Going into the Fringe panel at Comic-Con last Saturday I wasn’t sure if I was going to stay. I’ve seen many Fringe panels in the past and had already met the cast outside the Omni Hotel earlier (more on that later), plus, Joshua Jackson wasn’t going to be there and as we all know, he’s my fave.
But I figured since I was already in the room (after the awesome Vampire Diaries panel) I might as well stay, and thank goodness I did!
After a few opening remarks, including a sweet thank you to the fans on behalf of the cast from John Noble, the moderator decided to address “the elephant in the room”, why is Joshua Jackson missing?
Next they showed a short video clip of spoof auditions from a number of Comic-Con faves (including Zachary Quinto, Michael Emerson, Greg Grunberg and Jorge Garcia) all “auditioning” for the role of Peter. But the final audition tape came from Joshua Jackson himself, dressed as an Observer.
After the clip the moderator asked the crowd who they would like to see in the role of Peter and of course everyone answers Joshua Jackson, which is when he appeared on the stage– still dressed as an observer!
After a few minutes of applause from excited fans (including me) they went straight into fan questions. One fan asked how Peter could have fathered Bolivia’s child if he never existed to which Anna Torv replied, “The question is, is there a child now?”
The moderator then asked the panel if anyone thought they could impersonate Anna Torv’s impersonation of Leonard Nimoy (aka William Bell) on the show prompting Lance Reddick to step in and give a nearly perfect rendition of Olivia/Bell.
A fan asked Joshua if he felt like he was missing out since he didn’t play two parallel characters like most of his co-stars to which he revealed, “I think how he gets folded back into this season will be a very different guy compared to the one we saw before.”
Before the panel wrapped, the Fringe cast turned the tables on the audience to ask trivia questions about the show for which the show’s most savvy fans received Save Peter t-shirts! For example, Anna Torv asked, “What color was the suit that Walter got married in?” (Answer: Purple) One fan who had come all the way from Singapore for the panel also got a tee, a well deserved reward fro traveling half way around the world.
As I mentioned earlier, we happened to be passing by the Omni Hotel as the cast was getting ready to head across the street to the Convention Center for an autograph signing. The cast (sans Joshua Jackson) rushed into a waiting van stopping only briefly to say hi and sign a few autographs. But, John Noble came out early and spent a long time posing with fans, signing autographs, and chatting with everyone who approached him. He was so kind, it felt like we had all known him forever. He even posed with Chopper the Biker Dog!
Check out our photos below:
