As far as opening panels go, it’s really hard to think of the best place to start, because Celebration Europe 2023’s Lucasfilm Studio Showcase Panel was PACKED with news, reveals, and more. New Jedi Order movie staring Daisy Ridley as Jedi Master Rey Skywalker? Check. New logo, cast, and first footage (Celebration exclusive) showing off the martial arts action and High Republic-set The Acolyte? Check. Ahsoka trailer showing us Mon Mothma, Hera, Sabine, Chopper, new red lightsaber users, and the back of Thrawn’s head? Check. Jude Law playing a Force sensitive character helping out the kids of Skeleton Crew? Check. And wait…I haven’t even mentioned everything? Time to head below for all the new reveals!
Big thanks to everyone live-tweeting from the show. I was following a lot of threads but the main ones are Star Wars Explained, Friends of the Force, Clayton Sandell, and The Resistance Broadcast.
Movies
To announce the movies they showed off a cool timeline with logos for the many eras. It didn’t originally include Dawn of the Jedi or New Jedi Order, so those were added as they revealed the three movies.
New Jedi Order: I have to start here because this one brought me to tears. Set 15 years after The Rise of Skywalker, director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Ms. Marvel) will bring back Daisy FREAKING Ridley as Jedi Master Rey Skywalker to train the next generation of Jedi! I cannot believe my eyes and ears on this one. Ridley is back as Rey! And as a Jedi Master building a new Order?! She received an eruption from the fans when walking out on stage, and rightfully so! Hopefully John Boyega will be back as Finn as well, training this new era alongside her! Regardless, I just hope this doesn’t retread any Legends New Jedi Order ground. DAISY RIDLEY IS BACK. And I’m fine, we don’t need anything more at the moment about this one.
Dawn of the Jedi: We don’t have an official title or anything yet, but James Mangold (Logan, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny) is directing this film about the first Jedi. We actually got a glimpse of this “Dawn of the Jedi” era back in Legends via a book and comic series, and while I only read some of the comic, I found the novel to be quite interesting in how different the era felt. Hopefully this film pulls a lot from these Legends stories or at least remains inspired by them.
New Republic: As the rumors have been suggesting for awhile now, the post-Return of the Jedi TV shows like The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and more will all culminate in a film. As for the director, it’s Dave Filoni, and while this The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels fan would’ve been thrilled 5-8 years ago, many of his recent works and choices have made me lose faith in the cowboy-hatted man, so this isn’t as exciting as it once might’ve been. I imagine we’ll see this film in 5 years or so, which should hopefully give them time to get this right, though It feels like a show wrapping up all the other shows would’ve been a better way to go, as I can’t help but imagine this film featuring all the characters from the show though they barely get screentime expect for everyone to point at the screen and shout like Leonardo DiCaprio. I hope I’m wrong but this is the thing I’m least excited for in all the news overall.
TV Shows
The Acolyte
This has long been my most anticipated show, as it’s been teased to be martial arts action packed with tons of Jedi in the waning days of the High Republic era as the threat of the Sith begins to emerge amongst the shadows. Who doesn’t want to see that?! While the footage shown at Celebration wasn’t available to the public, I’ve seen the shaky camera version of some of it (you’ll find it if you know where to look) and it looks like it has the same level of production as Andor…and then some. What seals the deal for me, even without seeing the full footage, is a quick scene of Carrie Ann-Moss’s Jedi character fighting off an assassin and it looks like something right out of The Matrix. There’s not much more you need to show me or tell me after that! Though showrunner and creator Leslye Headland’s pitch being “Frozen meets Kill Bill” would’ve sold me too to make this happen, while her walking out with the Wookiee Jedi and saying “For Light and Life” is basically mind-blowing at this point as a THR fan.
Joonas Suotamo joins the cast as the Wookiee Jedi Master Kelnacca, while the already announced cast got to come out on stage and hype up the series and share their utter excitement at being in Star Wars. Series star Amandla Stenberg came dressed in Padmé cosplay! While the rest of the cast, like Dafne Keen and Jodie Turner-Smith, looked great as well.
Confirmed for 2024, I expect we’ll be without public footage for The Acolyte for some time, but I hope to be wrong because it looked thrilling from the little bit I saw and sounds gasp-worthy.
ANDOR
Diego Luna, Adria Ajorna, Kyle Soller, Genevieve O’Reilly, Denise Gough, Andy Serkis and Tony Gilroy of #Andor join together at #StarWarsCelebration. pic.twitter.com/i6xZYiiy5f
— Star Wars (@starwars) April 7, 2023
Kicking off the panel was Andor! Cheers of “One Way Out” broke out, which is appropriate and I would’ve been disappointed in the fans if they hadn’t done so; and they did one better, a stream of them chanting it in cosplay through the convention halls and were later brought on stage for the making of Andor panel!. Since they are in the middle of filming season two, they didn’t share too much…besides another convention exclusive teaser (yay….). The best description I have of it basically says Cassian and Bix almost kiss, Syril eats more cereal, and Mon Mothma stuff is picking up steam. Count me the hell in! It’s confirmed to be out 2024 as well.
Ahsoka
Who are the mysterious red-bladed lightsaber users, Baylan Skoll (who speaks in the trailer) and Shin Hati? Who are they working for or with? Who is playing Grand Admiral Thrawn, as we see the back of his head (it could be Lars Mikkelsen, who voiced him in Rebels, per rumors)? Is that the World Between Worlds, which the show’s logo has been teasing for some time? How is Morgan Elsbeth back? Where is Ezra still, only glimpsed as a hologram? What has Huyang been up to all this time?
There are almost more questions than answers in the big Ahsoka trailer, out August 2023, though I imagine we’ll get more answers at Saturday’s panel. It was still really cool to see Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), little hologram Ezra (Eman Esfandi, who had a fun comment about the trailer), and Chopper in live-action, even if I still wished this had been in animation for this story. Seeing them all, as well as Zeb in a recent The Mandalorian episode and the full mural Sabine painted at the convention center, is a big win for Star Wars Rebels fans.
It was also cool to see Mon Mothma again, as I love the idea Genevieve O’Reilly can continue to thrive in the role throughout the eras! But Mothma and Rebels fans were the only winners from this trailer, as Kaz Xiono’s father, Senator Hamato Xiono, is standing with Mothma, so Star Wars Resistance fans win too!
Until more details come from the Saturday panel, as always, we’ll have to bring up the case against Rosario Dawson and her family might still be happening, as it was only due to the court not rescheduling that the charges were dropped, so this is still an outstanding issue if and when the plaintiff decides to reopen things. I’ll still be covering the show, but we’ll be including a disclaimer every episode reminding readers of this, as it’s the very least we can do for trans fans of the Saga.
And I will not share the poster they released as….it’s a choice and I choose no thank you. Instead…here are official stills from the teaser!
AHSOKA PANEL UPDATE: I decided to lump all of the news from the panel here, as it’s not much more than what we got from the opening panel. To start, Lars Mikkelsen was confirmed to return to the role of Thrawn and Dave Filoni said he has been in discussion with Timothy Zahn (aka the man who has written and continues to write the character in the novels) the whole time. Attendees got a remixed trailer which showed his face for the first time, with reports from one of my best friends at the panel said the character looked incredible! Kevin Kiner, who delivered much of Ahsoka’s story (and Thrawn’s) musically via Rebels and The Clone Wars, will return to score the series (with a little help from Ludwig Göransson)!! And lastly we got the directors: Dave Filoni, Steph Green, Peter Ramsey, Jennifer Getzinger, Geeta Patel, and Rick Famuywa.
Skeleton Crew
The cast of #SkeletonCrew took the stage together for the first time at #StarWarsCelebration. pic.twitter.com/370sha2Zc6
— Star Wars (@starwars) April 7, 2023
Jude Law walked out on stage, later joined by the young main cast: Ravi Cabot-Conyers, Kyriana Kratter, and Robert Timothy Smith (not in attendance but Ryan Kiera Armstrong joined the young cast as well)! The panel once again reminds us of the Goonies inspiration, while iterating the kids want to go on an adventure, only to find out It’s more dangerous than they imagine, though Jude Law’s Force sensitive character is there to help. There was a brief teaser shown to attendees, which is where they saw Law’s character using the Force, the pirate Vane from The Mandalorian, and a very kid-aged, fun loving vibe.
Out later in 2023, the series will be directed by Jon Watts, David Lowery, the Daniels (Everything Everywhere All At Once), Jake Schreier, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Lee Isaac Chung.
The Mandalorian
The cast and creative team behind #TheMandalorian dazzled fans during the Lucasfilm's Studio Showcase at #StarWarsCelebration! pic.twitter.com/mh4fP8Yk9k
— Star Wars (@starwars) April 7, 2023
Attendees were treated to the opening 7-8 minutes of the upcoming Chapter 23 and the general reaction has been beaming since it looks like Gideon is finally back and the story is really picking up. Fans in attendance will get to see the FULL EPISODE later, so we’ll see how good with spoilers they are all then…
Either way, I love that Giancarlo Esposito came out on the stage shouting “Long live the Empire,” and later quipped, “….For now,” after Katee Sackhoff said “I finally have what’s mine,” in reference to the darksaber. After a fun but questionable episode, I’m glad this season will be focusing back on the bigger story in its final two episodes.
LANDO
While technically not during the panel, Kathleen Kennedy confirmed the show was still in the works, in case anyone was curious. And I am!! Hopefully we’ll see this come to fruition sooner than later!
Indiana Jones
Not much to say other than this just looks so damn fun!
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.