1Originally a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, adapted as a television show by the American network HBO from 2011 to 2019, Game of Thrones is one of the most famous examples of television fandom. HBO has developed a Game of Thrones storyworld, stretching across a range of HBO official and licensed products, platforms and media (Escurignan, 2017). However, HBO’s take on Martin’s work is not always readily accepted by fans: through various practices, fans not only recreate the representations conveyed by the show but also remodel them and even expand the universe developed by the franchise. They do so via online and offline practices: online, forum discussions, fanart, fan fiction and merchandise creation, amongst others, participate in this creative reception of the show. Offline, practices such as cosplay serve as support to fans’ reinterpretation of the series.
2Game of Thrones has been at the center of media attention partly because of its highly controversial representation of sexual violence, its treatment of female characters as well as its lack of representation of diversity and minorities (Ferreday, 2015; Gjelsvik and Schubart, 2016; Hannell, 2020). One of the ways fans address these controversies is through cosplay. Cosplay and conventions going are very visible, yet marginal activities amongst the fan community. My research on Game of Thrones fans has showed that, out of 1954 fans who answered online questionnaires on their practices, about 1% were cosplayers and 6% were convention-goers (Escurignan, 2021). They are amongst the least followed practices, a situation that can be explained by the fact that both are time and money-consuming activities, requiring from fans time off, travel and often a substantial budget. However, these practices are emblematic of fandom: the creativity displayed by cosplayers at conventions is relayed online by the community, making it a visible part of the fandom and therefore, one deserving of a particular attention when it comes to its interpretation of the representations presented by the show.
3Hence, building on recent works in fan studies and relying on an ethnographic study of Game of Thrones cosplayers at MCM London Comic Con and on interviews with them, this article aims at uncovering how cosplayers address Game of Thrones representations through their practices at conventions. To this end, I analyzed Game of Thrones cosplayers’ behavior at MCM London Comic Con 2016 and 2017 by focusing on their costumes display and by looking at their performances on-site. Indeed, both participate in showing how cosplayers not only recreate but also rewrite the series’ representations and expand its universe.
4Costuming is not new. All along History we can find examples of people dressing up for specific events like Carnival. Cosplay as we know it dates back to American science fiction conventions in the 1960s and 1970s where fans cosplayed as Star Trek and Star Wars characters. The term ‘cosplaying’ was created by game designer Takahashi Nobuyuki in the 1980s to refer to the costume practices American fans engaged with (Lamerichs, 2010). Stemming from the USA, cosplay, a term crafted out of the two words ‘costume’ and ‘play’, is an activity in which the participants, called cosplayers, wear costumes in order to personify a fictional character. However, limiting cosplay to the wearing of costumes would be reductive. Cosplay is a practice that includes the crafting of the costume by the cosplayer or its purchase (which often entails precise research), the styling of wigs, the application of sometimes intricate make-up, the wearing and display of the abovementioned elements as well as the performance of acting as the character portrayed at events. Therefore, cosplay is a wide term that encompasses various creative activities, commercial endeavours and performances. It is a complex practice that goes above and beyond the wearing of costumes at events like Comic-Con: it is a creative, affective, performative and, more than anything, a fan practice.
5Cosplay is a material manifestation of fan cultures and an expression of narrative extensions. It is a particular type of fashion craft because it specifically relies on media imagery (Lamerichs, 2014c): indeed, cosplay costumes are based on fictional characters stemming from popular culture. It is therefore also a transmedia practice, as it allows fans to interpret, develop and expand a narrative universe through material culture:
“Fan costumes are one example of how fans express their appreciation of existing stories and rework them through various media. Like fan fiction, fan movies, and fan art, cosplay motivates fans to closely interpret existing texts, perform them, and extend them with their own narratives and ideas.” (Lamerichs, 2015, 130).
6Furthermore, cosplay is both a transformative and a performative practice. Scott (2015) alongside Hills (2002) and Lamerichs (2010, 2014a, 2014b, 2014c, 2015a, 2015b) argue that cosplay is not a mimetic fan practice but rather a transformative one. For Shukla, costuming in general is transformative: “all clothing embodies motives and hopes, but costume stretches toward magic” (Shukla and Glassie, 2015, 269). Apart from the costume itself, the practice of cosplay is transformative insofar as it engages cosplayers to think, create and adapt a narrative universe to their bodies, skills or wishes. Cosplay is transformative because it transforms audiences from receptors into producers of creative content.
7Cosplay has been heavily studied from the angle of its relation to fans’ identity. Researchers in fan studies have tried to understand what constitutes the identity of the cosplayer and what the relationship is between the player and the characters he/she embodies. In her book, Shukla states that “we all hold within us many identities – trial lawyer, mother, seamstress, history buff, tango dancer. The clothes we wear on a daily basis usually favour one of our identities. Versions of ourselves appear in different contexts, under different conditions, and some remain coiled in invisibility” (Shukla and Glassie, 2015, 266). Cosplaying, like costuming, is a way to display elective, and sometimes less well-known, identities. One of Lamerichs’ recurring definitions of cosplay underlines both the transformative aspect of cosplay and its close relationship to identity. She states that cosplay is a “form of appropriation that transforms and actualizes an existing story or game in close connection to the fan community and the fan’s own identity” (Lamerichs, 2014a, 115). According to Duffett (2013), cosplay allows fans to express their own identities as fans. For him, cosplay “is a diverse practice that ranges from playful fancy dress to a more profound realization of social identity than might be accepted in wider culture” (Duffett, 2013, 189). Through cosplay, cosplayers actualize a narrative as well as their own identities. Costumes showcase the connection between the player and the narrative, as well as the relationship between him/her and the character embodied. More than merely crafting a costume, cosplay has to do with the construction and display of the player’s identity, or of one aspect of his/her identity. Lamerichs underlines how cosplay implies the enactment of such identity by the costume wearer:
“As a fan practice, it creates an intimate and complex relation between the fan and the character. Cosplay is an excellent example of how fans actualize fiction in daily life and identify with it, and thus it helps us understand the constitution of fan identity. Through the acts of constructing and wearing a costume, the fan constructs his or her identity in relation to fiction and enacts it.” (Lamerichs, 2010, 8).
8As such, we easily understand how the way a cosplayer cosplays a character can be a way for him/her to raise his/her voice regarding the fiction embodied. Cosplays can make stances on shows through cosplaying a character in a particular way.
9Cosplay also engages fans in performance. Performance is at the heart of the cosplay practice. It is defined by Henry Bial as “a tangible, bounded event that involves the presentation of rehearsed artistic actions...We can extend this idea of a performance to other events that involve a performer (someone doing something) and a spectator (someone observing something)” (Bial, 2004, 57). Performance clearly requires two elements: a performer and a spectator. As such, cosplay is a practice that needs to be shown and needs to be seen. As a performative activity, cosplay needs an audience, both during the crafting process and when the costume is worn. The wearing of the costume itself is either done at an event where an audience is present (a convention for instance), or is documented through photographs/videos in the case of an on-site meeting in a natural setting. Cosplay performance only works if audiences recognize the characters cosplayed, but cosplay itself can be enjoyed even if the spectators do not know who the characters are. However, when the character cosplayed is recognized, it is more likely to be photographed and circulated within the fan community. This circulation can in turn generate traction and discussions about the way the character is portrayed. Hence, when cosplayers modify a character to make it fit their interpretation of the universe, it can lead to exchanges within the community about said representation. Therefore, cosplay is both a way to answer critiques regarding a fictional universe’s representations and a means to spark discussion about these official representations and the way they can be rewritten by the fandom. Cosplay is thus deeply embedded in communities (the cosplayers’ and the fans’) and in sociability.
10One of the places where such reinventions and discussions happen is at conventions. While cosplay is still play for many cosplayers, this ‘playful’ activity is now more than ever associated with immersion: cosplayers want to immerse mentally and, as much as possible, physically in their universe of fandom. This is what is provided to fans in places such as Universal Orlando’s Wizarding World or since 2022 in the Game of Thrones Studio Tour, and aimed for at conventions. Cosplay is more than just ‘play’ as defined by Huizinga (1955), as it is considered by some cosplayers as a serious activity where material interest and profit can be gained. The main output for these cosplayers’ visibility is the convention space.
11It is impossible to analyse the phenomenon of cosplay without linking it to the fan-dedicated events called conventions. The fan convention is a constructed site “arranged to have connection to fiction” (Lamerichs, 2014a, 268). In most cases, conventions take place in hotels or exhibition centres that are decorated and themed for the occasion. Lamerichs (2014a) underlines how fiction becomes real and embodied in convention spaces. The connection to fiction allowed by conventions is what makes these spaces affective, meaningful sites for fans. Fan conventions are ephemeral, immersive spaces where fans can pursue their fandoms in a social environment made of like-minded people. They are constructed, yet affective places designed to maximize fans’ experience by allowing immersion and exchanges. For Gilbert, conventions are “a concentrated experience of fandom” (Gilbert, 2017, 319). Fan conventions can be centred on one fandom (Supernatural or Star Wars), on a specific type of fandom (anime for instance), on an activity (gaming for example), or they can be “multiverse” events (Mittermeier, 2019, 1376) gathering gaming activities alongside entertainment industry actors presenting their latest products and mangaka showcasing their projects. The latter is exemplified by the famous Comic-Con events which are “hybrid settings where different fictions blur” (Lamerichs, 2014b, 118). The convention space is organized around panel rooms, gaming rooms, art galleries, screening rooms, cosplay competition stages, autographs and photo areas, commercial stands and indoor as well as outdoor common spaces, all of which “overflow their properly assigned spaces, intermingling in the hallways and in the con suite” (Jenkins, 1992, 259). The fan convention is an auratic space of transmedia experience where everything from a franchise is available.
12At conventions, fans not only enjoy what is going on around them as spectators but are also “part of the crowd” and embody the fiction (Lamerichs, 2015a, 131). They especially do so through cosplay. Beyond serving as entry points into media texts and fan communities, cosplayers also foster convention-goers’ immersion into the specific universe of the convention. For Gilbert, conventions are strategic elements of fans’ experience as they “erect physical spaces, albeit ephemeral ones, that shape how fans relate to one another, to media properties, and to industrial forces” (Gilbert, 2017, 319). They are therefore, more than ever, central spaces to analyse in order to understand the relationships between fans, narratives and industry actors. When at conventions, cosplayers engage in various activities: they can wear their costumes in the halls and at fans’ meetings, in a practice devoid of professional or competitive will. They can also engage in cosplay-dedicated momentums, such as cosplay competitions, acts or specific photography sessions. In this work, I will only focus on non-competitive cosplay representations, i.e. fan meetings and Game of Thrones cosplayers strolling the convention space.
13There are two main types of conventions where one can meet Game of Thrones fans: themed conventions and multiverse conventions. Game of Thrones themed conventions are events entirely dedicated to Game of Thrones. A few exist, amongst which we can cite the American Con of Thrones, Dragon Con, Ice and Fire Con, the Belfast-based Titan Con, which was originally focused on Game of Thrones and then expanded to other works of science-fiction and fantasy, and the French All Men Must Die. Multiverse conventions are the most common ones, and exist on various scopes: local, national and international. Some of the most successful ones are the Comic Cons, from the internationally well-known San Diego Comic-Con to New York Comic Con, London Comic Con or Paris Comic Con. In these events, several universes of fandom cohabit, but the more prominent presence of some over others is often due to the success of a franchise at any given time and the news surrounding it. My research took place while Game of Thrones was still being broadcasted and as such, very successful. There was then no surprise to meet fans, cosplayers and industry actors related to the HBO show at multiverse conventions. This research focuses on cosplayers as I was not able to exchange with HBO and Game of Thrones’ officials for this project. Nonetheless, it is known amongst the fan community that Michelle Clapton, the show’s costume designer, is present in one of the Facebook cosplay and embroidery groups and often provides patterns and detailed pictures from her creations to help cosplayers recreate them. This shows that, at least within the costume creators community, a form of collaboration and exchanges exists.
14As part of my fieldwork, I attended two multiverse conventions in the UK, MCM London Comic Con in October 2016 and May 2017 where I undertook an ethnographic study of Game of Thrones cosplayers’ behaviour and practices, especially during fan meetings and around Game of Thrones-dedicated exhibitors and actors. I also interviewed 24 English-speaking Game of Thrones cosplayers while on-site at MCM London Comic Con. I then thematically analysed the data gathered on NVivo and Excel. It is worth noting that these interviews were rather short, lasting between 5 and 10 minutes, as conventions are crowded and loud places and participants had limited time to give a researcher. I was therefore able to gather answers to my questions but cosplayers did not elaborate much on their points of view. While statistics are not relevant with such a small number in a qualitative study, I will use them to give an idea of the overall directions of the answers gathered. Finally, none of the cosplayers I interviewed at MCM London Comic Con overtly mentioned the issues of sexual violence or lack of representation of minorities that arose around the show. Nonetheless, these appeared in more indirect ways, for instance in the behavior cosplayers displayed.
15The English-speaking cosplayers interviewed are female-dominated, with 10 men and 14 women. Their ages range between 16 and 33 years old, with the majority ranging between 25 and 30. 67% of the English-speaking cosplayers are from the UK, while 25% are European but non-UK citizens and 8% are non-European (one Australian and one American). They are all fans of Game of Thrones and can cosplay several characters from this universe. During the whole weekend of the convention, most of them did not only cosplay Game of Thrones characters but also characters from other universes. I have approached them first online through an international Game of Thrones Facebook cosplay group, where a specific conversation for cosplayers attending MCM London Comic Con was created. This is how I learnt the dates and times of the Game of Thrones cosplayers’ meetings and built a relationship with them over the span of several months. It is worth noting that I attended both Comic Cons as a Game of Thrones cosplayer too, hence positioning myself as a participant-observer overt. This greatly facilitated the ethnographic fieldwork and interviews on-site and allowed me to observe how Game of Thrones cosplayers interpret the representations conveyed in the series.
16Fans go to conventions to meet the icons who play in their objects of fandom, but many of them confess not to go as much for the actors as for the other fans and cosplayers they meet there. Indeed, convention after convention, fans, and particularly cosplayers, create links and use these events as meeting occasions throughout the year. Game of Thrones cosplayers are a particularly tight community. At the 2016 London Comic Con for instance, they met once a day for three days. These meetings allowed them to make new acquaintances, discover each other’s cosplay outfits, take pictures and exchange their views on the storyworld. However, there is more to these meet-ups at conventions, as I will now show.
17At MCM London Comic Con in October and May, Game of Thrones cosplayers showed how tight their fan community is by meeting once a day. At each convention, for three days, they met at 2 pm outside the ExCel convention centre. In October, there were about 80 Game of Thrones cosplayers during the overall weekend while in May there were about 40, without counting those who did not join the meetings. During these meetings, cosplayers dedicated themselves to different activities: they made new acquaintances, caught up with fellow cosplayers, discovered each other’s costumes, took pictures (which is the activity that took the longest time), talked about Game of Thrones and re-enacted scenes from the show. As a group of cosplayers mentioned, the pleasure here comes from “fan-raving with other people” and “nerding together”.
18The recreation of Game of Thrones representations is done through cosplayers’ faithful reproduction of the characters’ outfits, hairstyles and additional objects (weaponry for instance). The first thing to note is that cosplayers’ main objective is most often a loyal reproduction of what is showed on-screen. Cosplayers aim at reproducing the series’ costumes as closely as possible to the original. To do so, they participate in online cosplay groups, where they share their work and receive feedback and advice from fellow cosplayers. In the case of Game of Thrones, Michelle Clapton, the series’ costume designer, was herself involved in an embroidery-focused Game of Thrones cosplay Facebook group, where she helped cosplayers nail the embroidery part of their costumes.
19At MCM London Comic Con, I observed a variety of Game of Thrones characters brought to life through cosplay. In the cosplayer groups interviewed, the Targaryen, Stark, Lannister families’ costumes were the most popular, with 3 Cersei Lannister cosplayers, 3 Margaery Tyrell, 2 Jaime Lannister, 2 Sansa Stark, 2 Jorah Mormont and 2 Daenerys Targaryen for instance. One should also underline that the character chosen by a cosplayer can be linked to the cosplayer’s own identity (which character one feels closer to) but can also be influenced by the latest installment of the show: which characters were portrayed and how the newest season influences cosplayers, especially if the characters are portrayed with new and appealing costumes.
20During meetings at conventions, Game of Thrones cosplayers admired each other costumes, exchanged about costume creation and took pictures together. They gathered for photos by groups of the same character or the same family but also by gender, by characters appearing together in the show and together as a big main group. Cosplayers’ meetings fostered inclusivity and a shared sense of community amongst like-minded people.
21Conventions are places of immersive experience for fans. They are popular culture dedicated events where fans from all fictional universes meet to celebrate their fandom(s). During conventions, fans immerse in what we could qualify as a ‘global fanverse’ or “multiverse” (Mittermeier, 2019), a space dedicated to all types of fandoms. Conventions are by themselves this special place of popular culture, which for a few days will live under different norms than everyday life. This immersion is even deeper for cosplayers who, as Nicolle Lamerichs writes, “re-enact fictional characters in self-created costumes inspired by popular culture. These outfits and subsequent performances are a physical manifestation of their immersion into the fictional realms of television, games and movies, among others” (Lamerichs, 2014, 114). Hence, cosplayers are not only immersed in the ‘global fanverse’ of the convention, they are also immersed in the universe in which they cosplay. However, the importance of this immersion should be tempered. Matt Hills (2017) discusses conventions as places that display “mixed realism”, as used by Timothy Welsh (2016). I think we could even describe conventions as places of “mixed immersion”. Indeed, Game of Thrones cosplayers at MCM London Comic Con are not entirely immersed in the Game of Thrones fanverse but also in the ‘global fanverse’ of the convention where all the other fictional universes mingle. This “mixed immersion” is somewhat felt by cosplayers who, during interviews, mention the wish for more immersive experiences around their universe of fandom. One group of cosplayers in particular highlight how interested they would be in immersive experiences like reenactments, tournaments and events in castles with people dressed up in costumes. In this group were cosplayers who already went to San Diego Comic Con and booked there a Game of Thrones meal experience, which was an interactive experience for Game of Thrones fans. Similarly, cosplayers’ behavior around Game of Thrones exhibitors at MCM London Comic Con shows their will to be surrounded by this universe.
22The immersion into the Game of Thrones universe was made even easier at both London Comic Con events by the presence of actors from the show and of a Game of Thrones dedicated exhibitor: The Iron Throne Experience. The Iron Throne Experience, privately owned by Fancosmic and its CEO Stephen Saleh, offers Game of Thrones fans a chance to get their picture taken on an original Iron Throne, one of the few thrones built by the company that made the one in the series. Fans and cosplayers can have their picture taken on the Iron Throne, in front of a background made to depict the throne’s room in the show. A number of original reproductions are also available to them to enhance the picture: a crown, Daenerys’ dragon eggs, Niddle, Arya Stark’s sword, or Ice, Ned Stark’s sword. The Iron Throne, the reproductions and the recreation of an environment reminding the show, with a lookalike background and the series’ well-known music, work in producing a truly immersive experience into the Game of Thrones universe. As a matter of fact, the Iron Throne Experience acted as a magnet on Game of Thrones cosplayers during the conventions: many of them had their picture taken on it, some even went several times during the weekend to get their picture taken in each of their different costumes. I often saw Game of Thrones cosplayers around The Iron Throne area, waiting in line or taking pictures on the other side of the Throne’s background, although this happened much more in October where they were a greater number of Game of Thrones cosplayers walking along the alleys than in May.
23Hence, the Iron Throne Experience created a real “Game of Thrones Bubble” inside the convention centre. This notion of “bubble” is also evoked by Mittermeier in her work on Star Trek themed cruise (2019). As in conventions, she evokes the “bubble” that the cruise ship creates as a fostering element of community and immersion. At MCM, this “bubble” also worked on cosplayers from other universes, for most of the people who took pictures on the throne, especially in May, were either not cosplaying or cosplayers from other universes. Cosplayers from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Star Wars and The Walking Dead were amongst the most visible ones. Some lookalike cosplayers, such as Emily Bennett as Daenerys Targaryen or Mac Doog Cosplay as Negan from The Walking Dead were invited by the Iron Throne Experience CEO to take pictures on the Throne in order to attract even more people and create online buzz.
24While most cosplayers intend to faithfully reproduce the costumes as seen on the show, some remodel the series’ representations through their practice. As evoked earlier, Game of Thrones has sparked controversy over its depiction of sexual violence, its treatment of female characters and its lack of representation of diversity and minorities. Whereas none of the cosplayers interviewed mentioned these topics, these appeared in indirect ways through cosplay reinterpretations and scenes creation. This shows that fans are aware of the controversies surrounding Game of Thrones and that they address them in their own ways.
25Cosplayers adapt the visual universe created by HBO to their own physical, creative, economic and social particularities. Hence, for Caitlin Postal, “cosplay allows fans to interact with a tangible aspect of the show through the physical act of making and/or wearing costumes. Costume fabrication allows fans to express material fondness for the source material while also reinterpreting the on-screen costumes for off-screen use” (Postal, 2017, 20). This reinterpretation was made visible at MCM London Comic Con through a Black Daenerys, with a cosplayer highlighting the lack of people of colors in the HBO show. Nonetheless, she was the only cosplayer I saw who brought attention to the representation of minorities during this convention. She was however one example of what has been noticed at other conventions where cosplayers have been shedding light on the lack of diversity in Game of Thrones.
26The representation of women in the series was a more prevalent issue tackled by Game of Thrones cosplayers at MCM London Comic Con. Interestingly, they did not do so through the costumes themselves, but rather through another cosplay practice: scenes re-enactment. The re-enactment of scenes from the show is definitely one of the most fascinating practices, because it does not occur all the time. I have noticed that out of the six days of London conventions, re-enactment of scenes from the show took place on four days. These were mainly the days where fewer cosplayers were at the meet-ups. It seems that large groups of cosplayers with numerous occurrences of the same character make it harder for cosplayers to engage in playful activities. Smaller groups however make it easier for fans to connect and to re-play scenes together. As a matter of fact, at the May 2017 London Comic Con, the cosplayers who wanted to re-enact scenes at the Saturday meeting, which is the day where most cosplayers meet, split up from the other cosplayers after the group photos in order to do their re-enactments in a more comfortable place and with a more manageable number of cosplayers. The atmosphere of the meeting, the cosplayers present as well as the characters available also play out as conditions for re-enactment. For instance, in May, out of the three days, the re-enactments took place on the two days where the organizer and the five most active cosplayers online were present – together, they created a dynamic core which boosted the group. Moreover, Game of Thrones cosplayers re-enact scenes according to which character is there and which characters’ combinations from the show are doable. At the October 2016 London Comic Con, cosplayers re-enacted the scene of the death of prince Oberyn Martell on Friday, while on Sunday, Melisandre resurrected Jon Snow. In May, cosplayers re-enacted the fight from Battle of the Bastards between Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton. By re-enacting scenes from the series, cosplayers not only immerse themselves but also actualize the Game of Thrones universe. The cosplayers I encountered not only cosplayed but performed together to recreate and re-play scenes from the fiction.
27Game of Thrones cosplayers also actively engage with the narrative through the creation and enactment of new scenes between characters. As with the re-enactment of scenes, these acts depend on which characters are present and what they allow the group to do, as well as on the cosplayers’ imagination and interpretation of the series. These ‘new scenes’ can be simple scenarios such as combats between characters that did not take place in the show: for example, one of the invented scenes was a combat between Prince Oberyn Martell and a Son of the Harpy, scene created because both characters were present and willing to see what this combination would have looked like. However, the scene creations can also be more complex and actively revise the show’s representations. Such scene took place at MCM London Comic in May 2017: in agreement with each other, a Sansa Stark and a Ramsay Bolton cosplayer decided to remodel the show to bend it to their own perspective on female empowerment. They created a scene where Sansa Stark kills Ramsay Bolton, not with dogs as in the show, but herself with a sword, hence de facto making a political stand for feminism: here, Sansa Stark is not a passive actor in Bolton’s death but an active one. She yields the sword herself, an action that never happens in the show. Ramsay’s cosplayer was very eager to do such a scene and was clearly uncomfortable with what his character had done to Sansa Stark in the series. Creating this scene felt like his way to redeem his cosplay character for what he had done. It was a powerful moment where Sansa’s cosplayer could reclaim agency over her character’s life. Therefore, scene creation can act for cosplayers as more than a playful performance: it can be a way for them to display their own reinterpretation of the series’ representations. These reinterpretations find their way back to the fan community through online posts on Facebook groups, blogs or Twitter and thus circulate within the community. Whether they influence it though is a question to which I do not hold the answer.
28As we have seen, cosplayers at conventions recreate their universe of fandom. However, they do more than that: they actually expand the universe beyond the boundaries created by the franchise. Through fans’ re-enactment of the show’s most famous scenes and their participation to immersive experiences such as the Iron Throne Experience, Game of Thrones cosplayers bridge the gap between their fictional universe of fandom and reality. By embodying the show’s characters through costumes, attitudes and acting, they immerse into their own fanverse. By re-enacting scenes from the show but in their own way, with their own interpretation, outfits and fellow cosplayers as partners, Game of Thrones cosplayers develop the show’s universe. Indeed, they bring something different, something new to the existing storyworld. They bend the storyworld to their own vision. Game of Thrones cosplayers go even further: they actively engage with the narrative and build an expansion of their fanverse through the creation and enactment of new scenes between characters. The most elaborate scene creation that I observed took place on the last fan meeting of the October 2016 MCM London Comic Con: cosplayers took advantage of the presence of a Night’s King cosplay to imagine an end to the show in which the Night’s King wins the war, leading all the other characters to die and be brought back as White Walkers. In this scenario, cosplayers worked together to create what they saw at the time as being a possible ending for the series. By inventing new scenes and new scenarios for the show, cosplayers create new material for the universe that does not only immerse them into it but actually expand it.
29For Jenkins, a world “is bigger than the film, bigger even than the franchise – since fan speculations and elaborations also expand the world in a variety of directions” (Jenkins, 2008, 114). As both speculations and elaborations, cosplayers’ performances expand the universe beyond the limits drawn by the franchise. Moreover, they bring to the forefront fans’ perspective on their object of fandom: fans get to show how they envision the Game of Thrones universe. These creative practices taking place at conventions work in making the latter immersive experiences for fans and cosplayers alike, thus enhancing the global fan experience.
30This article aimed at uncovering how cosplayers address Game of Thrones representations through their practices during conventions. To this end, I analyzed Game of Thrones cosplayers’ behavior at MCM London Comic Con 2016 and 2017 through ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with cosplayers. This study has showed that when at conventions, Game of Thrones cosplayers faithfully recreate the fiction through their costumes and performances, but can also remodel and reinvent them. They do so by either altering characteristics of the character cosplayed (genderbending or racebending) to foster greater diversity in the representations of their fictional universe of fandom, or by inventing new scenes between cosplayed characters matching their views on what the show should have done or what it could do. At MCM London Comic Con, Game of Thrones cosplayers not only re-enacted scenes from the show but also created scenes where for example Sansa Stark reclaimed agency over her own body by killing Ramsay Bolton with Jon Snow’s sword or the Night’s King killed all the show’s characters to have them come back as White Walkers.
31Conventions are therefore a time where cosplayers, and in this case Game of Thrones cosplayers, bridge the gap between their fictional universe of fandom and reality. By embodying the show’s characters through costumes, attitudes and acting, they immerse into their own fanverse. In addition, Game of Thrones cosplayers develop the series’ universe through the re-enactment of the show’s most famous scenes and their participation to immersive experiences such as the Iron Throne Experience which work as “bubbles” within the space of the convention. Finally, they create new scenes between the fictional characters they embody and thus expand their universe of fandom by developing the storyworld through their reinterpretations of the show.
32Cosplay is therefore more than a practice where fans display their craft and embody characters that they love. It can also be a platform for fans to voice their disapproval over the fiction’s representations and offer their own vision of their universe of fandom. As such, there is still much to gain in the study of on-site fandom and of its reception of industry’s representations.
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