Star Wars Celebration Anaheim: Major Announcements From The Convention
The four-day event, filled with Star Wars announcements and reunions, ended on Sunday.
Star Wars Celebration Anaheim revealed much about where the franchise is going.
Fans of a galaxy far, far away came to California for Star Wars Celebration Anaheim last weekend. It was the first such convention since 2019's Celebration Chicago and brought a bunch of announcements about upcoming Disney Plus shows, video games, books, comics and merchandise. The four-day event ran Thursday through Sunday.
Star Wars Celebration is a convention solely devoted to a galaxy far, far away. It's been running since 1999, when it hyped up prequel trilogy opener The Phantom Menace. A planned 2020 convention having been canceled due to the pandemic.
Unlike the last few Celebrations, this convention wasn't focused on an upcoming movie. It leans heavily on upcoming Disney Plus series instead. We got our first look at Andor (the prequel to Rogue One), some concrete details about The Mandalorian season 3, a glimpse of the Ahsoka Tano spinoff series and a trailer for The Bad Batch's second season.
The next Star Wars Celebration will take place in London in April.
Catch up on our coverage of each day's major announcements below.
Thursday, May 26
The show kicked off with one of the big panels. Lucasfilm's Studio Showcase gave us the first trailer and an Aug. 31 release for Andor, a February release date for The Mandalorian season 3 and the announcement of coming-of-age show Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
The panel also hyped some non-Star Wars Lucasfilm movies, giving us the first trailer for TV show Willow and the first image from Indiana Jones 5.
Readers got a taste of upcoming novels at The High Republic: For Light and Life panel, during which the authors revealed details about phase 2 of the publishing initiative set hundreds years before the Skywalker Saga.
Friday, May 27
After getting up early (or staying up late) to watch the first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi, those attending the Light & Magic panel were likely a bit sleepy. Solo director Ron Howard and writer Lawrence Kasdan got everyone hyped with a sneak preview of a six-part documentary about Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm's special effects division, ahead of its Disney Plus release on July 27.
Count Dooku and Yoda showed off their CGI dueling skills back in 2002.
Remember how exciting it was to see Yoda wielding a lightsaber for the first time? That was two decades ago (don't feel old; it's fine, it's fine), and the Attack of the Clones 20th Anniversary Celebration commemorated the second movie in George Lucas' prequel trilogy.
Actors Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen made surprise appearances to delight the crowd, joining a panel that included co-stars Anthony Daniels, Temuera Morrison and Daniel Logan, along with artist Doug Chiang, visual effects supervisor John Knoll and sound editor Matthew Wood.
For collectors, the Hasbro Star Wars Panel offered looks at upcoming waves of 3.75-inch figures and the highly detailed 6-inch Black Series, including the villainous Inquisitors seen in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
We also got the surprise reveal of Jedi: Survivor, the sequel to 2019's Fallen Order; word that 2004 classic Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords is hitting Nintendo Switch on June 8; and the announcement of the animated series Young Jedi Adventures, which is set during the High Republic era.
Saturday, May 28
The day's first major panel: Mando+: A Conversation with Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni brought us an extended trailer for season 3 that hinted at returning characters and a trip to the ruined Mandalore. The trailer hasn't been released online yet.
It also yielded a surprise trailer for the Ahsoka Tano show, along with confirmation that it would bring the Ghost crew from CGI animated series Rebels into live-action. Natasha Liu Bordizzo was revealed as the actor playing Sabine Wren.
Celebration Anaheim revealed that Grogu will return to Disney Plus in Februrary.
We saw a new animated show unveiled in an afternoon panel: Tales of the Jedi is a CGI animated series of shorts. It's about Ahsoka and Count Dooku in their younger days.
Comics took the spotlight at the Marvel Star Wars panel, with Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski taking to the stage with a bunch of writers and artists to talk about upcoming story arcs and unveil a new series about Yoda.
Sunday, May 29
The final day of the convention shined the spotlight on Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2. The team behind the CGI animated Clone Wars spinoff gave us a trailer for the second season and a fall 2022 Disney Plus premiere date.
That was followed by A Look Back at Star Wars: Visions, which dived into last year's anime-inspired anthology series. This panel also revealed that the show will return for more episodes in spring 2023.
At the convention's closing ceremony, Obi-Wan Kenobi's Grand Inquisitor actor Rupert Friend revealed that the next Star Wars Celebration will take place April 7 to 10, 2023, in London's Excel Center.
The next Star Wars Celebration will take place in London in April 2023, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Grand Inquisitor Rupert Friend revealed. pic.twitter.com/tNYcCrV5k0
— Sean Keane@SWCA (@SpectacularSean) May 29, 2022
Where can I watch the Star Wars Celebration Anaheim panels?
If you couldn't make it to the show or just want to relive it, you can stream certain parts from the official Star Wars YouTube channel and on StarWars.com. Recordings of some panels will be uploaded later.
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