In the past few years, the Cincinnati Comic Expo has been forced to set up shop in Sharonville due to the ongoing renovations at the First Financial Center. After a few years in the suburbs, the convention is returning to downtown Cincinnati—with some major names in tow.
“We’re very excited to be back downtown. We’re now able to accommodate more fans, more guests, more exhibitors, more activities and events,” said Director of Operations Matt Bredestege. “Our guests would stay at the downtown hotels and we’d have to shuttle them each day … God bless Sharonville, but they don’t have the hotels and restaurants of the quality of downtown Cincinnati.”
This year’s Cincinnati Comic Expo, set for Sept. 25–27, will see some of pop culture’s biggest names available for meet & greets and autograph sessions with fans. The 2026 convention’s headliners are Hayden Christensen, known for playing Anakin Skywalker in “Star Wars,” and Richard Armitage, who plays Thorin Oakenshield in the “Lord of the Rings” universe.
Other notable actors at the convention include Carmen Electra (“Baywatch”), Tommy Flanagan (“House of the Dragon”), Gina Torres (“Firefly”), Pom Klementieff (“Guardians of the Galaxy”), Vicki Lawrence (“The Carol Burnett Show”), Yuri Lowenthal (“Naruto”), Sylvester McCoy (“Doctor Who”), and several different cast members from the TV series “Fallout.” Meanwhile, major comic book icons like Scott Snyder and Paul Dini will also be available for fans to chat with.
At the convention, attendees will have plenty of space to enter cosplay contests, play video games, practice their art skills, attend celebrity panels, walk the red carpet and browse over two hundred various vendors selling physical items related to their favorite franchises.
“Our event is a one place location for all things pop culture, which includes video games, tabletop games, movies, TV shows, comics, novels, general art, crafts, cosplayers,” Bredestege said. “If you want to go shopping or if you want to meet people or you want to learn something, everything is going to be under one roof. Anything that you have ever been entertained by is represented at our event.”
The expo began back in 2010 when Bredestege’s friend Andrew Satterfield made good on his longstanding promise to bring a comic convention to the Queen City. The two have been friends for 40-plus years after meeting in first grade.
“And going back 20 years ago, Andrew kept saying ‘well, I’m going to start a con in Cincinnati,’ because he had to travel up to Columbus or Chicago to go to one of these shows,” he said. “Now, there are shows popping up in Indianapolis and Lexington and Louisville all the time. So these kinds of events are clearly becoming very popular. It means a lot to the community.”
The Cincinnati Comic Expo is one of the largest in the region, often drawing some of the biggest celebrities on Earth. For example, Bredestege once got to introduce Stan Lee to an adoring crowd back in 2016. He hopes that the event continues to grow, now that the convention is back downtown, and that it becomes “an institution … on the same level as the WEBN Fireworks or the Reds parade or Taste of Cincinnati.”
“In Cincinnati, we have all these events that you mention and everyone knows what you’re talking about,” he said. “‘Hey, did you go to the fireworks? Did you go to Opening Day? Did you go to Taste?’ We want to get to the point where people go ‘Did you go to Comic-Con?'”
The Cincinnati Comic Expo is set for September 25–27 at the First Financial Center. For more information, visit the official website.
