Friday roundup: Celebration Europe begins!

David Collins has the ‘ground report’ from Essen, above, as Celebration Europe officially kicks into gear. Of course our news of the day was in regards to The Clone Wars S5 on Blu-ray. The panel itself was recapped by the folks over at Star Wars Underworld.

@starwars: The @501stLegion debuting their new Ralph McQuarrie concept Stormtroopers at #StarWarsCelebration. pic.twitter.com/jAAkxS3EStThe folks at StarWars.com recapped Doug Chiang and Iain McCaig. (No, no sequel art! Hey, it was a long shot.) They also live-blogged Anthony Daniels and International Fan Clubs. And the highlights of the Ian McDiarmid event.

Meanwhile, Bleeding Cool’s Craig Skinner was not particularly impressed with Attack of the Clones 3D – though apparently the room was less than optimal.

(You’re following @jamesjawa, right? Other Twitter fan MVPs include @TGP73 and @TheSWU. #StarWarsCelebration is the tag to watch!)

Newswatch! Saturday is the big one, with Lucasfilm president and Episode VII producer Kathleen Kennedy! Her panel begins at 10:30 a.m. CEST (4:30 a.m. EDT. Yes, I will try to be up. On a Saturday. We are born to suffer.) But if we’re going to get any movie news this weekend, it’s probably going to come from her first.

The rest of the day’s not so bad, either. At 12:30 p.m. CEST (6:30 p.m. EDT) Leland Chee will join Pablo Hidalgo for a look at the Holocron. It’s probably the closest Germany is going to get to an EU panel. Of course, it happens to be running against fan’s first look at Rebels – also 12:30 p.m. CEST – with Dave Filoni, our second most likely panel to produce big news. Which one will StarWars.com liveblog? MYSTERY.

There’s a Doug Chiang panel at 3:30 p.m. CEST (9 a.m. CEST,) a Master’s level trivia challenge with Filoni, Hidalgo and Chee at 5:30 p.m. (11 a.m. EDT) and then the night wraps up with Carrie Fisher at 6:00 p.m. CEST (Noon EDT.)

Concept artists Doug Chiang and Iain McCaig returning for ‘future of Star Wars’

Doug Chiang - Episode I concept

Prequel concept artists Doug Chiang and Iain McCaig are working on the ‘exciting new future for Star Wars,’ StarWars.com announced earlier this week. It’s not clear if they’ll be working on Episode VII, standalone films, neither or both.

McCraig's PadmeThey’ll be attending Celebration Europe next month.

Chiang was design director for The Phantom Menace and concept design supervisor for Attack of the Clones. McCaig, who designed Darth Maul, was one of the principal designers throughout the prequels.

Chiang and McCaig are the first major behind-the-scenes Star Wars veterans to be announced as returning for future films, aside from screenwriter Laurence Kasdan (doing a spinoff) and George Lucas as creative consultant on Episode VII.

Roundup: Getting ready for May the 4th

emperorUSA Today has done a handful of stories celebrating May the 4th and previewing the 30th anniversary of Return of the Jedi on the 25th. They talked to Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Jeremy Bulloch and blogger Whitney Matheson got a visit from Chewbacca. And on that note, they want your best Chewbacca impression.

Back to ROTJ, Jalopnik has a peice on how they filmed the speeder chase.


Need to convert a friend? Amazon has the Original and Prequel trilogy box sets (but not the saga?) slightly more on sale than usual. And hey, you can alleviate at least some of your Episode VII fears with a discount on J.J.’s Star Trek, too!

And you can save 50% on a subscription to the Star Wars Insider tomorrow as well by using the promo code MAY4TW.


Events. In addition to Entertainment Weekly’s ROTJ screening and the Toledo Mud Hens, Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando will be celebrating, and Change.org is hosting a Star Wars screening in San Francisco.

Still not sure what you’re doing? Find a local May the 4th event on StarWars.com.

20th Century Fox moves up Revenge of the Sith 3D

Revenge of the Sith 3D has a new release date, 20th Century Fox announced this week. Attack of the Clones is still set for its original date of September 20, 2013, but Revenge of the Sith has been moved up from October 11 to October 4, putting only two weeks between the rereleases.

AOTC will have some sisterly competition from The Little Mermaid 3D, which comes out only a week before, while ROTS will be facing Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and the Harrison Ford thriller Paranoia.

UPDATE: Lucasfilm has confirmed the date move.

Rinzler confirms prequel storyboard book

As previously speculated… The Amazon listing gives Star Wars Storyboards: The Prequel Trilogy a release date of May 14, 2013. We know better than to set that in stone, but hey: The book itself is confirmed.

UPDATE: Rinzler has more to say on the storyboards on the official blog.