I know this is a few days late. And I know there has been quite a bit of coverage on thousands of other sites, but why not add my own thoughts to all the noise. Who doesn't love to talk about Star Wars? The news coming out of Celebration is a Transmedia enthusiast's wet-dream.
I was not able to attend the event, as much as I would have loved to visit London. I was only able to view the event on the live stream and other posted videos. As an observer I felt that this Celebration was a bit lethargic. Maybe I am biased since I was able to attend Celebration Anaheim in 2015, which was just a week before my birthday and was a mile from where I lived, so I had such a great time at that event with my husband and close friends. Plus there was so much excitement for The Force Awakens.
That being stated I was very excited for all the news came out of this event. First off, there was the Rogue One panel. Over the last few weeks there has been more and more of Gareth Edwards in the public consciousness. I have come to really like him as a personality. And who doesn't love the sheer light, beauty, grace, and energy that is Gwendoline Christie? She was just radiant. I am going to overlook the major spoilers that were accidentally dropped on the panel. I will say that I am more excited for Rogue One than The Force Awakens. The Force Awakens had a LOT of expectations to meet and some that it failed miserably to even come close to hitting the mark (I am looking at you Emo Ben Solo!!!) With Rogue One there is less apprehension and dread and a lot more thrill and wonder for the new paths this movie can take. (Plus I am a former US Marine, so I love a good war epic.) Everything I have seen looks so damn good. And I am even more excited now that I know more about Gareth Edwards and have seen the BTS sizzle reel. The cast seems amazing. The racial diversity is fantastic. The gender diversity is SORELY lacking. One woman? Really?! Still only one woman? "But she's the Lead." Really?! Only ONE WOMAN?!
My favorite panels are tied again this year, as I see them to be two parts of a whole. The Star Wars Rebels panel and the Clone Wars themed panel, which this year was The Untold Tales of Ahsoka Tano. The Star Wars animated shows have added so much wealth to the SW mythos. During the Ahsoka Tano panel, supervising director Dave Filoni, Story group lead Pablo Hidalgo, and actress Ashley Eckstein walked us through several of the unfinished animations of The Clone Wars as well as some unfinished, in development stories that were to be created for the later seasons of the cancelled show. A lot of these stories were discussed or hinted at in last year's panel, The Untold Tales of Star Wars The Clone Wars. The stories covered Ahsoka learning to navigate life away from the Jedi Order and even getting a boyfriend. A later story told of Ahsoka heading to the underbelly of Coruscant to the ground level where she discovers there was a Sith temple upon which the Jedi built their temple. Ahsoka also (sort of) encounters Darth Sidious. Later Ahsoka would encounter Anakin and Obi-Wan and they would attack Mandalore, which was under the sway of the resurrected Darth Maul. Obi and Ani are pulled away just before the attack to save the Chancellor. Before leaving Anakin gives Ahsoka command of half the 501st and Captain Rex. The troopers changed their markings to be orange to match Ahsoka's facial markings. Dave alluded to the fact that, due to overwhelming fan response, Ahsoka will be making an appearance in the future of Star Wars Rebels. The panel also revealed the cover art for the Ahsoka novel coming out this fall.
The Rebels panel was hosted by Warwick Davis and featured Filoni along with actors Tiya Sircare and Sam Witwer. In the panel we see a few clips from the upcoming season of the show as well as a really great trailer which revealed (and confirmed the rumor) that Grand Admiral Thrawn from the Legends storyline was making his debut in the official Star Wars "canon". Darth Maul returns to further seduce Ezra to the dark side. The crew of the Ghost all get updated character models that bring them closer to A New Hope stylings. I love the character Bendu that was revealed, who will be voiced by the incomparable Tom Baker, The Fourth Doctor.
There was a lot more news, but I think there was too much to cover in one post and the rest has been covered extensively by the major geek/nerd news sites. I will say that I was really happy to learn that the Rogue One novelization will be penned by Alexander Freed, who wrote the Star Wars Battlefront tie-in novel Twilight Company. I loved that book (again, Marine who loves war epics). I really think that one has the potential to be my second favorite Star Wars novelization. (Revenge of the Sith being my absolute favorite, since Matthew Stover is one of my favorite authors.) The Star Wars novels coming out over the next year are going to be really exciting reads.
That is it for me for today.
May the Force be with you
and...
Semper Fi
King Buck
King Buck
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