Woah! Where do I start? Star Wars
Celebration Orlando 2017 was intense! For my first celebration, it was tons of
fun—I made some new friends, definitely emotional, a little overwhelming at
first, exhausting of course. It’s something I’ll never ever forget.
The best way for me to sum everything up
without forgetting anything is to do a day-by-day recap.
Day 1 of SWCO: Let me just say the waiting
in line was SO worth it. The 40th Anniversary panel was the greatest
part of the entire weekend in my opinion. When Lucasfilm president Kathleen
Kennedy introduced George Lucas, a gasp engulfed the crowd before his name was
even uttered. An all-star lineup was introduced on stage to pay tribute to
George; Dave Filoni, who George referred to as his son that had to be purged of
bad ideas. Dave intimately told a story of how George taught him not to be
afraid to try new things that may seem impossible. “We’ll figure it out” George
would tell him, and they always did. The one line that stuck with me is when
Dave said he has learned “never to make any decision out of fear”.
After Dave left the stage, Hayden
Christensen and Ian McDiarmid joined George on stage. The ovation for Hayden
was fantastic. As a first generation Star
Wars fan, I was ecstatic to see a prequel actor receive some much deserved
love from the fans—and I think he enjoyed himself too.
Next was the trio of Anthony Daniels,
Billy Dee Williams, and Peter Mayhew. It’s so great to them together again for
the first time since the end of Return of
the Jedi if I’m not mistaken. They all shared some wonderful stories about
George and working on Star Wars. I
had a laugh when host, Warwick Davis commented that they were arguably George’s
best four character creations on stage, and why not make it five only to
introduce Mark Hamill. Just for the record I’d love to see a panel with just
Warwick and Mark. Mark is a natural on stage and could have easily taken over
the panel if not for the next guest—Harrison Ford. The crowd equally erupted
for Harrison, maybe more so for him than even George. Two friends pointed out
to me after the fact that at that point, without Carrie, there were no female
guests on stage for that segment. Food for thought.
After everyone left the stage George and
Kathleen remained to pay tribute to Carrie, in which Kathleen introduced
Carrie’s daughter Billie Lourd, on stage. Billie gave a stirring tribute to her
mother which included the entire “help me Obi-Wan Kenobi you’re my only hope
bit of dialogue. By this time there was not a dry eye in the house. After the
crowd couldn’t handle anymore, there was a moment when the stage went dark then
to the left the curtain rose and there is none of than the “greatest composer
in the universe” John Williams, who like a Jedi Master, quieted the crowd with
a single hand gesture. With the first note of Princess Leia’s theme, a woman
two seats to my left was sobbing with emotion. After Leia’s theme they quickly moved
into the Main Theme, then with a brief bit of praise from George and Kathleen
finished the event off with The Imperial March.
After the 40th Anniversary wrapped
up, our group split, and I got into line for the Dave Filoni: Animated Origins
and Unexpected Fates with Pablo Hidalgo. This was a really cool panel in which
some members of the 501st came out and presented Dave and Pablo with
a gift. The crowd was showed unfinished Clone Wars footage of a scene between
Cad Bane and Boba Fett featuring his well-known armor. This scene revealed how
Boba received the dent on his helmet. Dave also pointed out how George specifically
wanted smoke coming off Boba’s helmet where the dent is. For visual reference,
this scene was obviously highly inspired by the shootout scene in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, up to
the close up camera angles.
Later on that day I saw two panels in the
Star Wars University; Chuck Wendig: A Small Group of Characters Can Change a
Whole Galaxy, and the LGBTQ panel. After that I quickly made my way down to the
podcast stage to catch Tarkins Top Shelf/Idiot’s Array podcast. At that point
it was almost 8:30pm and I was done. I had bought tickets for Drowning in
Moonlight but I decided for my own good not to go.
Day 2 of SWCO: The Last Jedi panel was the
big event for the day on Friday. I found this panel to be a little on the short
side. Other than the sweet poster we saw and the teaser trailer, this panel
left me with wanting more. What the 40th anniversary gave me in abundance,
The Last Jedi panel pulled back. Oscar Isaac could not make it, no mention of
Laura Dern or Benicio del Toro or their respective characters, we did get to
meet Kelly Marie Tran and her character Rose who is a Resistance maintenance
technician. I attended a couple live podcasts events later in the afternoon
(Full of Sith and Fangirls Going Rogue). I called it a day after that.
Day 3 of SWCO: It was stated at the
beginning of the Rebels panel that
this event was not being livestreamed. This was another emotional panel as Dave
announced that season 4 of Rebels will be the last season. Shortly after he
announced that he introduced a family who has been cosplaying as the Ghost crew
even before Rebels was even on. Dave let the fans know how much he appreciated
their support and it was pretty obvious that this decision was not an easy one
to make. Tiya Sicar (Sabine Wren) wiped tears from her eyes as Dave spoke. Interesting
to note, that no announcement was made of a new televised series. If I’m wrong
let me know, but I didn’t officially hear anything.
The Rebels Press conference was a
fantastic opportunity to drill the cast with more questions. Sarah Woloski from
Skywalking Through Neverland and Fangirls Going Rogue asked Dave how the
Force will be explored in season 4. Dave gave a mesmerizing answer about how
the Force is the center of Star Wars and the relationship between parents and
their child and the battle between, and how when the child matures they will
hopefully cast away the dark influences and love their parents. This answer hit
me hard, and deservedly received an ovation from the media.
As a student of writing I had to catch as
many writing panels in Star Wars University. I caught the second half of
Christie Golden’s and I also attended the panel on writing blogs hosted by
Bryan Young, Tyler Westhause, James Floyd, Dan Zehr, and Linda Hansen-Raj.
Saturday night I attended the Skywalking Through Neverland live podcast, which
was a great entertaining show.
Day 4 of SWCO: A more laid back day, many
people decided to leave early because of the Easter holiday, understandably so.
I attended the Rebels Reunion panel which was kept really vague and unconvincing,
gave the impression that it would be Rebels-based—well it was…sort of. The
panel included some of the background rebels in the films, Denis Lawson
(Wedge), Garrick Hagon (Biggs), Tim Rose (Admiral Ackbar), Mike Quinn (Nien
Numb), Angus MacInnes (Gold Leader). I have to admit, this panel was a
surprisingly entertaining one. It’s fun to hear tales from the some of the
secondary characters.
I attended a fascinating Woman in a galaxy
far, far way panel, but had to bail a little early to attend the Closing
Ceremonies in hopes to hear where the next Celebration will be in 2019. Seeing
all the flashbacks covering the last four days always stirs up emotions.
Unfortunately nothing was revealed other than Warwick Davis saying “we’ll see
you next time…wherever that may be” to which the crowd groaned.
To wrap up this really long post, I’ll
just say that one of my favorite experiences of the entire weekend was my
fellow fans. Despite the long lines, everyone was so incredibly pleasant, I
couldn’t be more proud to be a fan. Not one misbehaving child or rude fan that
I heard anyway. I was really blown away by that. I had a great time. Now that I
know what to expect I can prepare better. I know that I should not revolve my
eating/resting around the panels. Pick out a couple that you want to see most
each day, eat and sleep to maintain your endurance, and then see what other
panels you’d like to attend. Buying snacks the day before was a good decision
too. Keeping a reusable water bottle is a must.
I didn’t get to meet as many people as I
originally planned, but I was fortunate enough to meet Becca Benjamin, Joe
Tavano, Bryan Young, Richard and Sarah Woloski, Drew Kaplan, and Swara Salih,
Matt Clifton, and Ryan Stamphli. It’s possible next time I’ll make more of an
effort to reach out to more people. Because this on was my first I really
wanted to attend more panels.
Anyway, that’s it. It’s all becoming a
blur it happened to fast. I have plenty of memories and pictures to look back
on my first Celebration. Star Wars is all about family and friends, and I’ve
made so many new ones. I feel real fortunate for that. Just by doing that I’m
contributing to the theme of Star Wars. And you are too.
The Bearded Trio - The Site For Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, John Williams and a whole lot more.
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