Because this week brings Force Friday and the first wave of The Last Jedi tie-ins, we have three release days this week instead of the usual two – as well as a lot of product. There’s a lot going on, basically.
There’s more Forces of Destiny talk in today’s Star Wars Show, including an interview with Ashley Eckstein.
We also get the announcement of the Star Wars Rebels S3 Blu-Ray/DVD, which will be out on August 29. On the show, a short bonus clip focusing on Mon Mothma.
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.
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.
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.)
The third season of Rebels wraps up this Saturday with ‘Zero Hour.’ It’ll debut Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m. ET/PT, with repeats at 5:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m., 10:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m.
‘Twin Suns’ get a slightly longer Rebels Recon than usual, with Andi talking to Carrie Beck, Dave Filoni, Henry Gilroy, Pablo Hidalgo, Keith Kellogg, Kilian Plunkett, Stephen Stanton and Sam Witwer. Filoni also talked to io9 about the episode.
Chopper was compromised in Saturday’s ‘Double Agent Droid.’ Andi chats with Stephen Stanton, Pablo Hidalgo, Henry Gilroy and Dave Filoni. Meanwhile, Pablo is… Off. But a question still gets answered!
And here’s another quick preview of next week’s ‘Twin Suns.’