Star Wars Celebration has ended. While I wasn’t able to travel to Anaheim and attend anything in person, over the days I’ve been constantly keeping up with panels and livestreams, and the energy of the event was very much present in me while it lasted. So now that it’s over, I thought I’d take a look at a bunch of the stuff that’s been shown and talked about and what I think about it. Oh, and I’m definitely going to try and go to SWC in London next year. Will I see any of you there?
Day 1
The Lucasfilm Studio Showcase started off Celebration by not only giving us Star Wars news, but also a trailer for the Disney+ Fantasy-series Willow, but also the first image of Indiana Jones 5. In terms of Star Wars though, we got the first trailer for Andor, a Disney+ series that follows the life of Cassian Andor, who we met in Rogue One.
The show starts out with a two-episode premiere on August 31st and will run for 12 episodes. A second season with the same length is already in the works and will lead directly into Rogue One. The show looks absolutely incredible to me. It’s tone seems a lot more grim and different to much of what we’ve seen from Star Wars so far. It’s taking that ‘war movie’ tone of Rogue One a step further and I’m excited to see how it will pan out.
Following that we got confirmation that the third season of The Mandalorian will release in February of 2023. Production has been going on for a while now and the crowd at Celebration got an early look at footage of the show, with even more being shown a few days after at the Mando+ panel.
To be honest I’m still a little salty that non-Celebration attendees haven’t been able to see this footage officially yet, since the panel wasn’t livestreamed. It feels a bit weird to just have that be exclusive to a small portion of the people who got into the panel and the rest of the fanbase will just have to wait, but it is what it is. Eventually we’ll get to see this footage ourselves anyway, and from the descriptions it sounds incredibly interesting.
Apparently Din will travel to Mandalore and Bo Katan seems to be taking on an antagonistic role. I’ll hold off on covering this for now until we have the trailer in HD, but from what I’ve heard and seen, it seems very exciting.
Then we got the official news that a new show is currently in development. Star Wars: Skeleton Crew is a show that was pitched by Spider-Man director Jon Watts and takes place after Return of the Jedi, around the time of the Mandalorian. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are also involved with the show and Jude Law is set to star.
Rumours for this show had been floating around for a few months now. If the codename Grammar Rodeo sounds familiar to you, this is the project that’s referring to. The show is about a group of kids who get lost and have to make their way home through the galaxy. While it’s cast thus mostly consists children, it’s been said that this show is to be enjoyed by the whole family. Further details are still scarce, but with a release date of somewhere in 2023, we’ll probably get more news at some point in the near future..
And to close off the first day, we had the The High Republic: For Light and Life panel. Here we got new insights into the upcoming stories of Phase 2 of the High Republic publishing era. The High Republic was already a jump to an unknown bit of history of Star Wars, taking place 200 years before The Phantom Menace, but now Phase 2 is taking a step even further back. 150 years to be precise. Instead of the Nihil, the antagonistic forces of this Phase are called ‘The Path of the Open Hand‘ and the ‘Dank Graks‘. This phase will be kicked off with the novel ‘Convergence‘, (October 4th, 2022) written by Zoraida Córdova. The novels ‘Quest for Planet X‘ and ‘Path of Vengeance‘ (Spring 2023) were also announced, written by Tessa Gratton and Cavan Scott respectively. George Mann is writing the audiobook ‘The Battle of Jedha‘ (January 2023 Audiobook, February 2023 Physical) which is probably a familiar planet to fans of Rogue One.
The High Republic comic series will also be relaunched (October 5th 2022), once again written by Cavan Scott with art by Ario Anindito. George Mann is writing the comic series ‘Quest for the Hidden City‘ (November 1st 2022) and Charles Soule is writing ‘The Blade‘ (November 2nd 2022), an origin story of sorts for the character Porter Engle from the first High Republic Phase.
The High Republic remains absolutely loaded with content and I can’t wait to read it all. But in the meantime there are still some books I’ll have to read before I’m all ready.
Day 2
The day started off with a panel by Industrial Light and Magic where Solo director Ron Howard and Lawrence Kasdan, who wrote the movie, revealed a first look a six-part documentary about the company which will release on Disney+ on July 27th. Furthermore there was a panel celebrating the 20th anniversary of Attack of the Clones (by the Maker I wasn’t even born yet) led by Ahsoka voice-actress Ashley Eckstein. She talked with Temuera Morrison, Daniel Logan, Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor, Matthew Wood, Doug Chiang and John Knoll about how making that movie was and their experiences. It’s a lovely thing to watch. Hasbro also unveiled Black Series figures for The Grand Inquisitor, Fourth Sister and Fifth Brother, who appear in the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ show.
Suddenly we also got the surprise reveal of the long-awaited sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order: Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. See the trailer for yourself below.
This trailer has me absolutely STOKED! Additional details revealed that this game takes place 5 years after the first one and the Pau’an we see is in fact not the Grand Inquisitor as I first thought, rather he is an Imperial Senator, so it seems like we’ll be going to Coruscant in this game. Furthermore we see Cal and BD-1 looking at some kind of Bacta tank with a person in it, who upon closer inspection seems to be missing an arm. I’m speculating this might actually be some kind of clone of Cal, but who knows! It’s still a mystery until the game releases next year on Playstation 5, Xbox Series S | X and PC. Meanwhile you can read my review of the first game here.
In further gaming news, Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II will release on Nintendo Switch on June 8th, and feature some sort of Cut Content DLC later down the line.
A new LEGO Star Wars Special was revealed, titled LEGO Star Wars: Summer Vacation.
Last but not least for the day, during the Star Wars LIVE stream, a new animated show for Disney+ and Disney Junior was revealed, named Young Jedi Adventures. It follows a group of younglings during the High Republic era as they learn about what it means to be a Jedi.
Day 3
Today was the Mando+ Panel I mentioned earlier. And again, they showed some more extensive footage of The Mandalorian Season 3. It gave a bunch of interesting tidbits away, but again, I’m saving a deep dive of that for the moment we have an official release of the trailer.
What I will talk about though, is the footage that was shown for the Ahsoka Disney+ Series. Following the announcement that production had begun a few weeks back, the people that attended the panel got a look at some exciting footage. It seems like this show is definitely continuing the story of Star Wars Rebels, which left off with the main character Ezra Bridger warping away into the Unkown Regions with Grand Admiral Thrawn. Now because of the Mandalorian we know Ahsoka is seeking out Thrawn. In the footage shown at Celebration a few members of the Ghost Crew were present. We could see the back of General Hera Syndulla standing in the cockpit of the Ghost (the ship from Rebels) and we saw a backshot of Sabine Wren looking at the mural she painted at the end of Star Wars Rebels Season 4. A real life version of the droid Chopper joined the stage, as well as the actress that will be portraying Sabine in live-action: Natasha Liu Bordizzo.
I’m personally very excited for the show and how it’ll continue the story from Rebels, but it’s worth mentioning that there has been some controversy surrounding Rosario Dawson, who is portraying the titular character of Ahsoka. You can read more about that here, since I do find that important to know.
Another show that was announced at Celebration was Tales of the Jedi. This animated series for Disney+ tells the story of a number of Jedi from the Prequel era. The first season will have 6 episodes and covers 2 stories. First we have an Ahsoka centered story, which will show Ahsoka as a child, a Padawan and eventually after Order 66. It seems like it will adapt some parts of the Ahsoka novel in that last episode. Then we’re getting a story about the one and only Count Dooku! We’ll see him as a Padawan and teaching Qui-Gon (voiced by Liam Neeson and Neeson’s son as a younger Qui-Gon), with probably some aspect of his fall to the Dark Side as well. The episodes will also feature other Jedi like Yaddle, Plo Koon, Kit Fisto and Mace Windu.
We’re surely getting loads of Ahsoka content, but well, I’m not complaining. She’s one of my favourite characters. I do hope this opens the door for more Jedi to be covered like this in the future. I would love to have episodes completely devoted to a character like Kit Fisto or Yaddle. The show will release on Disney+ in the Fall of 2022.
Then the day ended with a Marvel Comics panel. We got some updates for upcoming stories, ranging from the Star Wars run to Han & Chewbacca and Doctor Aphra, with some neat announcements as well. For example, for his 100th Star Wars script, Charles Soule’s Star Wars #25 features a story taking place around the time of The Rise of Kylo Ren, which he also wrote. Furthermore, 3 teams are working on a Yoda series that explores some aspects of our favourite little muppet’s past, including his teaching of Dooku. Last but not least a Star Wars Visions episode that didn’t make it to the show on Disney+ episode will instead be adapted into a comic. There’s loads on the horizon!
Day 4
And just like that we’ve arrived at the final day of Star Wars Celebration. Luckily this last day still had some great surprises in store for us. First, a trailer for The Bad Batch Season 2.
This trailer is stacked with exciting stuff! First of all, I love the updated armour for the Batch. Oh and uh also pretty cool… COMMANDER CODY RETURNS! The Clone commander who served alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi, leading the 212th battalion and whom we know nothing of post-Order 66 in current Canon will team up with Crosshair in some capacity in this season! That’s incredibly exciting and I can’t wait to see what they’ll do with it. Furthermore we’re going to Kashyyk it seems (the homeworld of the Wookiees) and we see Gungi, the Wookiee Jedi youngling from the Clone Wars, all alive and well! I’m incredibly excited for when this show releases, which is in the Fall of 2022.
Now for the final announcement, releasing in Spring of 2023 is a second season of Star Wars Visions! I’m Extremely happy with this, as Star Wars Visions contains some of my favourite Star Wars stories ever and I can’t wait to see what else we’re going to get. I even made this video detailing exactly why it’s so worth watching.
Phew… that was that. Star Wars Celebration this year was stacked with cool things coming up for us to enjoy, and I’m so glad I’m a fan of this franchise right now with Kenobi airing as well. I love how the enthusiasm that I felt surge through my circle of the Star Wars community when all these projects were announced, and I can’t wait to (hopefully) attend myself next year .Be kind to one and another and see you soon.
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Sorry man, I won’t be at SWC in London next year 😉