Every year, Dragon Con calls to me like a beacon, and this year it called louder than ever. Dragon Con turned 40 in 2026, and Atlanta — my hometown — showed up and showed out for it. Running September 3rd through 7th, this year’s convention pulled in over 75,000 fans, and downtown transformed into the same geek playground it always does, except this time it felt like the whole city knew it was witnessing something historic. Four decades of cosplay, community, and chaos, and I got to be part of it again.
Wednesday night hit exactly the way it’s started hitting the last couple of years. A massive crowd packed downtown for the official countdown to the start of the con, and if you’ve been following my recaps you know this is still a fairly new addition to the Dragon Con weekend — but it’s already carved out its own spot on the schedule. That stretch right before the doors officially open, where the whole city already feels like it’s mid-party, has quickly become one of my favorite ways to kick things off. Strangers in half-finished cosplay comparing notes, the Marriott lobby filling up hours early, everybody just waiting for the moment it becomes official. On a 40th anniversary year, watching a brand-new tradition take root inside a much older one felt like proof this con is still finding new ways to build community, even four decades in.
@jamlee212 Shoutout to everyone who got up close and personal with me at the countdown. This part of the Marriott was paaaaaacked. 😮💨 Wednesday is the new Thursday is the new Friday, or something like that. My favorite time of year is here! Happy Dragon Con! #dragoncon #dragoncon2026 #cosplay #onesiewednesday #atlanta
Panels Worth Losing Sleep For
The 40th anniversary guest list was stacked, and it showed in the panel rooms. Edward James Olmos headlined a full Battlestar Galactica reunion, and on the other side of the sci-fi aisle, Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyk brought the Firefly crowd out in force for a crossover panel that pulled in cast from Castle, Resident Alien, and Tucker & Dale vs. Evil — that’s the kind of lineup you only get at a con that’s been building relationships with these casts for decades. Add in Sean Astin representing both The Goonies and Lord of the Rings, Lena Headey off Game of Thrones, Richard Dean Anderson repping MacGyver and Stargate, Tom Welling and Erica Durance bringing Smallville back, and Dawnn Lewis from A Different World, and you had a programming track that could’ve eaten your whole weekend on its own. I bounced between a few of these and the energy in every room was the same — people who grew up on these shows finally getting to ask the questions they’d been sitting on for twenty years.
Turbo Rush Runs on Dragon Con TV Again
Here’s the moment that still hasn’t fully sunk in: for the second year in a row, my Turbo Rush music video — the one I made cosplaying as A-Train from The Boys — played on Dragon Con TV. I wrote the song, performed it, directed the video, and shot the whole thing myself, so having it show up on screens across the con for a second straight year hit different than the first time. Friends started sending me clips of it playing before I’d even seen it myself — that’s the real proof it’s out there in the wild, running on loop in front of thousands of people who have no idea who’s behind it until the credits roll. Two years running now, and it’s still one of the proudest “wait, that’s mine” moments Dragon Con has ever given me.
@cosplaysbyshinobi We made it to Dragon Con TV for the 2nd year in a row! Turbo Rush! Funny enough I self shot this! #dragoncon #theboystv #atraincosplay #fyp
Black Geeks of Dragon Con: Still Growing, Still Home
If you’ve read my recaps before, you know the Black Geeks of Dragon Con photoshoot is non-negotiable for me. What Channing Sherman started with 30 people back in 2015 has turned into one of the most powerful gatherings of the entire weekend. This year, on the back steps of the Hilton, hundreds of Blerds packed in for the Sunday shoot — capes, kente cloth, painted armor, all of it. Blerdography was out there too, capturing the energy the way they always do, and watching that crowd spill down the stairs never gets old. It’s a reminder every single year that Black fans have always been here, and Dragon Con is better for finally catching up to that fact.
@blerdofficial Black Geeks Of Dragon Con 2026 Photoshoot. Black Women Cosplayers Hosted by @Black Geeks Of DragonCon #blerd #blacknerd #dragoncon #dragoncon2026
Viltrumites Take Over Dragon Con
If there was one cosplay moment that went properly viral out of Dragon Con 2026, it was the Viltrimite takeover. Dozens of fans in full Invincible gear staged what basically turned into an unofficial invasion of the con, and the Black Viltrimite Meetup — organized in partnership with DC Black Geeks — was the centerpiece of it. Picture a hallway full of silver-and-gold armor breaking into a full Soul Train line, capes and all, while somewhere nearby Grand Regent Thragg was reportedly spotted getting a fresh lineup at “the number one Viltrimite barber” bit that had everybody’s timeline in tears. I showed up as Bulletproof — turned out I was the only one who did, which meant I got pulled into skit after skit with the Viltrumites all afternoon, playing the one guy in the room who’s supposed to be tough until an actual Viltrimite looks his way.
It’s exactly the kind of crossover Dragon Con does better than anywhere else — a comic book invasion with Blerd culture’s fingerprints all over it, and easily one of the most shared cosplay moments to come out of the whole weekend.
@bruthcosplay Viltrumites taking over @Dragon Con! @IvyRose @Jay_Slyboogie58 @frank smith337 @Royalty Cosplay @Monsieur TankTop🔜DRAGONCON credit to @jetlofi #ViltrumWithSeasoning #Invincible #BlackViltrumites #BlackCosplayer #Viltrumites
Captain Zero Screens as Part of Diversity & Inclusion Programming
This year carried a little extra weight for me personally. Captain Zero got a screening slot as part of Dragon Con’s Diversity and Inclusion programming, and sitting in that room watching an Emmy and NAACP Image Award nominated animated short I helped bring to life play in front of a Dragon Con crowd is a feeling I’m still sitting with. Cutting Edge Animation put years into this project, and to have it recognized inside the D&I track — the same track that gave me my first shot walking the parade back in 2023 — felt like a full-circle moment. Watching people react in real time, hearing the laughs land where we hoped they would, talking to fans afterward who wanted to know where the Into the Abyss follow-up was headed — that’s the whole reason we make this stuff.
The Parade: Suiting Up for Tropic Thunder
The Dragon Con Parade is still the crown jewel of the weekend for me, and Saturday, September 5th at 10 a.m. sharp, I was back on Peachtree Street with the Diversity and Inclusion group for another year. This time my crew went with a Tropic Thunder squad — full unit gear, the “just short of the line” military chaos energy that movie built its comedy around, Alpa Chino swagger included. It’s one of those cult-favorite movie picks, like our Cool Runnings group last year or Coming to America back in 2023, that doesn’t get the cosplay love it deserves, so seeing the crowd recognize it and lose it a little was exactly the payoff we wanted. Marching down Peachtree with that much recognition and that much noise from the crowd is still one of my favorite feelings on earth. No sleep, sore feet, worth every second.
The Hilton Goes Full TMNT for Dragon Con’s 40th
The Hilton Atlanta leaned all the way into a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles takeover this year, and it might be my favorite hotel theme they’ve done. Sewer-and-turtle backdrops turned the lobby into a full photo op, the hotel rolled out TMNT-themed pizza, Ninja Turtle donuts, and a “Cowabunga” cake exclusive over at Southern Elements, and the whole thing had attendees posting nonstop all weekend. The Hilton’s always been the hotel that goes hardest on a bit, and turning an entire lobby into a half-shell fever dream for Dragon Con’s 40th anniversary was exactly the kind of energy this milestone year deserved.
The Heat Was No Joke This Year
I’ll say it plain — this was the hottest I’ve ever felt Dragon Con, and I’ve been coming since 2016. Saturday’s heat index climbed into the low hundreds, and it showed. One attendee told local news he watched someone pass out right in front of him while waiting in the badge line, and honestly, that tracked with what I saw walking around downtown all weekend. Dragon Con clearly felt it too — they brought in extra EMS, including staff on bikes so they could actually get through the crowds fast, and kept water stations running non-stop the whole weekend. I started stashing a neck fan in my bag like some of the veteran con-goers do, because between the parade gear and the AC-less stretches between hotels, you feel it. Forty years in, and Mother Nature was clearly trying to test this con’s endurance right along with ours.
The Cosplay Party Council Brings DJ Dimeeech to Vanity
Saturday night, the party moved to Vanity Restaurant and Bar for the Cosplay Party Council’s annual Dragon Con blowout, and this year the Council brought in a special guest to run the decks: DJ Dimeeech. If you caught my 2025 recap, you know Dimeeech’s already Dragon Con family after that Bugs Bunny bit at the Bunny Hutch Party, so seeing them step up as a special guest DJ for the CPC’s biggest night of the year felt earned. Alongside the regular crew — DJ Swaggycosplayer, Shinobi, Ugo and Cosplay, and Meeeoweth holding it down as always — the sound was the usual CPC fusion of Hip Hop, Afrobeat, Dancehall, and Reggaeton, but Dimeeech brought a different flavor to the set that had the floor at Vanity locked from the first hour.
The Soundtrack Never Stops
One thing I always come back to about Dragon Con: there’s music playing from the moment you step inside a hotel to the moment you crash for the night. Somebody’s got a speaker going, a group’s doing a full choreographed number on the sidewalk, a random DJ set spills out of a lobby — it doesn’t matter what time it is, there’s a beat somewhere. I caught myself dancing right outside the Hilton patio at one point, no real reason, just because the vibe outside was too good to just walk past. That’s the thing about this con that photos and panel recaps never quite capture — the entire vibe. Here is me vibing in cosplay.
@cosplaysbyshinobi Reason 1,000,000 why you need to be at Dragon Con. At Dragon con you feel… Invincible #invincible #dragoncon #bulletproofcosplay #fyp
A 40th Anniversary That Gave Back
For all the parties and panels, Dragon Con’s 40th also put up some real numbers off the convention floor. The con raised more than $320,000 for this year’s official charity, Hope Atlanta, which helps people experiencing homelessness find stability — part of nearly $2.5 million Dragon Con has raised for Atlanta nonprofits since it started naming an official charity back in 2012. Fans also came through on a book drive inspired by Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, collecting more than 5,000 children’s books for the Fulton County Library System and Georgia Public Library Service. And the Robert A. Heinlein “Pay It Forward” Blood Drive set a new record with more than 4,000 donors over five days, supporting hospitals across the Southeast. Convention co-chair Mandy Collier put it well: this was a year built on bringing the past and present together, and the fans matched that energy with real generosity to go with the costumes.
Between the countdown, the panels, the screening, the parade, the heat, the Viltrumites, and Vanity on Saturday night, Dragon Con 2026 gave me a little bit of everything I come back for every year. Forty years in, and this con still feels like it’s just getting started. See y’all in 2027.