Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

My wife Anne and I just got home from the latest edition of the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Exposition (“C2E2″), a three-day extravaganza of comic books, actors, creators, toys, props, publishers, freebies, Funko Pops, anime we don’t recognize, and walking and walking and walking and walking. We were undecided for months because this year it was scheduled the same weekend as one of our hometown shows, Indy Pop Con. Ultimately Chicago lured us back…

…where they brought in new actors for us to see in person from stuff we’ve watched!

The subject of our lead photo barely needs any introduction. One of the featured headliners was Mads Mikkelsen, whom you’ve possibly seen in such works as NBC’s Hannibal, the first Doctor Strange, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Casino Royale, Rogue One, Fantastic Beasts: The One Mads Tried to Save, the pandemic write-off Chaos Walking (okay, maybe not that one), and more, more, more. Anne and I have also caught two among his plethora of Danish-language films, the Oscar-winning Another Round and last year’s Oscar-shortlisted The Promised Land. He was at the top of our Must List.

Oddly, his photo-op line moved really quickly — like, almost too quickly. In hindsight the photo-op team did a crackerjack job of keeping things moving fluidly (for all of our ops, at least). But as I stepped into the booth, I noticed among all the fans ahead of us that no one was asking him for any poses. The photog yelled “NEXT!”, they stepped into Mikkelsen’s outstretched arm, the button was clicked, they sped away. Granted, photo ops are never the place for extended chitchat or much more than quick greetings, but some celebs will grant pose requests within reasonable boundaries. I’m unsure whether this rather tall player of countless villains intimidated them, or if they worried he didn’t speak English, or exactly what the heck. They definitely need to check out Another Round, in which his frequently drunken character enjoys not one but two dance numbers performed with reckless abandon.

We walked up. We greeted each other. Anne popped the question. And he was game, even going so far as to join us down at Anne’s height. The pic looks like jazz hands and a hug! It’s a JAZZ HUG! If anyone asks, we meant to do that. Somehow our op wrapped up eight minutes before our appointed time.

Mikkelsen was our only Friday op. We’d had three on deck for Saturday; regrettably, Josh Brolin had canceled Thursday due to illness. Another day, perhaps, good sir.

Next on our roster: Maya Hawke! She joined Stranger Things in its third season and was a fresh jolt to the ensemble as Steve’s Scoops Ahoy coworker Robin. I’ve also seen her outnumbered in other films such as Asteroid City and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but she’ll be more prominent in the upcoming Inside Out 2, which I expect will be my first Pixar film in theaters since 2020’s Onward.

The star of our final appointment of the weekend was Chris Parnell! If you’ve ever seen Saturday Night Live‘s classic “More Cowbell” sketch, then you’ve seen at least one among the many highlights of his several seasons on the show. He also had a recurring role as 30 Rock‘s Dr. Spaceman, he was in the main cast of FX’s Archer (so far I’m up to season 2), and he’s done guest bits in scores of sitcoms and comedy movies throughout the years. Most recently I caught him in two episodes of America’s new favorite TV-series-based-on-a-video-game Fallout as the suspiciously nice, one-eyed Overseer of Vault 7.

Beyond the photo ops, we also attended exactly one (1) panel per day. I’d have loved to sit through more (or had reasons to take more breaks from walking in general, really), but C2E2’s panel lineup fell shockingly short of our expectations. Some 95% of their comics panels were how-to classes for wannabe comics creators, which hasn’t applied to me since college. Several high-profile actors’ panels were on Sunday, which we couldn’t stick around to see due to Sunday morning adulting commitments. The overall schedule was much thinner than we’ve come to expect from this show. Nevertheless, we availed ourselves where we could.

We ended our Friday experience with a 3:30 panel devoted to two cast members from Alien on the occasion of, um, “Alien Day”. For those who didn’t know, such as us, at some point 20th Century Fox and/or some Alien fans thought to themselves, “See how much fun Star Wars fans have with May the Fourth on the flimsiest of pretexts? Why can’t we make up one of those?” Hence 4/26 became their fake internet holiday of choice — derived from LV-426, the moon where James Cameron’s Aliens takes place. Still in its relative infancy, “Alien Day” is arguably at least as respectable as “National Talk Like a Pirate Day” or “Election Day”.

So, Alien Day, then. The film was re-released in theaters this weekend for the occasion; much floor space in the main hall was devoted to an entire Alien exhibit (more about that in Part 5); and we had this very panel to note it. About those two actors:

Tom Skerritt played Captain Dallas, who led the crew of the Nostromo through their space jobs until that one fateful day when no one could hear them scream. He’s had a lengthy career too familiar to run through here; the last time we saw him was in a few episodes of Leverage as antihero-mastermind Timothy Hutton’s criminal dad.

Veronica Cartwright, the youngest Alien castmate, started in Hollywood as a child actor going back to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and the Twilight Zone episode “I Sing the Body Electric”. She’d just finished up the ’78 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers when Ridley Scott’s shiny little B-movie came along next. She’s still in the biz today and was most recently in two episodes of The CW’s Gotham Knights, which shouldn’t be held against her.

We entered the room at 3:00 sharp and grabbed halfway decent seats, well before the house got so packed that con volunteers began asking everyone to scoot over and fill every single available seat. Even then, folks remained standing in the back, though apparently not quite enough for a “max capacity” notice to be sent out on the official C2E2 app. While we awaited our stars’ arrival, the onscreen pre-show entertainment included the recent teaser for Alien: Romulus with a new intro from director Fede Alvarez recorded exclusively for C2E2, in which he wished attendees “Happy Alien Day” with a politely straight face.

Skerritt and Cartwright arrived at 3:45. The panel nevertheless ended at 4:30 as scheduled. Items under discussion included but weren’t limited to:

• A set anecdote involving Yaphet Kotto and a swing
• H.R. Giger’s not-so-subtle sexual imagery, including the xenomorph’s head-within-a-head that Cartwright referred to as “the little penis guy” (to which the audience reacted to her kindly-grandma voice exactly as you’d imagine)
• Similarities in style between Scott and Hitchcock, in terms of a “less is more” suspense aesthetic, meticulous set decoration, and each gents’ preference to do their own storyboarding
• How Cartwright’s loudest scream required her to draw on a memory involving her ex-husband
• Parallels between Giger’s designs for Alien and David Lynch’s Dune (Cartwright: “There is that big worm…!”)
• How Cartwright thought she’d been cast as Ripley until the costume department informed her otherwise
• Memories of working with other directors such as Ridley’s departed brother Tony Scott, Phillip Kaufman, George Miller, and Robert Altman (on the nearly forgotten HBO series Tanner ’88)

…and the fan questions ended with a comment from an Andorian cosplayer who credited the iconic chest-busting scene with helping her escape a potentially lousy date. Thus endeth our Friday at C2E2.

Conversely, after the show floor opened Saturday morning a few minutes before 10, a panel was our first activity of the day. After two hours of standing on concrete, we sped upstairs to the Main Stage at the farthest end of the fourth floor and enjoyed sitting for the next ninety minutes. We grabbed seats in the front row of the general-admission section, waited while time was allotted for VIPs to come snatch up the best seats first, and then we cheapskates were permitted to bum-rush the empty spaces and improve our lots.

Our live pre-show entertainment included a faintly Family Feud sort of game with six volunteers invited onstage to compete for some large, boxed prize whose contents I couldn’t make out.

At 10:30 commenced a Q&A with nearly the entire cast of Star Wars Rebels — save Taylor Gray, the voice of youngster Ezra Bridger, who’d been scheduled to attend as well, but had canceled.

Items under discussion included but weren’t limited to:

• The pleasure of recording the show with the cast together in studio, except for Mikkelsen, who would join their sessions remotely from Copenhagen
• On a related note, this weekend was apparently his first time meeting his coworkers in person
• That time a frantic Marshall lost her baggage at the airport, then was approached by a fan in a Hera shirt who recognized her and asked, “I see you’re ugly-crying. Is there something we can help you with?” whereupon the family split into search teams and lo, it was found thanks to the magic of fandom
• How Marshall always keeps food with her in case anyone in her proximity is hungry, whether while on the job or signing for fans (she’s basically the cast’s “Space Mom” and Prinze is “Space Dad”)
• Sircar’s favorite episode “Trials of the Darksaber”, a duel that she and Prinze recorded one-on-one with their mics facing each other with no one else around except Dave Filoni and one sound engineer
• How Sabine’s monologue in the finale was kept secret from the rest of the cast for a year, until they finally watched for themselves, which was also when Marshall and Prinze learned at some point offscreen, 100% unbeknownst to them, Hera and Kanan had had a baby
• That time special guest Jason Isaacs (voice of the Grand Inquisitor!) wandered around the studio, found a miniature golf set in a closet, set it up and began playing between takes while everyone else was trying to record
• In response to the popular comic-con fan question, “How can I too become a voice actor and become world-famous and do all the conventions like you?” they agreed on two acclaimed resources: Steve Blum’s free (!) Masterclass and fellow Star Wars voice-lord Dee Bradley Baker’s “I Want to Be a Voice Actor!” site, chockablock with resources for aspiring performers

…and more, more, more. Meanwhile, at 10:40 the C2E2 app had notified all attendees this very panel had reached max capacity. It consequently took forever for all thousands of us to exit the Main Stage and go forth unto more fun yet to come.

To be continued! Other chapters in this very special miniseries:

Part 1: Friday Cosplay!
Part 2: Saturday Cosplay!
Part 4: Artists Alley!
Part 5: And the Rest!