Star Wars Celebration 2023: A Starbird Files Blog
Anticipation for me was high, not because I was expecting a lot of announcements (I wasn’t), but because I’ve been to two Celebrations before and had a great time but it was just me & my wife, Debra. This time around I was going to know a bunch of people because of Star Wars Sessions as well as folks from Instagram.
On Thursday I went to the ExCel, probably too early to meet Sessions people. But it was fun to hang around and soak up the atmosphere, there were some cosplayers, people going in to collect their badges. Met up with my friend Jimmy from Kansas, then Matt & Luke from SWS, Luke aka One Quarter Portion aka the King of Wales, and others before we headed to Seven Dials Market to meet more people and eat. It was a fun appetizer to the weekend to come.
Day One
I arrived at about 9am and joined the queue for admission at 10am, I pulled out my copy of Cataclysm and immediately someone started talking to me about the High Republic. This would turn out to be Callum, a very important man in my first day Celebration. The third member of our queue buddy group was Saleh, an American cosplaying as Cal Kestis, and we had a great hour long chat about ALL things Star Wars. Callum very kindly offered me a spare QR code to the opening Lucasfilm Showcase panel on the Galaxy Stage stream, I had completely discounted getting into this, so I am eternally grateful to him for that.
Once in we hurried to the Galaxy Stage and took our seats. You don’t really need me to tell you what happened in this panel because it’s been well reported, but even on a streaming stage the hype was real. We got so much, my highlight was the Acolyte section of the show (and it was a show), Leslie Hedland spoke with such passion and heart about the forthcoming Disney+ series, she truly is a fan. Introducing Joonas Suotamo as the Wookiee Jedi, I was so happy for him and would get to tell him later in the weekend. And the early teaser trailer for The Acolyte was spectacular, so many Jedi including my favorite colour lightsabers, yellow.
The Ahsoka and Indiana Jones trailers were other highlights, but the real headlines were the new movie announcements, James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi, Dave Filoni’s MandoVerse movie and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s New Jedi Order - and when Daisy Ridley was brought out the roof was well and truly lifted.
After the panel which was almost 2 hours long finished I went to try and find friends, as well as food and water (it was 1pm and I hadn’t drank since 7.30am), with the big panel having kicked out the convention centre was heaving and on my own I was hating life for a little while. I made my way to one of the food court halls and found some SWS (Star Wars Sessions) friends in line for food - I jumped in line with them, I didn’t care at this point! - and was able to share the movie news with them as despite queuing from 7.30am they had not got into the panel. Having had food and two bottles of water I hurried to the Forbidden Planet stand as I was now late for Cavan Scott, Claudia Gray and Adam Christopher’s book signing.
Arriving at the booth the queue was huge, and I was doubtful I would get to the front by the time the session finished at 3pm, which turned out to be correct. So my books went unsigned as I didn’t want to carry them around another day. BUT while I was there I spotted two faces I recognized, Jonny and Chris from the Star Wars Book Community on Instagram (@journalofthewhills and @swbookcollector respectively) and it was great to meet them in person, as well my mate Martin.
My book signing having been a bust I finally had time to explore the show floor, browse the vendors etc. The highlight of my walk around was discovering the Rebels mural recreated in glorious life size, see picture below!
After taking a break and meeting up with a couple of friends in the Pyramid bar (a real quiet spot that I would revisit when needed), I headed back to the Galaxy stage for the screening of the Mandalorian season 3 episode 7, exclusive to those with wristbands from the Lucasfilm Showcase, and bumped into Jonny and Chris again so I was able to sit with them, catch up on our day and enjoy the spectacle. I’m sure we’ve all seen that episode now but I won’t spoil it just incase, but suffice to say watching it with a room full of passionate fans was a great experience and the ending really hit even harder because of that.
Time for me to head back to Essex for the night.
Day 2
Saturday morning I arrived with my wife and friend from home, and we explored the show floor for a while, had a beer and bumped into some SWS friends. Then at 12 my wife and I queued up for the High Republic panel, and got pretty good seats near the front. The panel was a lot of fun, hosted by Krystina Arielle and featuring Cavan Scott, Charles Soule, Claudia Gray, Daniel José Older, Lydia Kang, George Mann, and Alyssa Wong who we found out is joining the luminous crew. It kicked off with a few phase tidbits including The Nameless Terror a 4 part comic by George Mann, Edge of Balance: Precedent featuring a younger Arkoff and updates on Tales of Light & Life which will feature Alyssa Wong writing Crash, the character named after her. But the real meat was the Phase 3 book/author announcements, and surprisingly they announced all 3 waves!
Wave I
The Eye of Darkness by George Mann (Adult, November)
Defy the Storm by Tessa Gratton & Justina Ireland (YA, March 2024)
Escape From Valo by Alyssa Wong & Daniel José Older (MG, January 2024)
Wave II
Temptation of the Force by Tessa Gratton (Adult, Summer 2024)
Tears of the Nameless by George Mann (YA, Autumn 2024)
Beware the Nameless by Zoraida Córdova (MG, Summer 2024)
Wave III
Trials of the Jedi by Charles Soule (Adult, Spring 2025)
Into the Light by Claudia Gray (YA, Spring 2025)
A Valiant Vow by Justina Ireland (MG, Spring 2025)
After the Wave 3 announcements the live stream was cut and Leslye Hedland was brought out, and once we got to hear her talk about The Acolyte as well as the High Republic, the teaser was played again and then it was revealed that Vernestra Rwoh would be in the live action series, and would be played by Rebecca Henderson! It was an incredible end to a fantastic panel.
After the panel, I had a Lightspeed reservation for the official show store. I spent too much on two t-shirts and Return of the Jedi cap, but the one thing I really wanted a Celebration 2023 patch for my patch shirt was sold out, I was gutted. That was until I got to the checkout, and there was ONE in a basket on the counter! JOY!
After this we went to check into our hotel, eat and prepare for the SWS afterparty, Bib’s Bash, in Canning Town. It was a great evening with delicious Star Warsy cocktails, catching up with friends, cementing new friendships and I completely neglected to take any photos.
Day 3
First task when my wife and I arrived on Sunday morning was to go to the autograph area for my reservation with Warwick Davis. His line was one of the longest, so it took a while to get to the front, when we did and I saw the Willow pictures that were available I had a rush of blood to the head and I asked his handler if I could pay for a second, he said yes and he would trust me to get the autograph and then sort payment after - very kind. Warwick himself had been signing for an hour and a half when we got our autographs so it was understandable that he was a bit quiet and low energy but he perked right up when I told him how much we had enjoyed the Willow tv series.
After a walk around taking pictures of cosplayers, I returned to the autograph area solo for my autograph session with Joonas Suotamo. This time I was early and only had a short wait, Joonas was energetic and chatting and taking pictures with everyone, and was no different with me. He signed my Chewie Funko Pop and I was able to tell him how excited I was to see him as a Jedi Wookiee in the Acolyte, what a great job he did in Peter Mathew’s stead and he posed for a selfie with me. What a hero he is.
After a quick trip back to our hotel to drop off my pops and bag we headed back into the Convention ready for the Star Wars Sessions panel on the HoloNet News Stage at 5pm. It was great to see so many familiar and unfamiliar faces, Matt & Luke have put in so much hard work over the years and this really felt like their reward, being on the inside of a big Lucasfilm event, participating.
After the SWS panel and saying a few goodbyes to folks we wouldn’t be seeing again, we headed straight to the O2 for #Cantina2, after fighting our way through the Elton John fans and getting some Five Guys we headed into the O2 Indigo for the gig. There were signers set up around the venue, an impressive Tatooine stage set, Star Wars cocktails and cosplayers walking around, and I straight away headed to one of the signers areas to find Simon Williamson, the original puppeteer of my favorite blue boy and Glup Shitto supreme, Max Rebo.
I had been to the first Cantina back in 2016, so I knew what to expect from Blues Harvest and Darth Elvis, and was excited to see them once again. Blues Harvest were great and had plenty of guests, including Mike Quinn (Nien Nunb puppeteer) who sang two songs from things he’d worked on - The Fraggle Rock Theme and Magic Dance from Labyrinth, which were great nostalgia. Darth Elvis also guested and sang several songs, giving his last ever live performance 😢, and was as awesome as ever.
As I thought I saw someone from the Sessions crew I walked right past High Republic Author Cavan Scott who was there with Charles Soule, George Mann and Michael Siglain, and after my failure on Friday I was determined not to miss this opportunity. Cavan was very friendly and generous with his time, and chatted music with him for a few moments and grabbed a selfie with him - which was fantastic as I hadn’t been able to go to the High Republic meet up on Saturday.
We hung out and chatted more with friends, imbibed a cheeky blue milk cocktail before the headliners Ash took to the stage. I’ve seen Ash a few times before and they were great as always, they are big Star Wars fans, played the Phantom Menace wrap party back in the day and bassist Mark is one of the organizers of the Cantina events. They played a cracking set, there were Star Wars visuals on screen that connected to their songs, a great example being the prison escape scene from Andor during their song ‘Walking Barefoot’ which led to a One Way Out Chant, and at one point there was even a drumming Ewok onstage! I danced and relived my youth a bit, and during my favorite song Kung-fu, bass player Mark Hamilton come out into the crowd and had a lightsaber duel with BB-8 puppeteer Brian Herring. And as we left tired but happy I declared Sunday the best day of the whole convention.
My top tip if you ever go to a Celebration is be flexible. Be prepared that some things you want to you won’t get to do, but there will also be unexpected surprises too. There is so much to be said for being in a building with so many people who share the same passion as you, we may all like different aspects of Star Wars but being in a place where we all have one thing in common is a very unique and special experience. I think this Celebration was the best I have been to because of all the friends, old and new, that I got to share the experience with.
Japan anyone?
Jonny O
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