TAMPA MEGACON 2017: James Marsters, William Shatner, John Barrowman Panels

Oct 3, 2017

The second day of Tampa MegaCon 2017 was full of panels, various podcasts and a Pokemon Go lure event. Celebrities included Ian Somerhalder, James Marsters, William Shatner and John Barrowman.

James Marsters

Almost right away, Marsters was asked about the Runaways, premiering next month on Hulu.

“I can tell you the name. I can’t even admit that we’re filming. Apparently,…a group of teenagers…find out their parents are supervillains. I play the biggest douche. I get to do stuff that they don’t allow anyone else to do. I haven’t had this much fun since probably Buffy,” Marsters answered. He also explained how he tried to mention his large social media following to Marvel but they still refused to let him say anything.

Spike

Another convention goer asked him to play the Marry Kiss Kill game with Dru, Buffy and Captain Jack.

“The world would end if I kill Buffy or Captain Jack. Who would I have to annoy?” explained Marsters before adding later, “I would love to kiss John Barrowman anytime.”

Squaring off against Barrowman again is also a main reason he’d love to do Arrow. Whether that’s denial of Merlyn’s (Barrowman) death or insider knowledge will be proved next Thursday.

Marsters also appeared on the long running Supernatural and described it as “the most happy set to work on.”

Then, he closed out his panel by singing, “Rest in Peace”.

Once More with Feeling Live

William Shatner

Season two of Shatner’s series, Better Late than Never, starts in January on NBC. This season was filmed over six weeks in Europe and he revealed of the highlight of the whole trip was in Sweden. The cast was given a can of Surströmming. “1% of Sweden eats fermented cod” which is put in a can where it continues to rot and “expands in can”. Then, Shatner did a rap about the rotten cod expanding in a can. When Foreman tried to open the can, it blew up and he projectile vomited. Then, Terry Bradshaw started “screaming like a little kid”. Shatner ate several pieces before picking up one of the pieces to chase Terry Bradshaw. Shatner even won the chase.

There was an incident during season one filming where the cast was made to think they were at DMZ between North and South Korea. In reality, they were on film set made to look like the DMZ. When that was revealed, Shatner and Bradshaw refused to have anything to do with it. Ever since, the series has stuck to “They’ll set up something and see how we react” instead.

Shoes!

While Shatner is a huge fan of Outlander, he ruled out any guest star appearances.

“It’s too far. It films in Scotland. I don’t want to go there. I want to go to Tampa.”

At one point, Shatner acknowledged the Irma victims in the audience. “You looking at a hurricane…it must be so scary, it’s unimaginable especially now that we’re hearing about Puerto Rico.”

Shatner’s newest book will be Live Long and…, a book on aging but has thoughts on his own mortality. He spoke of the prop comedian Tommy Cooper, “he died getting a laugh, that’s how I want to go.”

John Barrowman

Just a boy and his dog

There were just two questions on the mind of every Barrowman fan. Would he bring out the puppy? Does the puppy have a name yet? Almost a week before, at the Salt Lake Comic Con, Barrowman adopted a puppy from the Humane Society of Utah’s booth.

Towards the end of his panel, the puppy did make an appearance. Barrowman confirmed she had a name and that it was picked out by his mum but in order to find out her name, “follow me online.” However, as of this article, he’s still using #whatsmyname and hasn’t revealed it.

Barrowman’s recent appendectomy two months ago was also a topic a conversation. He was asked if he had any advice for those who suffer from chronic pain or more frequent hospital stays.

John Barrowman

“I’m not a Doctor. I was only a companion,” he complained but when pressed on advice, added, “Just don’t give up…and by the way, that’s why we should legalize medical marijuana.”

In telling a story about his planning style, he paused and recognized that some members of the audience would probably like to pretend the word “hurricane” didn’t even exist.

“I hope it’s not taken the wrong way but my parents call me the tornado or hurricane.”

Barrowman would like to return to Doctor Who but ‘it’s up to the producers or you guys who want to type things.” The last idea was said with quite a bit of his signature suggestive charm. Of the Doctors that haven’t worked with Jack, he said, “The one I would think would be really interesting is the 13th Doctor.” He walked up to the female ASL interpretor as though she was the 13th Doctor. “Hi, I’m Captain Jack Harkness and I know WHO you are.”

John Barrowman and ASL Interpreter

Captain Jack Harkness does live on in comics and audio stories. One of the upcoming Big Finish audios has Jack and John (James Marsters) reminiscing about how they first met.

“We had to change our voices to sound younger which was really hard to do.

Then, the panel finished with a rousing rendition of “Copacabana”.

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