Star Wars Celebration

Star Wars Celebration kicked off in Orlando this afternoon with a giant panel to honor the upcoming 40th anniversary of the beloved franchise. As exciting as it all was, including guest appearances by everyone from George Lucas to Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford, there was still a glimmer of sadness in the air as one member of the gang was absent this year. The loss of Carrie Fisher last December left a stain of melancholy across not only the Star Wars fanbase, but all of Hollywood. To celebrate the brilliance, charisma and warmth Fisher gave us throughout her lengthy career, and the iconic status of General Leia Organa, LucasFilm paid tribute to the actress in a beautiful video.

For those of us who are old enough to remember the original Star Wars trilogy in its initial release, the fact that this May 25 marks the 40th anniversary of the first film’s release is absolutely staggering. (Want to feel old? This is what Darth Vader looked like 40 years ago.)

Next week Star Wars Celebration returns to Orlando, and in addition to bringing the casts and crews of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the original trilogy, the prequel trilogy, Rogue One, Rebels and more, there are going to be a whole mess of new collectibles and items for you to splurge on to show off your fandom.

This year’s Star Wars Celebration will take place in Orlando (good news for those of you who couldn’t make it across the pond last year), and as it’s the 40th anniversary of the iconic franchise, you can expect some pretty major things. While we wait to learn more about Lucasfilm’s plans for the 2017 convention, the studio has unveiled a beautiful new poster along with a few details regarding the first panel of the year.

There was a major awakening this past weekend at Star Wars Celebration Europe, which brought fans a handful of new details about ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.’

We all love the human heroes and villains of the ‘Star Wars’ universe, but the creatures that pop in throughout the films are some of the most imaginative characters the big screen has seen. From fuzzy creatures to bubble-eyed aliens to adorable blinking droids, the galaxy far, far away is full of diverse species, many of which were brought to life by hand.

When the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story panel opened at Star Wars Celebration last weekend, it did so with this video, in which the classic opening crawl from Star Wars began to glitch and sputter and then shifted in space. The words flew toward the camera and revealed the full Rogue One logo title treatment, as seen below:

We’ve known for months that Alden Ehrenreich was our new Han Solo, but the closing panel at Star Wars Celebration Europe brought the official announcement, plus a surprise appearance by the actor.

Remember those dramatic last minutes of Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Rey landing on a distant planet. A robed figure pulls back his hood to reveal an anguished Luke Skywalker. Rey reaches out, lightsaber in hand, as the camera pulls back and a familiar fanfare starts to play ...

The death of Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens came as a pretty big shock for die-hard Star Wars fans (unless you’re like me and had it spoiled by the random eight-year-old sitting next to you moments before the movie started). And since we barely had a chance to catch our breath before the film moved into the final climactic duel between Kylo Ren and Rey, you can be forgiven for hoping that the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VIII would circle back to the death of Han Solo and take a few minutes to send the character off right. You know, give us a little closure.