Ronnie

Bad Batch panel was amazing as expected. What a guy Dee Bradley Baker is. He’d constantly interject every so often with the various character voices. At one point him and Michelle Ang performed a scene on stage. Fantastic. The poster for season 2 is stunning. Just like the actual show really.

Fair enough though I don’t know how you manage to sit through Marvel stuff. Those shows are full of idiotic stuff and plot holes galore. The bad guy in Wandavision being caught by someone driving a car into his and blocking his way out “You’re not going anywhere, smirk” or highly training security specialists being taken out by a computer nerd Lol. But it’s the same as Star Wars, it’s not meant to be taken that seriously.

I just can’t agree but hey ho. And to be fair you did call Star Wars dead a while back. Now the last few years have obviously proven that’s as far from the case as possible, but it does suggest a little bias, even if subconscious. Anyway, shame it didn’t land for you.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying you went in with preconceptions, just that a lot of the stuff you talk about has always been a part of Star Wars. It’s supposed to be goofy with idiot bad guys (mostly) or ewoks defeating the empire like @Mandalore says.

The whole point of Star Wars is that it’s supposed to be a cheesy space fantasy with larger than life characters. It’s not and never has been subtle or watertight, and doesn’t claim to be. Pulpy action adventure.

Well that’s certainly a take. You know you’ve made bad choices when you pay any attention to what Red Letter Media say. imo.

Nabbed you an Andor poster too @Julius although I don’t think it’s particularly great looking lol

As for Celebration itself... It's hard to eloquently describe how much I enjoyed that Mando panel. For some reason I got it into my head that it was going to be Jon and Dave sat in armchairs talking about their experience making the show and then maybe some teases about S3. Turns out, it was a hell of a lot more than that. I certainly didn't expect an all star cast, Giancarlo Esposito, Pedro Pascal, Tem Morrison, Katee Sackhoff, Rosario Dawson, etc etc. Then you add Chopper rolling and bopping around on stage (I guess he's in the Ahsoka show!!) and Grogu himself waving to the crowd, just magical. I pretty much lost it in those last twenty minutes between the extended S3 trailer and all the Ahsoka stuff. The Sabine casting put my mind at ease, she seemed like she could be a good fit. I'd love Vanessa Marshall as Hera but if it is Mary Elizabeth Winstead then fair enough, good luck to her. Steve Blum as Zeb though, has to be. What an advert for StageCraft that three weeks of production and they can produce that sort of polished footage. On the flip side you have Andor that looks like it has three times the budget but took three times as long to make. Then they just played the Mando S3 trailer a second time cause why the hell not. The panel actually ran a good 15 mins longer than scheduled. It was hilarious when the lights came back on though after the second trailer viewing, the whole cast were lying down on stage gazing up at the screen to watch along with everyone else. I stayed in the room for the next panel a behind the scenes one with Richard Bluff and other ILM execs, very interesting and fun. I could have gone into the Tales of the Jedi one next but decided to hold back and I ended up being at the front of the standby queue for Doug Chiang's Mando Design panel. Didn't want to risk missing that cause it was the one, apart from the big ones, I wanted to get into the most and it didn't disappoint. The man's a legend. At one point he commented quite rightly that Star Wars is supposed to be a fantasy universe, not everything needs to make sense, for instance why does a Naboo starfighter float but an X-wing needs landing gears. I immediately thought of the bOmbS DoN'T drOp iN sPacE!!11 crowd. Sadly Greg Grunberg seemingly had to cancel his autograph signings so I didn't manage to get my Snap Wexley bobble-head signed, oh well. Visited the Droid room instead though, man, just incredible work by some of the droid builders. At least 50 droids of all shapes and colours. Some wacky ones too. Only one more day I'll take an epic Bad Batch S2 trailer though to make up for it...?

I totally agree with you, I've been arguing about how bizarre a decision it's been and how much it sucks for the 99.99% of the fanbase not here. And yeah, there's a balance to be struck between keeping some things like you suggested exclusive but showing everything else to the general public. I think he's US based so yeah maybe that clouds his opinion. It was just a take that made me think that's all. I'm pretty clueless about how things are done elsewhere. I couldn't tell you for instance if San Diego Comic-Con streams its big Marvel reveal panels or whatever, I just tend to see updates from those on Twitter. But yeah obviously more complicated here because of the precedent (and the 3 year gap).

True but it’ll be a tiny fraction of the many millions of people who would watch an official release on YouTube or Twitter.

Not sure. It’s funny I got today’s Mando+ panel ticket from someone on Facebook who couldn’t make it down for Celebration and I messaged saying how much I loved it and to thank him. I was also mentioning how annoyed people were that they weren’t steaming this sort of thing. He suggested streaming the big stuff isn’t the norm for conventions at all and there should be some exclusivity otherwise what’s the point in paying for it and attending. Not saying I necessarily agree with that but it’s an alternate take. Obviously they set a precedent in previous shows so it makes it tougher to take this time.

I lay the blame entirely on Disney. The love on show from LF there’s no way it was their call not to livestream. I guess they’ll do a recap video of the best bits soon enough but yeah, really sucks for those not here. Anyway no they didn’t actually mention Hera, just that one shot of her with others walking away from camera. I imagine they’ll have the full cast out next Celebration just before the show launches maybe? Including Ezra obviously. Blows my mind we’re getting the Rebels cast in live action. That shot of the mural from the epilogue man, tears were flowing. The show looks (and sounds) beautiful though. Especially after just three weeks of production! Grogu looked amazing too, waving to everyone. Temuera Morison performing a Haka as he came out too what a lovely guy. Very funny Sorry I’m not trying to gloat, just trying to share the love a bit.

Wonderful decision to bring out Lateef and Brendan Wayne, the stunt doubles for Mando, out for the panel alongside Pedro. Well done LF. Dave seemed to get choked up a bit at the reaction to Sabine and THAT live action shot from the epilogue of Rebels. And he’s obviously used to big reactions.

She does and she also sounds the part. At least here. chopper!! The Ashoka footage looked brilliant. The thing that struck me was the music though. Seemed to fit perfectly.

Incredible panel. Incredible. The crowd were going utterly bonkers. Not just the Ashoka footage and Sabine reveal but a much longer trailer for Mando. Looks spectacular. That final shot. Wow.

Mind. fucking. blown.

I could barely walk back to the hotel after day two, my feet are pretty much gone after 20K steps each of the last three days. Totally worth it though. Thankfully tomorrow if all goes well I should be in four panels, so lots of sitting down! First up, Light and Magic. I enjoyed it but it wasn't the right fit for a big early morning panel, and I still believe it was a last minute substitution. Some people were leaving constantly after few minutes which is never a good sign (extremely rude to do so mind). It told some fun stories of just starting out ILM which was fun but ultimately a bit lacklustre, I was kind of hoping for a good chunk to be spent on modern techniques though to be fair the write-up mentioned Ron Howard and Lawrence Kasdan so I suppose it was never going to be modern day stuff. But yeah, pretty underwhelming. I went to a Lucasfilm Non-Fiction Publishing panel straight afterwards, it was in the smallest room of the three, but was still enjoyable. I was hoping for a few more reveals, but the couple we got were pretty fun. Still no word on a visual dictionary/guide for the Mandoverse. I guess it's coming down the line. The highlight of the day was without question the installation Favreau mentioned on Thursday, The Mandalorian Experience. Please excuse the bad language, but it was FUCKING. INCREDIBLE. I genuinely could have stayed there all day, and I almost did. They funnelled you through a series of smaller rooms with nifty things like a life-size prosthetic version of Kuill or IG-11 behind glass, or stuff that I found really cool, the practical models of the various ships. There was a life size (?) cockpit of the Razor Crest with flashing lights and sound effects. Truly wonderful. There were some wonderful hologram type displays that had the various ships moving around, I guess it was stereoscopic 3D, looked very real. Then the room opened up. And my god did it open up. The photos definitely don't do it justice. The giant life-size N-1 in the middle of the room was the highlight. Each mini installation including that one had subtle music and sound effects playing in the background. And yes, there was a swaying animatronic bantha. I'm genuinely tempted to go again. A wonderful last minute surprise, I imagine they'll put the exhibition on tour. The merch from the gift shop suggested as much. Later on I was wondering past the Star Wars Show Live Stage at seemingly the perfect moment, because a couple of minutes later Anthony Carboni introduced Doug Chiang. What a superstar. He got a massive welcome from the crowd. Wandered the show floor lots more. I'm spending an absolute fortune on this trip. And finally, some people go for autographs of Ewan McGregor or Ashley Eckstein... Me?

Fair enough, just a random trailer drop. I guess I was hoping for a little bit more to dissect but oh well. At least it's (hopefully) coming next year so not too long to wait.

Inexplicable decision not to stream the opening panels, not just this one but presumably all of the big ones. I'm annoyed for you @Julius, and I noticed their Twitter post that mentioned live-tweeting was full of angry confused replies. Like you say it's the lack of transparency that is annoying. If they made this decision a while back, as it seems, then tell people a while back. I still can't figure out why they did it given they showed the Ep IX one and all the other big ones in Chicago. I have to imagine it's a Disney thing as opposed to Lucasfilm, but still frustrating. And to not even stream it to the people literally at Celebration! Weird. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the rest of the livestream regardless. As for my experience, I don't want to gloat given the above circumstances, but I've genuinely just had one of the best days of my life. Definitely the best geeky day ever haha. The Showcase I managed to nab a last minute ticket to the aforementioned Showcase panel, though not in the main room, in the second biggest stage where it was streamed. They showed an opening intro video talking about Celebration and Star Wars in general that genuinely had me in tears by the end. I'm really hoping they release it down the line because it was really great and moving. Then you transition into a live choir singing Duel of the Fates? Come on! Great to see Ewan and Hayden on stage, you could tell they were both emotional at the incredibly warm reception they received. Andor looked genuinely incredible. It looked like it had feature film production values. My jaw was on the floor for most of that teaser. Superbly edited. And Diego Luna, was a lovely guy. He was great on stage talking about his character and SW in general. Ditto Genevieve O'Reilly. Man I can't wait for this show. Not so keen on the logo mind, but whatever. And also annoyingly because I wasn't in the live stage, no free poster, boooo. They prefaced the Mando S3 footage as being rough and early but it looked anything but to me, could have easily been the finished product. Looked incredible. Bo-Katan looks to play a big role next season. Apart from her sitting on this awesome looking throne, looking suitably pissed off, there were some great shots of the Armourer, Greef Carga, Carson Teva and a cool looking space battle. Annoyingly specifics about the footage have left my brain now, but overall it looked fantastic. Favreau and Filoni are an amazing double act, they had the audience in hysterics. As a non Indy and Willow fan the bit in the middle kind of dragged, they seemed to spend A LOT of time on them, but cool for people into them! Skeleton Crew sounds really interesting, if it can mimic those early Amblin style shows like The Goonies but modernise it, I think they could be onto a winner. They were very clear in saying that it may star four kids but it's not a kid's show. The image they put up confused me a bit, at first I figured it was animated, but seems not. Surprised no film news, but I guess they're not ready to show anything. Amazing to have John Williams in the house, he humbly kept telling the audience to please stop the applause haha. Never expected Harrison Ford to show up either! The Show Floor One word, overwhelming. You pick a direction and you find a dozen amazing things along that path. Thankfully it wasn't quite as busy as I thought it would be, so walking around was pretty comfortable (though tbf, I think the Thursday was the one day that hadn't sold out so maybe that's why. I spent so much money my main debit card stopped working, doh. Everyone was so nice, it's so easy to strike up a conversation, had tons of them either waiting in line or just wandering around and the people I spoke to were all so friendly and chatty. Got lots of nice comments on my t-shirt (I printed my location graphic in big on the front) so it was quite a conversation starter. Saw what felt like half a dozen people in The Last Jedi t-shirts, and another with "Directed by Rian Johnson" on the front, so I had to let that guy in particular know how much I appreciated his attire. There were some truly amazing cosplay though actually not quite as much as I was expecting, but as this is my first convention, I guess I didn't know what to expect. Kenobi Lovely surprise being invited back for the world premiere of Kenobi. I was in two minds whether to go (given the American nature of the crowd) but I'm delighted I did because actually the crowd was really good. Sure there was lots of whooping and cheering but the rest of the time everyone was dead silent. And man, what an amazing couple of episodes. Look, I love the Mandoverse, but I've said it many times I feel like that show needs to loosen up a bit and stop being so stiff, so it was a breath of fresh air to have a more laid back show, but one that's just as if not more thoughtful, intense and character driven. The dialogue in general was a massive step up from Mando/Fett. They actually talk like real people here which helps. They were giving out free posters afterwards, I picked up a second one for you @Julius so I'll get it in the post when I get home. Ending on a high note I finished off the day going for my autograph session with Taylor Gray. What an incredibly nice bloke. I was floored by how friendly and chatty he was. As if I don't adore Rebels enough already! Left the convention with a massive smile on my face. The app to reserve a place is pretty painful tbh, I'll try and make it and grab some pics but yeah, not holding my breath. They have a standby line though which apparently was moving pretty quick. Loving the different colour logos each season. The blurb for S3 is that Mando and Grogu's journey continues, so maybe it's not the last season after all. That's really surprising. I'm sure I heard they'd spoken prior to filming, but I guess not. Kind of weird, you'd expect Filoni to be switched on in that regard, but it's hard to judge without knowing all the facts and circumstances.

Don’t worry about sounding salty, I’d be furious in your position, it’s completely bizarre. I’m still going to assume it will be streamed and they’ll put out a last minute tweet but only because I can’t figure out why they wouldn’t. It’s possible they don’t want other shows interfering with the Kenobi marketing push but that’s just stupid (though very corporate Disney)

Pardon my French but It would be fucking bizarre if the big panels weren’t streamed. Almost inconceivable. But you’re right surely they would have said something by now. Could be waiting to do a hype tweet with a couple hours to go with a separate link to watch I suppose, but yeah, weird. I’ll ask around when I get there, see if anyone knows anything.

Greetings from sunny Anaheim!

Yeah I probably wouldn't expect a schedule of exactly which panels they're going to stream to be honest, but maybe they'll say so by then. I imagine these kind of things can be subject to last minute changes? Hopefully they'll announce the Showcase getting it's own stream today though! In other news, I had applied for the 4 big panels and got into the Bad Batch Season 2 one! I also spoke to a guy who couldn't make it anymore and he gave me his Light & Magic and Mando+ lottery wins in exchange for me sending him some store exclusives! Really chuffed with that. I guess I'll watch the Showcase on the big screens from the show floor, probably won't hear a thing though

It’s very weird messaging but there’s no way they won’t also stream the Showcase. It’ll probably just get its own stream which if anything potentially makes it more exciting, they obv want to go big on it. I imagine the Celebration Live part is the more hands on stream with the hosts etc. kind of like Nintendo Treehouse Live after an E3 Direct.

Did they say Mando S3 is only seven episodes? Otherwise 24 in total surely? Sounds like they might be delving into the darker side of the Rebellion, kind of like that opening scene with Cassian in Rogue One