When it comes to celebrating Star Wars, there is no other event that can outdo the epic nature of Star Wars Celebrations. Celebrating their 20th Anniversary, from April 11th to April 15th, Lucasfilm and Disney brought in the biggest names from the Saga in addition to the 100’s of exhibitors, creators, vendors, fan groups, collectors and influences to share in the fun. Here we will chronicle our adventures each and every day of the mega-convention celebrating that galaxy far, far away.
Day Two – Panels and Booths
The second day of the con kicked off with the Star Wars: Episode IX panel. Just like the last 2 Celebrations, the panel featured most of the cast of the movie and premiered the first teaser trailer. This time we added the additional reveal of finally getting the official title: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
We are left with so many questions following the viewing of the trailer. For those of us in attendance, we had the answer to the who was the laughing at the end of the teaser answered immediately when Palpatine himself, Ian McDiarmid appeared on the stage and stated, “Roll it…again.”
For the whole experience, you can watch the full panel here:
Upon entering the arena for panel, McDonalds employees handed out Celebration-themed Happy Meals with hot food inside (but no toy). Also beanies bearing “IX” were given to all in attendance along with the phrase “courtesy of JJ Abrams”. This would be the third time LFL’s directors have provided swag for attendees of their panels at Celebrations.
Had the great privilege of sitting with my friend and fellow collector Paul Van Dyke!
Here is a gallery of the stills shown during the panel which was hosted by Stephen Colbert.
As with many of the Hasbro panels from past Celebrations, Seattle collectors were in high attendance. To my right were, Jon (two of everything since ’95) Gray, Mark Schroeder and Ryan “Laserpants” Farnam.
View this post on InstagramIn line with just a few @hasbro @starwars fans at @starwarscelebration #starwars #hasbro #swcc
While we were sitting in line Starwars.com revealed the official look of the Episode IX packaging.
We were surprised at how similar this design is to The Force Awakens packaging released in 2015.
Both packages are in stark contrast to The Last Jedi design.
Hasbro’s Star Wars panel was a completely “sold out” event and the audio from the panel and full photo gallery can be found here!
Directly following the panel, as promised by the signs in the booth and as announced at the panel, Hasbro placed all of their newly announced figures in their display cases.
Here is a gallery of the images we captured at the booth of the new reveals.
While not announced at the panel, the Galaxy’s Edge sets will retail for $69.99 each.
Following a lengthy stay at Hasbro’s Booth, we popped over to The Star Wars Show stage where Kathleen Kennedy and Daisey Ridley were being interviewed.
While there we grabbed a quick photo with Papa George.
Then it was off to the ILM Presents: Making SOLO panel which was introduced by David Collins and hosted by Rob Bredow which offered a fascinating behind the scenes look at the making of Solo: A Star Wars Story.
The Galaxy’s Edge booth was our next destination of the day. The booth provided photographic backdrops, concept imagery and a some background of some of the locations and characters found in the theme park.
One of the coolest features of the booth in that each day they feature different merchandise from their in-universe shops. All merchandise sold in Galaxy’s Edge will not feature any logos that do not exist in the Star Wars galaxy. For example the iconic “Star Wars” logo will not featured nor will Disney or Hasbro logos be found on the front of the packaging. Friday’s merchandise focus was Resistance and First Order. A few new ships can be found which may see life outside of the park in future media.
Just behind the Galaxy’s Edge booth was Frank Diorio’s Diorama Workshop which we stopped in on to check on the progress of Scarif.
Now before we called it a night, we spent some time catching up on the other big news points of the day.
For a full list of LFL’s Publishing Panel review click here!
Off to bed to prep for Day 3 at the biggest Celebration party on the planet!
