Popverse's top stories of the day

• FEATURE: Wait, so is [SPOILER] dead? Or am I watching Captain America: Brave New World wrong?
• WATCH:  Watch Fairy Tail creator Hiro Mashima's full NYCC 2024 spotlight panel now!
• MEMBERS ONLY:  Popverse Jump: In defense of the DIC dub of Sailor Moon and its place in anime history

If you attend Megacon or one of Fan Expo’s other conventions, you might notice some changes in their celebrity panels. In the past, fans would form a line behind a microphone during celebrity panels to ask their questions. Depending on the panel, sometimes there would be a Fan Expo volunteer near the line who would prescreen the questions.

All of that has changed, and it’s all Hazbin Hotel’s fault.

Popverse recently attended Megacon 2025, and it didn’t escape our notice that the big celebrity panels were using a new system for audience questions. Instead of live questions from the audience, the moderator would read a list of preselected questions submitted online prior to the event.

As he was warming up the crowd for the Nicolas Hoult spotlight panel, moderator Victor Dandridge explained this policy. According to Dandridge, some of the questions and answers were getting too raunchy, and it made organizers nervous because of all the children in the audience. Dandridge said the Hazbin Hotel panels were the worst offenders, as the question and answers can get very graphic there.

(I’ve been to multiple Hazbin Hotel panels, and he’s right. Those things are wild.)

“Because of the perspective of us on stage, sometimes lights, we can’t tell that they’re kids,” Dandridge told the audience. “Sometimes the cast answers the question, the person walks away, and you’re like, ‘Oh my god that was a minor. Oh, I’m going to jail! I’m going to jail! I’m going to jail!’ To help with that, we did some presubmitted questions. There are forms online, so any other show you might go to for Fan Expo, look for presubmitted question opportunities.”

I caught up with Dandridge after the panel, and we had a short discussion about the policy. He said it was mostly out of concern for the minors in the audience. Dandridge noted that the line screeners weren’t always able to catch everything, and the new online system has worked much better.

It should be noted that this isn’t a hard policy for all Fan Expo panels. Comic writer and artist panels are still doing live audience questions, and some of the bigger celebrity panels are still doing audience questions anyway. For example, during the Scream spotlight panel at Megacon 2025, Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich walked offstage and handed the audience the microphone.

For what it’s worth, the new system didn’t stop the Hazbin Hotel cast from going wild. During their panel, Amir Talai made a joke about Charlie Morningstar having sex with Joy from Inside Out.

The Hazbin Hotel cast might not behave themselves, but you can always count on an interesting panel.

Want to know what's coming up next in pop culture? Check out Popverse's guides to:

• Upcoming movies
• Upcoming TV shows
• Upcoming comics
• Upcoming games
• Upcoming fiction books
• Upcoming comic conventions