Gandalf once said, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

Those awe-inspiring words, first written by J.R.R. Tolkien, really hit home for me this year at Fan Expo Chicago 2026.

The schedule was absolutely packed with A-list celebrities that I honestly never thought, in my life, I would get the chance to see. Mel Gibson. Kurt Russell. John Carpenter. Frank Miller. These are people connected to movies, characters, and stories that have been part of my life for decades.

But strangely enough, looking back on the weekend, they aren’t really what I’m thinking about.

I’m thinking about time.

Once again, I got to take my daughter and stepson with me. We’ve done this before, but this year felt different.

My stepson just started his junior year of college. He’s doing all these crazy-cool things in business school, traveling, building a career and slowly creating a life of his own. And somewhere during Fan Expo, it occurred to me that this might be one of the last times we do something like this together in quite the same way.

Not because anything is wrong. That’s just what happens. Kids grow up. Life gets busy.

The time that is given to us keeps moving.

So there was something bittersweet about sitting beside him at The Boys panel with Karl Urban. The funny thing is, I know absolutely nothing about the show. He loves it. I was basically just along for the ride.

And I loved that.

The cast was excellent, the interviewer was absolutely top-notch, and I got to sit there watching my stepson enjoy something that belongs to his generation and his interests. Maybe years ago I would have cared more about whether the panel was something I wanted to see. This time, I was just happy to be there with him.

Then there was my daughter. She did something I never did or could do back in my youth – cosplay with a smile. No fear. No judgement from fake friends, no chuckles from random strangers.

She came dressed as DogDay from Poppy Playtime and marched through those convention hallways like she owned McCormick Place. She was taking high-fives from strangers, looking at costumes, seeing characters she recognized and just soaking the whole thing in.

I loved watching how brave she was.

There’s something special about seeing a convention through the eyes of a kid. To adults, it’s booths, celebrities, autograph lines, overpriced food and sore feet. To a seven-year-old walking around dressed as one of her favorite characters, the whole place is still magic.

Although, apparently, even magic has overly aggressive Lego supervision.

We stopped at the kids’ zone so she could play with the Legos, and that was probably the one genuinely irritating part of the experience. I felt like the staff hovered way too much while she was simply trying to dig around and build something. It was one of those moments where you want to say, “Guys, she’s playing with Legos. We’re good.”

But even that has already become one of those little stories from the weekend.

And then there was Kurt freaking Russell.

Without a doubt, Fan Expo Chicago 2026 centered around the one and only Kurt Russell for me. His panel was jaw-dropping.

This is Kurt Russell we’re talking about. Snake Plissken. Jack Burton. R.J. MacReady. Wyatt Earp. Stuntman Mike. A guy whose career somehow stretches from Walt Disney to John Carpenter to Quentin Tarantino.

And there he was, casually telling stories about kicking Elvis Presley in the shins as a kid and playing ping-pong with Walt freaking Disney.

There are certain moments at conventions where the fan in you completely takes over and you’re suddenly twelve years old again.

This was one of them. Then somehow it got even better.

Russell started talking about his experiences working with John Carpenter,and Carpenter himself crashed the panel.

The crowd went nuts. So did I.

For someone who loves horror and filmmaking, seeing Kurt Russell and John Carpenter together onstage wasn’t just another celebrity appearance. These are two people responsible for The Thing, one of those movies that permanently changed the genre. Watching them together, listening to them talk and seeing the obvious history between them was one of those convention moments I’ll probably remember forever.

And yet, strangely enough, my biggest takeaway from Fan Expo Chicago this year wasn’t Kurt Russell.

It wasn’t John Carpenter. It wasn’t Mel Gibson. It wasn’t any celebrity. It was that Gandalf quote.

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

I had to miss Saturday because of a very serious family matter. Obviously, family came first. There was a time when missing the biggest day of a convention probably would have eaten away at me. I would’ve thought about everything I was missing.

This year, I didn’t. Maybe that’s part of getting older. Maybe priorities change. Maybe conventions change.

Or maybe we do.

Because somewhere between watching my stepson laugh at a panel for a television show I know nothing about, watching my daughter proudly march through McCormick Place dressed as DogDay, and watching two filmmaking legends unexpectedly share a stage together, I found myself falling in love with the convention scene again.

But I also realized something else.I think I’m ready to say goodbye to covering it.

The Graveyard Machine has covered Fan Expo Chicago for the last few years. I’ve chased announcements, photographed panels, written articles, wandered the convention floor looking for the next thing worth talking about. And I’ve loved doing it.

But everything eventually gets its final chapter. I don’t think there’s a better time than now to hang up the old Graveyard Machine Fan Expo hat.

Not because I stopped loving Fan Expo. Quite the opposite.

Maybe I finally want to experience it without thinking about the article afterward.

Maybe next time I want to sit through a panel simply because my stepson loves the show. Maybe I want to follow my daughter around while she’s dressed as whatever bizarre character she’s obsessed with that year. Maybe I want to stand in a crowd and lose my mind because John Carpenter suddenly walked onstage without immediately thinking about how I’m going to write about it.

Maybe I just want to be there. Because my stepson is getting older. My daughter is getting older.

I’m getting older.

And there will always be another panel. Another celebrity. Another convention.But there won’t always be another afternoon exactly like this one.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

I think I’m finally starting to understand what Gandalf meant.