Star Wars: Return of the Jedi actor supporting Derbyshire town's first comic con

Father and son Willie and George Coppen lead a galaxy of stars who are supporting Mat-Con 1 at ARC Leisure Centre on Sunday, August 13, 2023. Willie played an Ewok in Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi and a Newlyn villager in the Willow film and television series. George played roles in Netflix’s The Witcher, The School for Good and Evil and Disney’s Willow series.

George said: “We are really looking forward to attending it, we know a lot of the other guests so it's lovely to see friends again and have a great laugh. We also love seeing all the people dressed in cosplay because the effort that goes into some of them are fantastic.”

Tyler Christopher, who lives in Crich, is one of the organisers of the new event. He said: “I set up Matlock comic con because Matlock has been crying out for this for a long time. It’ll be great for the town and the local people and we plan to do two more next year.

"We’re traders on the ‘convention circuit’ and we thought we’d give it a go! We’re all at comic cons most weekends and we love the buzz it brings to places like this.

"We got in touch with a lot of the guests from meeting them at comic cons, and getting to know them over time, then other guests we’ve acquired through an agent, but it’s been a long old process, we can’t believe the weekend is upon us already!”

The line-up of guests for Mat-Con 1 includes Phil Fletcher and Hacker T. Dog from CBeebies; Michael Fielding, who is best known as Naboo from The Mighty Boosh; George Newton, who was cast in Shane Meadows’ films Dead Man’s Shoes, which was filmed in Matlock, and This Is England; Natasha Tosini who played the lead role in the film Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey; Mark Silk, a voice actor from TMNT and Scooby Doo; Nathan Pegler who played a soldier in Jodie Whittaker’s last episode of Doctor Who; Wilfred Webster, a contestant in The Traitors game show on BBC 1 in 2022.

A van from the A-Team, a taxi which featured in Die Hard and Jim Hopper’s sheriff truck from Stranger Things will be among the vehicles on show and there will be movie props from Batteries Not Included, ET, Platform 9 ¾ and Gremlins.

Children’s activities, a cosplay competition and trade stalls will add to the fun.

General tickets cost £10 per adult, £8 per child with family tickets available. Carers and under 5s get in free.

Early bird tickets, enabling participants to be admitted to Mat-Con 1 an hour earlier, cost £12 for each adult and £10 per child with family tickets available. Carers and under 5s admitted free of charge.

There are also half-priced tickets, giving holders access to the comic con in the afternoon.

Mat-Con 1 is open to early bird ticket holders from 10.30am with general ticket holders admitted at 11.30pm and half-price ticket holders at 2pm. The event will close at 4.30pm.

To book tickets, go to www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mat-con-1-tickets-622650683957