Press release -
MCM Birmingham Comic Con - Day 3: Stranger Things’ Jamie Campbell Bower, Clair Obscur and Wallace & Gromit
Fans gathered at the NEC for the third and final day of MCM Birmingham Comic Con, with over 55,000 attendees across all three days of the show. Official photography from Day Three can be accessed by clicking HERE.
Jamie Campbell Bower
With Stranger Things season five premiering just a few days ago on Netflix, Vecna himself Jamie Campbell Bower joined us for a panel about his career and time on the show. Jamie discussed his music career, his debut role in Sweeney Todd and of course his most famous role to date in the hit show.
Answering fan questions, Jamie was asked about his favourite season five episode or day on set. “Episode 8. I will talk more about it after it comes out but I could say that like, normally when you're filming a show of this size, when you get to your final episodes you don’t have many visitors, and we had some visitors, some very important visitors coming on the day that I had no idea were going to be there. And I was already tripping out about the scene. And it ended up being one of the most powerful things I think I laid down in the show. I'm gonna leave it there.”
Jamie was also asked about the inspirations for his performances as Vecna and Henry Creel including, unexpectedly, Mr. Rogers. “So for Vecna I used Doug Bradley as Pinhead when I was making the voice. Even Christopher Lee as Dracula as well. I used a lot of movies, there's a lot of vampire references for some reason. There’s a movie called Prince of Darkness that I used,” Jamie said.
“Then for Henry, I'll use both real people and fake people. Funny Games is a huge inspiration. There were real people that I used for this season, without getting too much away. I used Mr. Rogers a lot more. I used, there's a film from the 50s of the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. I used that as well.
“So it’s a combination of like both references and also like my own imagination, but I tend to stick up pictures of my references around wherever I’m living, and I have like a book that I keep with me. I tweeted about this book a couple weeks ago and, um, and I, I'm, I'm gonna share it with you at some point. I'm just figuring out with the team at Netflix how I would like to share that with you all, but I will share it with you all at some point. And it will have all of the references in it. All of my notes, all of my chaos.”
Fans also asked some lighter questions, including whether Jamie believed Vecna would get along with any of the characters from Twilight. “All the Volturi. He’d love them. He’d absolutely love them. They’d put him in a cape. They’d put him in a castle. He’d have the time of his life. I feel like the Volturi would have a spa as well. He needs a spa. A good chemical peel.”
Another fan asked whether Jamie believed Stranger Things characters Steve and Nancy or Jonathan and Nancy were the stronger couple. “That is a divisive question and you know it is,” Jamie responded, before staying neutral and saying: “Nancy and Nancy.”
Tying together his love of music with his time on Stranger Things, another fan asked which album, band or song he would compare season five to. “Do you know what's really funny is I was listening to Sleep Token yesterday and I think season five is very Sleep Token. It's quite sci-fi. And the more I think about season five and listen to Sleep Token, the more I feel like there's a cohesion there between them.
Asked if there was a specific song, he answered: “Ascensionism.”
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
The voices of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took over the Gaming Stage as the cast delivered a mix of hilarious behind-the-scenes stories and heartfelt insights to a packed audience. They started the panel by expressing their gratitude at seeing “so many floppy baguettes” in the crowd.
The cast shared hopes of the franchise expanding into other entertainment spaces. “We would love to go into TV and film, film execs really trust gaming audiences,” Devora Wilde said. “We would love to make it happen.” Jennifer English closed the panel with a gentle reminder to fans debating the game’s endings: “Whatever ending you decide, please do be kind to each other.”
Ben Whitehead
Finally, the star of Wallace and Gromit, Ben Whitehead, took to the Live Stage, where Ben shared that he “never auditioned for Wallace, never ever. I said to [Aardman's] Steve Box, oh by the way, I can do Wallace if you ever need an understudy and that was that.”
Ben also discussed the importance of Gromit as a character and revealed that the iconic character was originally a cat. “In the original sketches, Gromit was a cat!” Asked about his own pets, he said: “People do say to me - why don’t you get a dog? But, I am gonna get hate for saying this, I prefer cats!” Despite his preference, Ben added that “Gromit is the heart and soul of the whole operation…. It’s tough on your own, everybody needs their Gromit.”
Asked about his favourite cheese, Ben replied: “Is it going to disappoint people if I don’t say Wensleydale? Wensleydale isn’t my favorite cheese! This is probably because of the West Country setting of Aardman, but my favourite cheese is cheddar.”
As 2026 approaches, stay tuned for more news with ReedPop set to announce dates for next year’s shows. Tickets are already available for May 2026 HERE.
