Star Wars with occasional sarcasm
In the midst of all the April Foolery yesterday, StarWars.com shared our first look at the official Celebration t-shirts, but they are indeed for real. I doubt these will be the only t-shirts – I’d expect at least one in-panel reveal, probably for The Force Awakens – but it’s almost certainly the bulk of them.
According to the official French Star Wars website (via Dork Side of the Force,) the opening panel with J.J. Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy at Celebration Anaheim is called Rise of the Force, and it’ll be simulcast worldwide at 35 theaters in 23 countries. The likewise official @StarWarsUK account posted about a showing at London’s Leicester Square, but as of yet there’s nothing on StarWars.com or from @StarWars.
A worldwide broadcast – even if only at 35 locations – does hint we’re going to get something big. Naturally, everyone is expecting a new trailer – and the rumors about it being attached to The Avengers: Age of Ultron were making the rounds again today, something backed up by a now-deleted tweet from the habitual butterfingers at @RegalMovies.
Rogue One director Gareth Edwards and Spin-off #2 director Josh Trank will talk Star Wars with Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy, Kiri Hart and Pablo Hidalgo on Sunday morning at Celebration. Dare we hope to actually learn something about their films?
The Celebration Anaheim schedule went up today, and man is it packed! There’s even a Tribute to Aaron Allston scheduled for Saturday… You bet I’ll be at that! Sorry, Rebels.
Here are a few of my picks:
Thursday: Not much for me, aside from the obligatory J.J. Abrams and Producer Kathleen Kennedy event, which will be simulcast in multiple rooms. But you should totally play the Bounty Hunt. Hint hint.
Friday: Star Wars Journalism and One Big Story: Working Within the Star Wars Canon.
Saturday: Full of Sith, Star Wars Comes Home to Marvel, and Star Wars at Del Rey.
Sunday: Tosche Station Radio, From a Certain Point of View (with our own James!) Novelizing Star Wars, What Princess Leia Means to Me and of course the Closing Ceremony.
There are also some worrying panels that are yet to be announced, though… They could very well be The Force Awakens or Rogue One-related.
That’s just what I really want to see, though: How about you?
The new Mission Impossible movie is titled Rogue Nation. Paramount cleared their title with the MPAA in January, so they could have gone after Lucasfilm/Disney, but instead the companies agreed not to market Rogue One until after this summer, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Rogue Nation hits July 31; It moved up from December 25 this year to avoid… You guessed it… Episode VII. Rogue One isn’t due until December 2016.
I doubt they were going to do much marketing for the movie in any case – and an exception was made for Celebration, which is pretty much the only place I’d expect anything anyway. I wonder if this means we won’t get a filming or further cast announcement from StarWars.com, but I’m not sure what they consider ‘marketing’ in that case. (I fully expect they’ll drop it all at Anaheim…)
‘Special guests’ will be at J.J. Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy’s Thursday panel. I suspect they will be The Force Awakens folk of the younger generation. (Or, pretty much anyone who’s not Harrison Ford.)
Also added to the Celebration guest list today are Billy Dee Williams, Ashley Eckstein and more. The exhibitor list is live as well.
Ian McDiarmid and a whole slate of cast and crew added to Celebration guest list. John Morton, (DAK!) Bonnie Piesse, Joel Aron, Leland Chee, Jennifer Heddle, Pablo Hidalgo, Jonathan Rinzler, Pete Vilmur and many more will be in Anaheim.
We learned yesterday that Lucasfilm event lead Mary Franklin is heading to ReedPOP. And while we’ll still see her at Celebration – they produce the con and are under contract at least through Anaheim – it’s still a little bittersweet. Mary herself wrote about it today.
In addition to Celebration, ReedPOP puts on NYCC, C2E2, Emerald City Comicon and a wide selection of international events.
Mark Hamill appearing at Celebration Anaheim isn’t exactly a surprise – it’ll be his third Celebration, and he’s in that little movie due in December – but good to know.
I saw his chat with James Arnold Taylor at Celebration VI, and it was a lot of fun.
Hamill is the latest addition to a lineup of guests that includes J.J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy, Carrie Fisher and more.
Steve Sansweet’s Rancho Obi-Wan will highlight fan contributions to Star Wars fandom in their first book, Inspired by the Force: Star Wars Fan Artifacts & Art, which will debut at Celebration Anaheim in April. It’s intended to act as “an exhibit guide,” so the Rancho Celebration exhibit will also be fan-heavy this time:
The Rancho Obi-Wan Experience exhibit will feature fan objects and art starting in the late 1970s through today, from an airbrushed van tire cover and hand-tooled leather backgammon board to a Chewbacca tissue box cover and bird house, from amazing art mash-ups based on a print by Goya and a painting by Picasso to bizarre limited edition figurines made by urban artists.
The Rancho Obi-Wan exhibit at Celebration VI featured several fan creations – including one by a Jader – but this will no doubt be an even greater variety. I just hope they have more floor space this time!
In any case, the book will be $25 and pre-orders for pickup at the con will begin in March.