The Nacelle Company has steadily cornered the market on pop culture nostalgia, and as of NYCC ’26, it shows no sign of slowing down. At its content-packed NYCC panel, Nacelle founder and CEO Brian Volk-Weiss teased two documentaries that reveal surprisingly under-recognized stories in fandom history: The Con of Wrath: The Craziest Convention Ever! and Giants & Castles: The Margaret Loesch Story. The latter will bring to light a former studio executive who, according to director Brian Stillman, “created most of our childhood. She’s the coolest person on the planet.” He pointed at Volk-Weiss. “She’s cooler than him.”
Though release dates for both documentaries are not yet confirmed, Giants & Castles will paint a portrait of Margaret Loesch, the Emmy-winning executive whose instincts shaped iconic children’s television, from X-Men and Batman: The Animated Series to Power Rangers and Transformers. As President and CEO of Marvel Productions, she was even Stan Lee’s boss.
Volk-Weiss shared how he “interviewed this lady named Margaret Loesch. And I literally, if you think I’m joking, I’m not. I thought I was interviewing a compulsive liar. Because she kept saying, oh, when I greenlit X-Men, when I greenlit Transformers, when I greenlit G.I. Joe, when I bought Smurfs, and I’m listening to her and I’m like, I’ve been studying the toy business for 30 years. There’s no way she could have done all that, and I never heard of her. So as soon as she wrapped, I quickly Googled her, and sure enough, every single thing she said was true.” Stillman added, “She genuinely cares about this stuff. She’s a fan. She’s one of us.”
In sharp contrast, The Con of Wrath will tell the story of the most infamous disaster in Star Trek convention history—before Fyre Fest, there was Ultimate Fantasy. Coinciding with HoustonCon in 1982, promoters promised fans a blockbuster arena event featuring William Shatner, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, DeForest Kelley, Kirstie Alley, James Doohan, Mark Lenard and more. The film’s director, Star Trek author and historian Larry “Dr. Trek” Nemecek—a self-proclaimed “survivor” of the con—spent years finding and filming organizers, attendees, dealers, and the celebrities themselves to capture the highs and lows of this notorious weekend of meltdowns and salvage efforts.
“When I first heard about this con years ago,” said Volk-Weiss, “I assumed it was just an overblown piece of Star Trek lore that had been embellished over time. This documentary proves it was actually much crazier than I could have ever imagined.”
With the Nacelle Company’s finger firmly on the pulse of fandom, both documentaries have the potential to surprise and delight even the savviest viewers.
Stay tuned to The Beat for more news from NYCC ’26.
