Get ready, Chicago! This weekend sees all manner of creatures, droids, and jedi masters descend upon the city for Star Wars Celebration 2019. It’s the ultimate convention for fans of the franchise: not only can they gather together, revel in the geekery, and flaunt their very best cosplay outfits, but the event will feature a host of special panels – with some teasing major revelations for Star Wars’ future.
Saturday will see two major panels. The Galaxy’s Edge presentation will hopefully offer some initial ride footage from the brand new lands at Disneyland and Disney World. Meanwhile, we’ll get our first details of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a brand new EA game set after the events of Revenge of the Sith.
We’ll be covering all this live from the convention centre itself, so follow the liveblog below to find out the latest news coming out of Star Wars Celebration 2019.
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George Lucas told McDiarmid, at the end of filming Return of the Jedi, that we'd never see the Emperor again. McDiarmid then added: "And I guess that's how it'll remain."
Ray Park, who played Darth Maul, said his theme for the character was The Prodigy's "Firestarter".
Ian McDiarmid has spoken about his surprise appearance at the end of the panel for The Rise of Skywalker. "I just happened to be in the area, so I thought I should just drop in for a laugh," he joked. He also revealed that Liam Neeson had no idea that Senator Palpatine was the Emperor, coming up to him at the premiere of Revenge of the Sith and telling him: "It was you, you b******."
It's the last day of Celebration, kicking off with a 20th anniversary panel for The Phantom Menace... yes, it's really been 20 years and we've all become so old.
The season will also finally show the Siege of Mandalore, with Maul's new look drawing from his appearance in Solo. It will also see Maul in an epic lightsaber battle, with Ray Park doing motion capture for the episode.
It's now time for a sneak peek of the Clone Wars finale season. Dave Filoni revealed that the season, which consists of 12 episodes, will feature revamped animation. It will also bring in the Bad Batch, a group of genetic experiments from a failed scheme by the Kaminoans.
The Celebration audience were shown an exclusive scene and short trailer that gives a good idea of what the show's tone will be. It's a darker, grittier approach that's most in line with what Rogue One was doing, although this seems like it might push some of the violence a little further. The scene opened with Carl Weathers's bounty guild head, who hires our Mandalorian for a direct commission. We then cut to a roasted Kowakian monkey-lizard, with another waiting his fate in cage – please say that's not Salacious B Crumb! The Mandalorian then meets with his client, played by Werner Herzog, who appears to be a former imperial commission with a very sensitive target. He can't offer a name or a description, but can only give him their age (50), a tracking fob, and the last four digits of their gene code. That makes me think this character is somebody we'd recognise, otherwise... why all the secrecy?
We then saw a short teaser for the series, which featured the Empire prominently, as Herzog's character intones: "The Empire improves every system it touches". We also see Giancarlo Esposito's character, who is also connected to the former Empire and, at one point, pilots a TIE fighter. There are plenty of guns wielded by stormtroopers, smugglers, and general shady characters. Plus, we got a shot of IG-88 (Taika Waititi's droid character) wielding double blasters. He's a character that fans might be familiar with from The Empire Strikes Back, when appears as one of the bounty hunters summoned by Darth Vader. We also saw a glimpse of another character from that scene, 4-LOM.
The Mandalorian's ship is the Razor Crest, a reflective, silver old army gun ship. We got a few shots of it in a behind the scenes teaser that was exclusive to the Celebration audience, but will not be released online (for now).
Carl Weathers runs a guild of bounty hunters, who finds the Mandalorian to send him out on a special mission.
Gina Carano plays Kara Doon, an ex-rebel shock trooper. She's a loner who's struggling to reintegrate into society.
Pedro Pascal plays The Mandalorian, who, according to the actor, is a "mysterious, lone gunfighter in the outer reaches of the galaxy. Some would say he is a questionable moral character."
Here's our look at the logo! Kathleen Kennedy, Jon Favreau, and Dave Filoni are all here to kick the panel off. Favreau reveals the show takes place after the end of Return of the Jedi, adding: "After the celebration of the Empire falling... then what happens?" The show goes back to George Lucas's original inspirations: samurai films and westerns.
The Mandalorians have turned up in force for The Mandalorian panel.
Star Wars Jedi: The Fallen Order will be released on 15 November.
The newly designed Purgetroopers have been specially designed to aid Inquisitors in hunting down the Jedi.
You might have spotted the Second Sister in the trailer, who's a member of the Galactic Empire's Inquisitorius, tasked with hunting down Jedi after Order 66. There's also a new droid named BD-1.
And here's the very first trailer!
The game takes place after Order 66 (as seen in Revenge of the Sith), as you play a young padawan who escaped the Jedi massacre.
