One of the major events on our schedule was the special Hayden Christensen spotlight.
The convention listing described it as an evening spotlight featuring stories from Christensen’s career, including his time in the Star Wars universe and fan-favorite moments.
Unlike most convention programming, this was a separately ticketed event.
The ticket page offered two seating options. Gold Tier was listed at $83.25 including fees and provided priority seating. Silver Tier, with seating behind the Gold ticket holders, was $27.75 including fees. L.A. Comic Con admission was also required.
The spotlight was scheduled for October 30 from 8:45 to 9:30 p.m. in Panel Room 408 AB.
And, of course, we couldn’t leave without commemorating the experience.
That one is definitely going in the archive.
An Unexpected Story From the Hayden Spotlight
One of the more surprising stories of the evening came when Christensen was asked about unusual fan encounters. He recalled being at home years ago when he heard someone enter the house. At first, he assumed it was a friend he was expecting. After eventually getting up to investigate, he discovered a stranger carrying several of his belongings.
“I’m like, this is all my stuff,” Christensen recalled.
According to Christensen, once the intruder recognized him, the situation took an unexpected turn. The person began apologizing and handing the belongings back. Christensen said the person explained that he had fallen on hard times and was trying to raise money for a ticket home. Rather than simply ending the encounter there, Christensen offered to take him to the train station the following day and buy him a ticket, although the person never returned.
Christensen added another detail that drew the story even further into surreal territory: after hearing that the person was having trouble finding work and didn’t have decent clothing, Christensen said he gave him some clothes.
It was easily one of the strangest anecdotes from the spotlight, and certainly not the direction anyone probably expected the conversation to take.
Geekscape Live Wraps Up the Convention
Our L.A. Comic Con experience eventually brought us to one more panel: Geekscape Live at LA Comic Con 2026!
Jonathan London Almost Moderated Hayden Christensen
During the Geekscape wrap-up, Jonathan London revealed that he had come surprisingly close to moderating the Hayden Christensen spotlight himself.
London explained that he had been on his way out of the convention Friday night when he received a call asking whether he was still there. The scheduled moderator apparently had become ill, so London turned around and headed back.
“Let me just turn around and come back,” London recalled telling them.
He was given the proposed questions and began preparing for the interview. London said there were several parts of Christensen’s career he would have liked to discuss, particularly Life as a House, Shattered Glass and Christensen’s performance in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Of the latter, London specifically praised the scene involving Vader’s damaged mask, calling Christensen’s work in that moment “an incredible performance.”
Then came the twist.
The original moderator arrived, despite being ill, and said he thought he could still do the panel. London stepped aside.
“I said, dude, you’re going to be great. You’re going to kill it,” London recalled. “And I stepped out.”
London jokingly described the whole thing afterward as his “close call with moderating Hayden Christensen.”
Having attended both panels made hearing that story particularly fun. We had watched the Hayden spotlight Friday night, and then two days later found ourselves at Geekscape’s Sunday wrap-up hearing the behind-the-scenes story of how close it came to having a different moderator.
Scheduled on November 1 from 4:00 to 4:50 p.m. in Panel Room 404 A, the panel was billed as the annual Geekscape wrap-up of L.A. Comic Con.
The official listing named Jonathan London, Heidi Cox, Josh Jackson, Burk Sharpless, Noam Dromi, Georg Kallert and Al Septien, with discussion centered around the convention’s guests, announcements, cosplay and surprise appearances.
During the panel, one of the panelists held up a copy of Bad Future, another moment captured in the photos from the session.
But possibly my favorite photograph from the entire panel happened when nobody was speaking.
Just a tiny crocheted animal, sitting alone in front of the L.A. Comic Con backdrop and microphones.
No context necessary.
Looking Back at L.A. Comic Con 2026
A convention like L.A. Comic Con is difficult to sum up because the big celebrity appearances are really only part of the experience.
It’s also walking through a gigantic room and stumbling across an incredible LEGO layout. It’s looking inside the Mystery Machine. It’s posing beside a superhero. It’s watching a train circle a LEGO city. It’s finding some bizarre piece of merchandise you never expected to see. It’s attending a panel you were interested in and discovering something else along the way.
And sometimes it’s a tiny crocheted animal sitting behind a microphone.
Looking through these photographs afterward, those smaller discoveries are some of the things I’m happiest we documented.
L.A. Comic Con 2026 gave us plenty to photograph, plenty to see and another collection of memories worth putting into the archive.