SWCO sets new Celebration attendance record

Another Celebration is in the books, and that means another attendance record. Celebration Orlando attendance was more than 70,000 people, StarWars.com says. That’s up from Anaheim’s 65K in 2015, and double our last Orlando outing in 2012. No wonder things got a bit… Messy. Attendees, look out for the surveys and be sure to fill them out.


We learned before the con that the next Celebration won’t be until 2019 – probably skipping the overseas outings that we had in 2014 and 2016. The leading speculation seems to be that we’ll be headed back to Anaheim, but since we didn’t get a location on Sunday we’ll be left hanging for a while longer. On the plus side, Pablo made a cannon canon.

In the meantime, here are a few other things we learned that I never got around to writing up, because cons are crazy.

→ Here’s a bit more from the Forces of Destiny panel.

→ Hasbro’s panel included looks at the new 6″ Thrawn and Jaina Solo figures, both of which will be available in the fall. Thrawn is also the SDCC exclusive, in a special box resembling his Rebels office. Also: The new Hallmark ornaments.

→ A few details on how the Star Wars lands will work. They’ll be “set” on a brand-new planet and be super interactive, which sounds like… Something. Something very new. Meanwhile, there’s a survey going around that seems to indicate that Disney is considering a Star Wars-themed resort hotel/experience in Florida that ties in with a lot of what they announced.

Doug Chiang talks Rogue One concepts and designs.

A bit of The Clone Wars and Rebels from Dave Filoni and Pablo. Filoni also told /Film that we won’t see the battle of Scariff on Rebels. (Though note that doesn’t count out other mediums.)

→ Meet the costume contest winners.

Rebels to end after Season 4; Another Thrawn trilogy character returns to canon


Two big things (for our purposes, at least) came out of Celebration’s Rebels panel. It will be the show’s final season, but Grand Admiral Thrawn’s bodyguard (in the books) Rukh will make an appearance before it’s gone for good. The character will be only the second character from the Thrawn trilogy to make it to canon on Rebels. And, the kicker: He’s being voiced by Warwick Davis.

Given the timeline, I wouldn’t expect him to play quite the same role in the show that he did in the books – but you never know.

The show itself ending is not a particularly big surprise, but as Dave Filoni pointed out at the panel, this gives him a chance to take it out properly. This certainly won’t be the last we see from Lucasfilm Animation – and I’m not talking about Forces of Destiny.

We also got to see the first episode of S4. I won’t say much, but it was the first part of a two-parter set on Mandalore.

Rebels Recon: Zero Hour

It’s another super-sized Rebels Recon for ‘Zero Hour.’ Andi chats about the episode with Carrie Beck, Dave Filoni, Joel Aron, Kilian Plunkett, Keith Kellogg, Henry Gilroy and Pablo Hidalgo. (Pablo is also back to answer a ‘Twin Suns’ question.)