The Scene Drift

The London ExCeL was absolutely packed yesterday as thousands of pop culture fans, cosplayers, and gamers officially descended for Day One of MCM London Comic Con May. While Friday is traditionally the warm up day for the weekend, the energy on the show floor was immaculate from the moment the doors opened. The exhibition halls were buzzing with early weekend excitement, and the panels over on the main stages delivered some massive reveals, industry tea, and galaxy sized regrets.

From survival horror deep dives to some historic gaming bombshells and classic animation nostalgia, here is everything that went down on Friday’s blockbuster lineup.

The Resident Evil Requiem Cast on Tapping Into the Horror

First up, the voices behind one of the biggest and most anticipated gaming drops of the year, Angela Sant'Albano, Emma Rose Creaner, and Jane Perry, took the stage to dish on Resident Evil Requiem. The survival horror franchise has been on a massive run lately, and the panel offered a fascinating peak behind the curtain of the voice recording process.

Angela Sant'Albano, who plays protagonist Grace Ashcroft, got surprisingly real about the immense pressure of stepping into a massive, legendary franchise like Resident Evil. For her, taking on the role was about much more than just booking a job, it was about representation and doing justice to a new kind of protagonist who breaks the traditional mold:

"I remember thinking, you know what, all that I want to focus on and all I care about is that people like Grace that haven't been a heroine in a big thing or who haven't had a chance get to see themselves in these roles. I just wanted to do justice for them."

Anyone who has already played through the campaign of Requiem knows that Grace is put through the absolute ringer, experiencing some intense psychological and physical torment. When the panel host asked how she managed to tap into that dark mindset and get into character for all those brutal, exhausting scenes, Sant'Albano laughed it off, noting that the physical toll of voice acting horror is very real: "I'm not a screamer in everyday life, but screaming was very natural to me."

John Romero Drops Truth Bombs And Explains Why Modern Shooters Kind of Suck

Over on the Side Quest Stage, gaming royalty John Romero, the legendary cofounder of id Software and the mastermind behind definitive classics like Doom and Quake, treated fans to a masterclass in game design. Romero did not hold back during his time on stage, serving up a mix of industry history, personal career regrets, and some incredibly blunt critiques of the modern gaming industry.

The Ultimate Praise and Biggest Regret

When discussing the evolution of first person shooters, Romero gave massive, unconditional props to Valve for their 2004 masterpiece, calling Half Life 2 "one of the greatest shooters ever made," before adding that "other people have not replicated what they did, it was hard to do."

But the mood turned introspective when Romero opened up about his biggest regret from his id Software days. He admitted that he and fellow designer Tom Hall completely mismanaged their pipeline timeline during a crucial transition period for the studio, which ultimately altered the course of their careers:

"If we knew the game was going to take 11 months, we would have made a new game with Doom’s tech or a piece of Quake’s tech whilst the rest of the team continues making the engine. The first game would have taken a few months. Tom Hall and I agreed we should have made two games."

Wait... No Quake Money?

In what was easily the most surprising moment of the panel, Romero dropped a financial bombshell about his exit from the studio right as one of their biggest hits was about to change the multiplayer landscape forever: "When I left, I didn’t see any money from Quake."

Modern Shooters Are Too Easy

Romero also came directly for modern first person shooter design, arguing that today's AAA games treat players like they need their hands held through every single level instead of trusting them to explore and figure things out on their own:

"90s shooter design has a lot of elements modern games don’t have. Secrets are way too easy to find. There’s not nested secrets, like triple nested secrets. If you do find a secret it’s usually because you’re going down a path and choose to look left. You’re not breaking walls or shooting a target that’s super hard to see. People aren’t doing that, there’s been a focus on the simplification of shooters."

The Clone Wars Cast: Missed Connections and Fighting Wars in Tube Tops

To wrap up day one with a massive dose of nostalgia, the iconic voice cast of Star Wars: The Clone Wars came together for a major celebration. Matt Lanter, James Arnold Taylor, Nika Futterman, Catherine Taber, Dee Bradley Baker, and Ashley Eckstein all reunited on stage to look back on the legacy of the series that literally kept the galaxy alive during a dark age for franchise content.

The Finn Wolfhard Fan Girl Moment

Ashley Eckstein, the beloved voice of Ahsoka Tano, delighted the crowd with a hilarious story about a massive missed connection at Tokyo Disneyland involving Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard, where she ended up completely freezing up despite her husband's best efforts to get her to talk:

"I had a weird moment once at Tokyo Disneyland and I was in the ice cream shop, Finn Wolfhard from Stranger Things came in and sat at the table next to us and geeked out about Clone Wars the entire time and I’m a fan of Stranger Things. My husband said I should say something, but I didn’t. I wish I could go back and say something like 'Hey I’m a fan of yours and you like Clone Wars!'"

Paving the Way for the Live Action Universe

On a more serious note, Eckstein also reminded everyone in attendance that before Disney bought Lucasfilm, The Clone Wars was singlehandedly carrying the entire franchise on its back, acting as the vital creative bridge to everything fans see on screen today:

"For us, it’s easy to forget but when Clone Wars was on the air, there was no other Star Wars. We thought Star Wars was done. This was before Disney bought it and we were the only thing on the air… Without the success of Clone Wars we might not be seeing Mandalorian, Boba Fett, etcetera."

The Tube Top Travesty

Finally, Eckstein got a massive roar of laughter from the crowd when she revealed the one major aesthetic change she demanded for Ahsoka's character design early in the show's run, proving she had some very practical feedback for George Lucas and Dave Filoni:

"I wanted Ahsoka to have one change and it happened nobody is going to fight a war in a tube top! I was really excited when they changed her costume."

MCM London Comic Con is just getting started, and the Friday crowds have officially set the stage for an absolute blockbuster weekend. Keep eyes locked on the site all weekend for more detailed breakdowns, panel reports, cosplay galleries, and live updates from Day 2 and Day 3!