Last weekend, Star Wars Celebration 2019 wrapped up at Mccormick Place in Chicago. Some notably highlights included the drop of the first trailer and title reveal for the upcoming Episode IX: Rise of the Skywalker, the reveal of Respawn Entertainments Jedi Fallen Order and our first look at Jon Favreau and Dave Feloni’s The Mandalorian (including three minutes of actual footage that has been leaked, but doesn’t really compare to watching it in real time in an arena filled with fans).

Recap

Here are some of the highlights from the event! Landon was also great with promoting our social media sites which lead to a string of new members joining! I’m sure the Social Media tribune can do a better job reporting on those metrics, so shout out to him for getting that going!

From The Floor

The tradeshow floor was quite the experience. Atra, Valhavoc, Muz, Ashia, Aabs, and Alaric were present to check out all the booths, attractions, art exhibits, and of course cosplayers.

Atra + Wally

Wally, Atra, Ashia Solo and Muz Keibatsu

Wally + Valhavoc

Atra, Wally, Aabs

Was great to reconnect with friends both old and new! We got some great deep dish pizza, and a lovely steak dinner for Ashia’s b-day! Atra spent 5 whole days with me and somehow never punched me even once! I appreciate him looking out for me when I was tired-drunk and would have misplaced my coffee.

You can see the full album here: DJB @ SWC 2019

Episode IX Panel

• There was so much positive energy around this panel. Kelly got a standing ovation, Oscar and John acknowledged Poe X Finn, Stephen Colbert tried to get someone to reveal a spoiler, and completely had J.J glancing nervously at Kathleen Kennedy at certain points.
• See the reaction to the trailer here. I was literally shaking with excitement and so was everyone in the convention hall. (And yes, that was my "Woo").
• To somehow make things better, as we finished cheering, the lights came back on the screen. And standing there, simply, was Ian mother-f'ing McDiarmid. He just looks at everyone, smiles, and then in his iconic Palpatine voice goes "Roll it again." My inner Dark Jedi squee'd.

He is the senate...

Jedi Fallen Order

• It’s a sign when the Respawn developers excitedly exclaim: “This is a story game. No mp, no micro transactions” you know LucasFilm wasn’t pleased with how Battlefront II was handled xD.
• Atra and I have already requested Purge Troopers to be added to possessions so the Inquisitorius can utilize them <3
• Purge Troopers go in and soften up the Jedi, then the Inquisitors (Sisters / Brothers) get sent in to clean them up.

Speaking of Inquisitors...

Atra and Wally spot a Jedi...

The Mandalorian

Clearly, there is a big fanbase for Mandalorians...

• Mandalorians apparently are bad at the numbers game. Video here of the helmets going up and down.
• Dave Feloni was more involved than originally let on. He worked very closely with Jon Favreau, and both have apparently been friends for years going back to being able to see early screenings of their previous works: Feloni’s original The Clone Wars and Favreau’s Iron Man.
• This is Feloni’s first foray into live action, but with a partner like Faverau I’m super confident this is going to be just as good as all his previous work for Star Wars.
• A lot inspiration for the look and feel comes from Samurai Western and Wild West inspirations.
• Feloni and Favraeu mention the works of Kurosawa (Seven Samurai) and Sergio Leone (The Good, The Bad, The Ugly) films, while Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian) cited Clint Eastwood as his main inspiration for the character.
• The clips we got to see showed a full sequence and set up with Pedro’s character essentially pulling out a blaster pistol in one hand and the fork-rifle in the other against a cadre of Stormtroopers. “We have you four to one” — “I like those odds.” So hyped.
• Release Date: Tuesday, Novemeber 12th, 2019

The Clone Wars (Final Season)

• This is happening SQUEE
• Ashely (Ahsoka) and Dee Bradely Baker (Rex + All Clones) read their text conversation about how he let her know that they would be returning to Clone Wars.
• Dave Feloni is apparently super super secretive and lets the voice actors pretend they are in his inner circle...even though they aren’t. He spent most of the panel with his head in his hand shaking his head and smiling.
• Will cover the Siege of Mandalore, which was talked about in Rebels but never fully explained.
• Lots of Ahsoka action.
• Ray Park was brought in to do motion capture on Maul’s fight scenes for this final season. When you see maul moving on screen, it’s going to be Ray Park!

Competitions

I was going to try and run these during the event, but when I did that last Celebration, it ended up being a lot of extra work after being on my feet all day for 4 days. Still, I think these are pretty ripe for some captioning!

• Caption This #1
• Caption This #2
• Caption This #3
• Caption This #4

Future Star Wars Celebrations

Star Wars Celebration 2020 has been announced for Anaheim in California! Perfect time to possibly check out Galaxy’s Edge?? If you’re debating going, and can manage the trip, I can’t recommend it enough.

Anyway, that’s all from me.

Happy Easter / Passover weekend to anyone celebrating. Peace!

-Wally (Marick Tyris)