Most of the schedule for Celebration Anaheim 2015 is finally live and visitors can start planning out their days accordingly. There are several unannounced panels yet, specifically no mention of Battlefront‘s appearance yet, but expect those unknown events to be announced in the coming weeks and we can only hope they’ll be ones focused on The Force Awakens, Rogue One, Battlefront, or something completely surprising.
There’s already a ton of great panels to attend and some conflicts have already arisen, meaning if you’re bad at making decisions, there’s going to be a lot of stuff for you to work out before April 16th. Seeing as I’m the only one for my site attending, it’s going to be especially hard to chose, given I’ll want to cover material for the site but at the same time enjoy things that I’d likely not be able to anywhere else. This is my chance to sneak in a quick reminder there is an open writing call for Mynock Manor and if you’re attending SWCA, I’d be honored if you’d help cover it with me/for the site (more details can be found here). Until then, I’m going to be hunting old museums and tombs for a device that’ll allow me to be in two places at once.
Here are some of the panels I’m looking forward to the most, whether or not I chose to make them:
Thursday:
The obvious one is the J.J. Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy opening ceremonies, including special guests, which will likely herald new footage of TFA. Don’t worry about trying to camp out in line unless you really need to be in the same room as them, since it’ll be simulcast throughout most of the convention center. I hope someone is filming all the crowds when they drop a new trailer, because that would be a reaction video for the record books!
Fans of LEGO, The Clone Wars, and Ian McDiarmid run into their first big decision Thursday evening. The LEGO panel looks back on the past 15 years of SW’s relationship with the toy and into their future together (I’m expecting a possible new LEGO Star Wars TFA game announcement here, outside of the some new set reveals). Ian McDiarmid, the Emperor himself, will take the stage to discuss how SW has affected his life. And lastly, Dave Filoni and Pablo Hidalgo look into the legacy of TCW, showing tons of unreleased content planned before the show was cancelled. My vote goes to TCW panel, but you can’t really go wrong with any of those.
I’d also like to mention: “These ARE the Droids You’re Looking For – An Insider’s Look at NASA’s Dawn and Mars Exploration Rover Missions,” which if there wasn’t any of the above three to attend, I’d hop into this panel in a heartbeat.
UPDATED Friday:
First off, don’t forget Friday is #AhsokaLives Day. Second, art fans will kill to get a seat to the panel where J.W. Rinzler goes behind-the-scenes into his work on the Ralph McQuarrie artbook. Thirdly, the Battlefront panel, which will at least contain a new trailer, has just been announced (plus gameplay footage behind closed doors…though no hands on yet). But one of the biggest events will be Carrie Fisher’s panel, which depending on her sense of humor, could be one of the most memorable things you’ll see all weekend.
There’s also a screening of an unaired The Clone Wars arc, “Bad Batch,” which follows the escapades of Captain Rex as he and a few other clones rescue the once thought dead Echo. It features the base first seen in Star Wars Rebels “Out of Darkness.” So if you didn’t make the TCW panel on Thursday, you can catch your fix Friday.
Interested in how the Story Group functions? Then their panel is a must-see and it could be very enlightening to find out how they manage to juggle so many different moving parts. You’ll have to end the night choosing between the Revenge of the Sith 3D premiere (hosted by Ian McDiarmid, so you can make up for skipping seeing him Thursday) or a chat with the instantly lovable and very humble Anthony Daniels.
I plan on making Battlefront, Fisher’s panel, the Story Group one, and catching RotS in 3D.
Saturday:
Start the day right with the Star Wars Rebels panel where the cast and crew give fans the first big in-depth look at where season 2 is headed. Fan of the comics and novels? You’ll have a tricky time ahead as the Marvel panel and the Del Rey panel, where both will be revealing new titles (likely) while going over their current catalogs, almost overlap each other. But the choices only get worse, as you’ll have to decide if the Rebels panel in the morning was enough for S2 info or if you want to watch the two-part premiere over seeing James Arnold Taylor and Mark Hamill give a voice-over performance of a life time. The last time these two were together at Star Wars Weekends 2014, Hamill did a surprise performance as a dialogue between the Joker and Luke Skywalker:
I’m going to be choosing Rebels S2 premiere and likely the Del Rey panel, but that might change as we get closer to the show.
UPDATED Sunday:
The fun is nearly over folks, but there’s still a “talk” with Gareth Edwards and Josh Trank, the first of the stand-alone film directors, to enjoy. It does conflict with the stage show of William Shakespeare’s Star Wars (something I wanted in my review of the book), Jennifer Heddle heads a panel about Princess Leia, and Lando himself shares his smoothest tales. And of course the closing ceremonies, where who knows what could happen.
As I mentioned earlier, there are still plenty of unannounced panels, so keep that in mind if you’re already planning out which ones to see. And remember, we’d love to have you on the team or if you just want to share you’re experiences, be sure to contact me and I hope to see you at Celebration!
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.
STAR WARS REBELS REVIEWS:
Season One | Season Two
SEE ALSO:
Del Rey Panel, TFA Novelization, Sampler Thoughts (SWCA 2015)
Battlefront Trailer, Gameplay Demo, Battle of Jakku DLC, and Novel Details (SWCA 2015)
New Star Wars Anthology Series: Rogue One Details Revealed (SWCA 2015)
Star Wars Rebels Season 2 Premiere Review “The Siege of Lothal”
Star Wars Rebels Panel and Press Conference Impressions (SWCA 2015)
The Untold Clone Wars Panel Impressions (SWCA 2015)
Revenge of the Sith 3D Screening Impressions (SWCA 2015)
The Force Awakens Teaser #2 and Opening Ceremonies Impressions (SWCA 2015)
The Force Awakens Exhibit Impressions (SWCA 2015)
Star Wars Battlefront Confirmed for Celebration Anaheim
Celebration Anaheim Star Wars Rebels Season 2 Schedule, #AhsokaLives Day
Celebration Anaheim Events: Rancho Obi-Wan, Speed Dating, Navajo Screening, and More!
Star Wars Celebration Anaheim Gets Rebels Season 2 Premiere, Prequels in 3D