Wow, what a weekend, huh? Star Wars Celebration Weekends are usually pretty intense, but this year was like no other. From the kick off with the 40th Anniversary Celebration, to everything we learned about The Last Jedi, to that bombshell of a Rebels announcement, let’s run down everything we learned from the event.
– First up, let’s go with the Big News. By now, you’ve probably seen it: The Last Jedi teaser. Much like The Force Awakens teaser dropped at Celebration 2015, this is more of a tone piece than anything else. It effectively captures the darker, more intense nature of the flick with explosive action and jaw dropping visuals. From Luke’s first words since Return Of The Jedi, to glimpses of Rey’s training to shots of speeders (podracers?) on the new planet to Crait, this is joining the pantheon of great film teasers.
– At the panel itself, we also got a glimpse at the teaser poster (see above) as well as a new character. Kelly Marie Train’s character was officially announced as Rose, a maintenance worker for the Resistance. Her character is said to have the largest role of any of the new characters in the new movie and was inspired by the idea that “any of us can step up and turn into a hero.”
– Moving into the world of animation, Saturday saw the Star Wars: Rebels panel drop a massive bombshell as Dave Filoni announced that Season 4 will be the show’s final season.
An understandable move after having his plans cut short by The Clone Wars cancellation. Thankfully, we also got a trailer of the final season with highlights like X-Wings, the return of Bo Katan and Dave Filoni finally getting to include a Princess Mononoke-style wolf guide.
– The Rebels panel also announced that one Warwick Davis would be joining the cast at long last as Rukh, Thrawn’s Noghri bodyguard from Timothy Zahn’s original Thrawn trilogy.
– On Friday’s Lucasfilm Writers’ Roundtable, we got our first look at the “Journey To Star Wars: The Last Jedi publishing initiative that will tie into the upcoming movie. That link will take you to a full break down of all the books involved, but many are books for kids so I’ll sum up the important ones here: Phasma, by Delilah S. Dawson which will explore the character’s origin story; Leia, Princess Of Alderaan, a Young Adult novel by Claudia Grey; and The Legends Of Luke Skywalker by Ken Liu, which will hopefully explore what he was up to after Return Of The Jedi.
– On the comics side of things, that same Writers’ Roudtable panel announced that Kelly Thompson and Marco Checchetto will be exploring how Phasma escaped Starkiller Base in “Captain Phasma.” IDW also got in on the action by announcing “Star Wars Adventures,” a young reader-focused anthology series featured a rotating cast of creators and stories from all across the saga.
– Meanwhile, on the video game side of things, Saturday saw the official reveal of Star Wars: Battlefront II. Despite the trailer leaking early, we got an official look at the game’s campaign mode which will mark the biggest difference for the game to its predecessor. Taking place in the aftermath of the Battle of Endor, players will explore the story of Iden Versio and the special forces Inferno Squad. This looks to tie into Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath novels and the Emperor’s contingency after his death.
– It was also announced that Claudia Grey’s previously announced novel, Inferno Squad, is actually titled Star Wars: Battlefront II: Inferno Squad and will be a prequel to the game and show the early battles as the Squad tracks down Saw Gerrera’s Partisans after the Battle of Scarif. The novel is released July 25.
– The news may have dropped just prior to Celebration, but it still counts: Lucasfilm is putting together a webseries of animated shorts titled Star Wars: Forces Of Destiny. It will focus on the female heroes from across the saga’s timeline including Rey, Ahsoka, Leia, Jyn, Padme and more! It will also be accompanied by a toy line as showcased at the Heroines of Star Wars panel. Check out the trailer here.
Continued below– It wouldn’t be Star Wars without some merchandising and the big toy news was that Hasbro announced that Grand Admiral Thrawn would be joining their 6″ Black Series line. The line will be expanding to include vehicles as well featuring the likes of Luke’s landspeeder and Rey’s speeder. Hasbro also announced the winner of the last fan voted figure was none other than Jaina Solo! Looks like the EU isn’t that dead after all.
– Finally, let’s wrap up with how Celebration began. Celebrating 40 years of Star Wars, the opening panel featured such surprises as George Lucas, Harrison Ford, and a live performance by the one and only John Williams. Even in video, it’s an intense experience to watch. The panel was capped off by a touching tribute to Carrie Fisher, reminding us all that Star Wars really is about the friends and family we make along the way.
So, that was this year’s Star Wars Celebration. Certainly a more news heavy event than we saw last year which is probably due to the fact that we won’t see another one until 2019! What did you think of the announcements? Did you watch The Last Jedi teaser? Let me know in the comments below!
