Hey! Hallie here!
Star Wars Celebration, located in London this year, ended a few days ago and we got so much new information. From first looks at trailers, to in depth information about upcoming projects, to surprising reveals, there was news for every kind of Star Wars fan. I’m going to cover as much news as I can, but I’m going to keep this post to the television and movie reveals just because of the sheer volume of content we got out of Star Wars Celebration. With so many trailers and so much important news to get into, I’m going to jump right in. I’m so excited to talk about all of the new content! SPOILERS for various Star Wars franchises if you haven’t caught up with them!
‘Ahsoka’: This panel was mostly about bringing the cast up on stage, including some faces that hadn’t been announced yet, and showing off the new trailer. All of it was completely worth the wait. While we already knew Rosario Dawson was our Ahsoka and Natasha Liu Bordizzo would be taking on the role of Sabine, Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s mysterious character was finally confirmed. She’s playing Hera! And along with that exciting information we also saw Lars Mikkelsen take the stage to reveal he’s reprising his role as Grand Admiral Thrawn. I can’t tell you how happy I am to see both of these characters. Along with these reveals we also got confirmation Hayden Christensen will be coming back to play Anakin, the characters will be on the hunt for Ezra as played by Ewan Esfandi, and Wes Chatham, Ray Stevenson, and Ivanna Sakhno will also be part of this large cast. To top it all off, Chopper came on stage to take his rightful place amongst the cast. In other words, ‘Star Wars: Rebels’ fans are getting the validation they deserve with this series. It’s picking up right where the animated show left off and giving us a majority of the main cast in live action form. (Here’s your reminder that if you aren’t watching the animated Star Wars shows, you’re missing out.) The trailer was perfect. We got to see Ahsoka kicking ass with her dual white lightsabers, Sabine with her hair longer still worrying over her holo of the missing Ezra, Hera piloting like a badass with Chopper at her side, a mysterious lady Sith, and the back of Thrawn. Fans who were there also got to see all of Lars Mikkelsen as Thrawn, not just his back, and Sabine wielding Ezra’s lightsaber. For the most part, this trailer felt like it belonged to the women of the story and I appreciate that immensely. This show is going to focus on so many female characters and I can’t wait for that representation.
Upcoming Movies: Three different movies were announced at Star Wars Celebration, although all of them are in early production so they only gave us a brief synopsis for each one. The most highly anticipated of these is Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s movie, the director of several episodes of Ms. Marvel, who will be the first female director to tackle a Star Wars film. She will be making a film about Rey teaching a new generation of Jedi. Daisy Ridley’s back as Rey! Although there was definitely an immediate negative reaction from the toxic fanboys in the Star Wars community, that reaction was drowned out by praise from the majority of fans. While I love Rey, I felt her story was inconsistent and I think Daisy definitely deserves to return to this character to see those inconsistencies smoothed out. Now if they could just give John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran the justice they deserve after the treatment of their characters. Next, Dave Filoni, the director behind most of the animated Star Wars content, ‘Ahsoka’, various ‘Mandalorian’ episodes, and various ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ episodes, will be making a movie during the “New Republic”. This is the time period most of the Disney+ shows have been taking place in, and the movie’s rumored to close out the stories of ‘The Mandalorian’ and other Disney+ shows. And finally, James Mangold, director of ‘Logan’ and the upcoming Indiana Jones movie, will be making a movie about the first ever Jedi. All of these are interesting ideas, and though we don’t know much about them, I’m interested in all three so far!
‘The Bad Batch’: First, let’s talk Tech’s death. This was the major season two moment fans were waiting to hear the writers and actors discuss. Beginning the discussion on Tech, the entire panel noted that they had seen a lot of fans at Celebration upset by his death. His death even got the biggest audience reaction during the highlight reel at the beginning of the panel. The writers discussed how they had tried to talk themselves out of it but felt there was no way for there to be a “happy ending” if their last mission was essentially the Batch going up against Tarkin. Dee Bradley Baker, the voice of all the clones including Tech, talked about how losing Tech was particularly impactful for him because he relates to Tech the most out of the clone characters. He did say that he was consoled by the fact that Tech had gone out protecting his brothers and rejecting the idea of following orders. Omega’s voice actor, Michelle Ang, gave Tech fans some hope, however. While talking about how shocking she found Tech’s death, she said that it was surprising to discover he wasn’t coming back “at least for that episode”. Which possibly implies that Tech’s death isn’t permanent. Moving on to the big announcements though, ‘The Bad Batch’ will end after season three. That seems premature to me. The show gets better by the season but it still has some issues to work out, and more than that, the stories it’s telling feel far from over. The characters certainly aren’t in a position for their arcs to end, with Hunter and Wrecker having barely gotten any character development at all so far. But I digress. The exclusive teaser shown at the panel included shots of Crosshair and Omega imprisoned together, Hunter and Wrecker searching for them, the return of Rex, and Commander Wolffe. All of this is really exciting, but I can’t say I’m not concerned about next season. I suppose we’ll see what happens in 2024.
Other Shows: Aside from ‘Ahsoka’, the majority of the shows given time on stage during Star Wars Celebration didn’t have a lot to share with fans yet. ‘The Acolyte’, a show set in the High Republic era which the showrunner apparently described as ‘Frozen’ meets ‘Kill Bill’, brought their large cast on stage to briefly discuss their excitement to be joining Star Wars starting 2024. This cast consists of Amanda Stenberg, Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Jodie Turner-Smith, Carrie-Anne Moss who in a brief clip seemed to be using the force, and many more. Seriously, this cast is a big one, and with the emphasis on the Dark Side of the force during the panel, you can’t help but wonder who are the bad guys and who are the good guys. Next ‘Skeleton Crew’ was discussed. This one stars Jude Law as a Jedi, who will evidently run into a group of lost kids. These kids will be played by Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Robert Timothy Smith, and Kyriana Kratter. A lot of people are already comparing this one to ‘Goonies’ and I don’t blame them. ‘Andor’ didn’t have much to show yet, but it’s set to return in August of 2024 and fans at the panel were able to see a teaser that showed a bit of Cassian sneaking around and Mon Mothma. For fans of the Star Wars animated shorts that have been releasing, ‘Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi’ will have a second season, as will ‘Star Wars: Visions’. ‘Star Wars: Visions’ is coming out incredibly soon, on May 4th actually, and this time around they reached out to animation studios around the world rather than just Japanese animation studios. I can’t wait to see what these artists do with this franchise.
That’s all the big news we got from Star Wars Celebration. Along with these large panels we also heard confirmation that the Lando Calrissian show, set to star Donald Glover, is still in the works and Glover is still very excited to be part of the project. We also know that Taika Waititi is still set to direct a Star Wars movie but isn’t in a position yet to talk about what he’s doing. Overall, we’re seeing major strides getting taken in the Star Wars universe. I really appreciated the fan reaction to Star Wars Celebration this year. Though there were a multitude of projects announced and all appealed to very different types of fans, each project was met with an outpouring of love and support. Even though I’m skeptical about some things, I really appreciate that Star Wars fans are beginning to accept that not every part of the franchise will directly appeal to their interests and that’s ok. I’m hesitant to say that we might be seeing less toxic fans in the fandom currently, but if Star Wars Celebration is any indication, we’re at least beginning to allow Star Wars to push the barriers of what can be done in the universe. That on it’s own could lead this franchise to some really amazing places.
Don’t do anything fun until I get back!
Hallie
Oreos & Peanut Butter 