Today we're recapping DAY 3 of Celebration Japan 2025! During the closing ceremonies of Star Wars Celebration Japan, it was announced that Star Wars Celebration will return to California in 2027, taking place at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the first time the event has been held in LA since 2006. Additionally, details and a release date for Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 were revealed by the directors, showcasing nine new animated shorts from Japanese studios. Lucasfilm also announced Star Wars: Visions Presents, a new initiative to develop longer-form stories based on the shorts, starting with a continuation of Kara's story from "The Ninth Jedi" and "Child of Hope".
News coming through Star Wars Launch Pad as well!
Try Star Wars Launch Pad!
https://www.youtube.com/@SWLaunchPad
https://open.spotify.com/show/1v0naAAJZMW0nig3OkFToJ?si=8014aef1647f4da5 Found on any platform in the galaxy!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to Star Wars Escape Pod, and Day 3 of Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025.
(00:24):
And in typical lightspeed fashion, we're delivering you Star Wars news and headlines in under
15 minutes.
And I say that because most lightspeeds are under 15 minutes, and they are designed to
be that way.
However, celebration is celebration, and the news tends to go pretty far.
(00:49):
So we're going to try and keep this as quick as we can and get into all the details of
Star Wars Celebration to recap.
And the best way we're going to do that is by using our handy dandy Celebration livestream
blog that I've been up to this entire weekend to bullet point this entire event.
(01:11):
And hopefully it's been useful for you guys to have these celebration recaps on a daily
basis.
Before we get into things, if you can do us a huge favor of subscribing to the podcast,
we're sharing this with a friend and finding us on YouTube using the handle at SWEscapePodcast.
Links are in the description below.
(01:32):
Really helps us out to have people following and hitting that bell icon and just, I don't
know, just engaging with the show.
And we always welcome the comments if you have any comments to drop.
Maybe leave us a comment on this one, maybe just say what you're most looking forward
to for Star Wars Celebration.
In one week's time, we're going to be running the roundtable discussion on everything that
happened this past weekend.
(01:52):
And I'm really looking forward to that because it's not going to be just me at the mic here.
We're going to have a lot of other people and we're going to really actually have a
full length show and talk about the new big things like Starfighter and the Maul animated
series and stuff like that.
But today we're only getting into day three of Star Wars Celebration.
So let's kick things off.
(02:13):
Today was a big day for video game fans and Disney Parks fans.
Some news came out for Fortniters as well and anime fans as well.
So we had the Visions Volume 3 panel that was streaming through the live stream.
People in person got a, well, in person at the panel got a good look at some of the art
on stage, but you can view some of it on the stream as well.
(02:35):
And Visions Volume 3, as we already know, was coming out this year, I believe it was
October 29th, 2025.
So it was later this year and they had some big news in regards to Visions Volume 3.
Three of the episodes that they've done in the past, I believe these are Volume 1 episodes,
(02:55):
will continue with sequel shorts in Volume 3.
So that's three of the Volume 1 episodes that are getting continued story-wise, including
The Ninth Jedi, which is going to be part of their new sub-project next year in 2026
called Star Wars Visions Presents The Ninth Jedi.
(03:16):
So they're going to be following up The Ninth Jedi with an entire series of episodes just
dedicated to The Ninth Jedi.
The director Kenji Kameyama is actually coming back and continuing that storyline.
So they've taken all the big fan favorites and they're continuing those stories.
And I think that's really cool because I think it's nice that the ones that were really great
(03:41):
get awarded more time to tell more of that story.
Some of the episodes are called The Dual Payback, The Village Bride sequel is going to be called
The Lost Ones, The Ninth Jedi Child of Hope is going to be the sequel to The Ninth Jedi.
(04:02):
They shared a clip from Yuko's Treasure and artwork from The Smuggler.
They shared more artwork from The Bounty Hunters, artwork for The Song of Four Wings, artwork
for The Bird of Paradise, and an episode called Black.
So this season is going to be full of great stories.
And if any of you are big anime fans and haven't checked out Star Wars Visions, I definitely
(04:26):
recommend it.
Both Volume 1 and 2 are available on Disney Plus right now.
So October 29th, later this year, and you can catch a sizzle reel online right now.
All right, so Fusion Weiyang Culit Entertainment and Cultural Puppet Group came to the live
(04:46):
stage after showcasing a big huge demonstration on the projector screen in the main stage.
And that was really cool to see.
Product spotlights for Beyblade featuring a Star Wars collaboration is coming out in
the future as well.
The Gatcha loot crate system, I don't know, we had a bit of a laugh, I guess, when myself
(05:08):
and Blake were watching day one of Star Wars Celebration.
But in Japan, it's very big to have these loot crate vending machines with toys and
little bubbles.
I know, you know, there are things that you can find that anyone, you know, if anyone's
been to a mall before in North America, I'm sure you've seen one before, but they're pretty
big over there.
(05:29):
And a company called Gatcha is booming right now, I guess, with the loot crate vending
machines.
So they had all these all these Star Wars ones featured at Celebration.
So it was neat to see people hanging out there all day, I guess, you know, cranking the Toonies
and I don't think Japan has Toonies, but you know, all right.
(05:52):
Star Wars and Fortnite had a big announcement coming up.
Star Wars will take over Fortnite in May, called Galactic Battle Royale on May 2nd.
It's going to run for five weeks.
May 2nd is going to be called Imperial Takeover.
May 8th is called the Pull of the Force.
May 22nd, Mandalorian Rising.
May 29th, Star Destroyer Bombardment.
(06:13):
And June 7th is the Death Star Sabotage.
So you're going to be seeing five weeks of, you know, each week is going to be sort of
a mini season inside the bigger season.
The story is going to advance.
Ahmed Bess is returning to this project as Darth Jar Jar, who he played in the Lego Rebuild
(06:34):
the Galaxy Star Wars movie that came out about a year ago now.
So that's really cool to see.
You'll be able to squad up in an X-Wing in Fortnite.
New Star Wars gameplay from May till June 5th this season.
Check it out.
There's a video on YouTube featuring the trailer for this whole event, and they brought out
some of these creepy looking Wookiee things onto the stage.
(06:59):
And they did a big show and a dance, and it was crazy.
Anyway, David W. Collins comes to the live stage to talk about voice acting on the many
Star Wars projects.
He had some honoring words to say about working with Sam Witwer all these years.
He's a great guy.
Rosario Dawson joined the live stage as well today.
A possible hint that her leku could get even longer.
(07:21):
I don't know if she was talking about the comparison between Mando and Ahsoka, but hey,
maybe we'll get another inch on those things, which would be great.
They did some more product spotlights on Stance, which is a company that makes socks and shirts
in Japan.
They have a Star Wars collaboration going on.
All this stuff looks interesting.
(07:43):
They have their own mascot for a lot of their stuff.
So it was this particular mascot that they put on a lot of Stance stuff, wearing things
like X-Wing pilot uniforms and stuff like that.
So Kenny Kamehawa came to the stage as well to talk more about Visions Presents the Ninth
Jedi, which is an extended story that began in Volume 1.
(08:05):
And that was Season 1, Episode 5 of Star Wars Visions.
So we're looking forward to seeing that.
It was very hard to follow a lot of the Japanese presenters that came to the live stage because
at home they didn't put the subtitles on the screen.
So it was only people in person that got to see the subtitles of what these people
were saying on the big overhead screen.
(08:25):
But I mean, I hear that it was all live translated by people in a booth somewhere.
So props and a huge round of applause to all of those people who did all that live translating.
I mean, that's crazy, crazy work.
All right, they did a spotlight for some wicked looking jackets.
(08:46):
I don't know what this company name was, but really cool stuff.
They had Diego Luna come out to the live stage and just talk about stuff.
A lot of these people who they bring back out to the live stages, they have their moment
in the love of the crowd and everything like that.
And it's all fun and they don't really talk about new things.
(09:08):
So just something to note.
The artists who designed the official Celebration artwork this year came to the live stage as
well.
And then the heroic sidekicks of Star Wars panel began, hosted by Ashley Eckstein.
The guests was Ahmed Best, Anthony Daniels and Alan Tudyk.
So they all talked about their characters and making Star Wars movies from their perspective
(09:33):
and being some of the supporting beloved characters of the series.
They had a lot to say.
And Ahmed Best delivered the most beautiful speech that I've ever heard from someone at
Star Wars Celebration.
And I'm not going to play it for you now, but I will play it when we do the full round
table review.
So stay tuned for that.
Disney Imagineering joined the live stage, and that was really cool to hear what they
(09:56):
had to say about the updates coming to Galaxy's Edge at Disney Parks.
Smuggler's Run is getting a Mandalorian and Grogu update in, I guess, in favor of the
series or the movie.
I don't know.
I don't think they were that specific about it, but they just said it's a Mandalorian
and Grogu update.
(10:17):
Hondo Onaka has a new mission from the New Republic to track down bounties for some Imperials
across four brand new locations.
Tatooine being one of them.
You'll get to fly through Beggar's Canyon and so many cool things.
Jim Cummings is back as Hondo to continue the story.
And in the story, the engineers decide between Bespin, Coruscant and Endor.
(10:37):
So this makes the engineer's job a bit more interesting, because as anybody knows who
has been there and done Smuggler's Run, the engineer is probably one of the more laid
back positions in the cockpit.
So maybe add a little extra thing for them to do, which is kind of nice.
They get to have a massive impact on where people go in the story, which is kind of cool.
(11:01):
The BDX droids, which are the two legged little kind of walking droids that waddle around,
will be officially rolling out to the parks in Paris and in Hollywood Studios, Florida,
Walt Disney World.
So they're very expressive.
They could be very chipper, sad, angry and more.
They're going to add a lot more immersiveness to the park, having droids walking around
(11:22):
on their own.
So that'll be cool.
Then we hit some more showcases.
Lego showcased the new K2SO figure that is buildable.
Pre-orders are up right now.
The Star Wars logo can be bought early at Star Wars Celebration, so some people might
already have that.
If you're an avid Lego buyer, you might see people online have already purchased one.
(11:44):
It's because it was available at the convention, but it will be launching publicly soon.
Multiple Star Wars Visions directors came up to the live stage as well.
Again, couldn't understand a single word they're saying, but very cool.
Showcasing Hasbro showed off the new Visions, the dual exclusive figure box set at Japan
Celebration, and this was the one that included the black and white Ronin as well as his astromech
(12:08):
droid wearing that straw hat.
So unfortunately, that can only be bought at Celebration.
Hasbro does this every time.
They always make a figure that can only be bought somewhere exclusively at the Star Wars
Celebration.
I know the one that Blake and I attended and Bryce and Ben, we all went to 2017 Orlando
(12:29):
Celebration eight years ago, believe it or not.
The exclusive at the time there was the 40th anniversary pilot Luke Skywalker from A New
Hope when they were running the 40th anniversary series of foiled kind of flashy card back
versions of the six inch figures.
And I remember we got one of those as well.
(12:51):
So they do this and can bite people in the butt, I guess, if they're an active collector
and don't attend at the Celebration, it means they're going to be paying a hefty sum of
money for somebody else's later.
The Droid Builders Club got to hit the live stage as well.
And they're the team that built all the droids for the convention.
They got to build the new cooking droid whose name is Cookie, which was sort of semi gifted
(13:17):
to Oki, who is the guy carving up Star Wars shaped fruit on stage, which is really neat.
What a sweet guy he is.
They also featured Gil, who is the RX droid that has been at a number of Star Wars celebrations
now as well.
They talked a little bit about droid building and then they brought out the prop crew responsible
(13:37):
for the Celebration stage every single year.
They make that stage look absolutely insane.
And they talked a little bit about how they build the pieces at home and ship them to
Celebration every year, except for one of the big pieces.
Everything is numbered and they assemble it like Lego.
And it's, you know, it's always great to hear from all these people that make this celebration
look so absolutely immersive and awesome.
(13:59):
It was great that they spend the last day of the Celebration kind of honoring all those
groups of people as well.
So that was cool.
Mads Mikkelsen came to the live stage as well.
And Mads has not seen Andor yet.
If any of you don't know, Mads Mikkelsen played Galen Erso in Rogue One.
And he didn't have too much.
There was no news there.
(14:19):
It was mostly just kind of quizzing him on on his time being in the movie.
But yeah, he had some lovely things to say and, you know, he hasn't seen Andor yet.
So, you know, very surprising.
The 501st Legion got a spotlight.
They were there at Japan Celebration as well.
And then they featured Oki, who has been at Celebration for 10 years in a row.
(14:41):
And he is honored by the live crew and thanked for his work.
Such a sweet guy.
And he started to tear up on the stream and it was very emotional.
The closing ceremony began.
They kicked things off with a sizzle reel recap video from the entire weekend.
As every year goes, they pack it with emotions like you wouldn't believe.
This video is likely and has been already released online.
(15:04):
And you know, this is the event of all events for so many people.
Over 125 countries were represented this past weekend, with over 70% of the attendees as
first timers to a Star Wars celebration.
So that was pretty mind blowing when they read off that statistic.
And then the biggest news, I guess, of the day was really that, of course, announcing
(15:26):
when the next celebration is.
And they do this every time.
The next one will be in two years to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Wars.
And this will be held in LA from April 1st to April 4th, 2027.
So we'll see you there because, you know, that's going to be a big one to hit.
We were there, like I said, eight years ago at the 40th anniversary Star Wars celebration.
(15:50):
So it only feels right that I feel like I'm going to be, you know, going back for the
next one being the 50 year anniversary.
I feel like that's something I kind of want to do.
So, you know, if you see someone walking around with a Star Wars escape pod shirt on, it might
be me.
It might be somebody else, you know, tap me on the shoulder, say hello.
And until 2027, that is it.
(16:10):
That is the last of Star Wars celebration that we have for the recaps.
And again, stay tuned for the roundtable review of Star Wars celebration the whole weekend.
We're going to get some people on here.
We're going to talk about everything.
We're going to get hyped up and excited about Starfighter shooting in a couple of months
and Ahsoka shooting in a week and all these great things.
(16:31):
So may the force be with you guys.
We will see you in the next episode of Star Wars escape pod.
Look out for those fresh episodes coming at you.
Lightspeed.
Welcome back to Star Wars Escape Pod, and Day 3 of Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025.
(00:24):
And in typical lightspeed fashion, we're delivering you Star Wars news and headlines in under
15 minutes.
And I say that because most lightspeeds are under 15 minutes, and they are designed to
be that way.
However, celebration is celebration, and the news tends to go pretty far.
(00:49):
So we're going to try and keep this as quick as we can and get into all the details of
Star Wars Celebration to recap.
And the best way we're going to do that is by using our handy dandy Celebration livestream
blog that I've been up to this entire weekend to bullet point this entire event.
(01:11):
And hopefully it's been useful for you guys to have these celebration recaps on a daily
basis.
Before we get into things, if you can do us a huge favor of subscribing to the podcast,
we're sharing this with a friend and finding us on YouTube using the handle at SWEscapePodcast.
Links are in the description below.
(01:32):
Really helps us out to have people following and hitting that bell icon and just, I don't
know, just engaging with the show.
And we always welcome the comments if you have any comments to drop.
Maybe leave us a comment on this one, maybe just say what you're most looking forward
to for Star Wars Celebration.
In one week's time, we're going to be running the roundtable discussion on everything that
happened this past weekend.
(01:52):
And I'm really looking forward to that because it's not going to be just me at the mic here.
We're going to have a lot of other people and we're going to really actually have a
full length show and talk about the new big things like Starfighter and the Maul animated
series and stuff like that.
But today we're only getting into day three of Star Wars Celebration.
So let's kick things off.
(02:13):
Today was a big day for video game fans and Disney Parks fans.
Some news came out for Fortniters as well and anime fans as well.
So we had the Visions Volume 3 panel that was streaming through the live stream.
People in person got a, well, in person at the panel got a good look at some of the art
on stage, but you can view some of it on the stream as well.
(02:35):
And Visions Volume 3, as we already know, was coming out this year, I believe it was
October 29th, 2025.
So it was later this year and they had some big news in regards to Visions Volume 3.
Three of the episodes that they've done in the past, I believe these are Volume 1 episodes,
(02:55):
will continue with sequel shorts in Volume 3.
So that's three of the Volume 1 episodes that are getting continued story-wise, including
The Ninth Jedi, which is going to be part of their new sub-project next year in 2026
called Star Wars Visions Presents The Ninth Jedi.
(03:16):
So they're going to be following up The Ninth Jedi with an entire series of episodes just
dedicated to The Ninth Jedi.
The director Kenji Kameyama is actually coming back and continuing that storyline.
So they've taken all the big fan favorites and they're continuing those stories.
And I think that's really cool because I think it's nice that the ones that were really great
(03:41):
get awarded more time to tell more of that story.
Some of the episodes are called The Dual Payback, The Village Bride sequel is going to be called
The Lost Ones, The Ninth Jedi Child of Hope is going to be the sequel to The Ninth Jedi.
(04:02):
They shared a clip from Yuko's Treasure and artwork from The Smuggler.
They shared more artwork from The Bounty Hunters, artwork for The Song of Four Wings, artwork
for The Bird of Paradise, and an episode called Black.
So this season is going to be full of great stories.
And if any of you are big anime fans and haven't checked out Star Wars Visions, I definitely
(04:26):
recommend it.
Both Volume 1 and 2 are available on Disney Plus right now.
So October 29th, later this year, and you can catch a sizzle reel online right now.
All right, so Fusion Weiyang Culit Entertainment and Cultural Puppet Group came to the live
(04:46):
stage after showcasing a big huge demonstration on the projector screen in the main stage.
And that was really cool to see.
Product spotlights for Beyblade featuring a Star Wars collaboration is coming out in
the future as well.
The Gatcha loot crate system, I don't know, we had a bit of a laugh, I guess, when myself
(05:08):
and Blake were watching day one of Star Wars Celebration.
But in Japan, it's very big to have these loot crate vending machines with toys and
little bubbles.
I know, you know, there are things that you can find that anyone, you know, if anyone's
been to a mall before in North America, I'm sure you've seen one before, but they're pretty
big over there.
(05:29):
And a company called Gatcha is booming right now, I guess, with the loot crate vending
machines.
So they had all these all these Star Wars ones featured at Celebration.
So it was neat to see people hanging out there all day, I guess, you know, cranking the Toonies
and I don't think Japan has Toonies, but you know, all right.
(05:52):
Star Wars and Fortnite had a big announcement coming up.
Star Wars will take over Fortnite in May, called Galactic Battle Royale on May 2nd.
It's going to run for five weeks.
May 2nd is going to be called Imperial Takeover.
May 8th is called the Pull of the Force.
May 22nd, Mandalorian Rising.
May 29th, Star Destroyer Bombardment.
(06:13):
And June 7th is the Death Star Sabotage.
So you're going to be seeing five weeks of, you know, each week is going to be sort of
a mini season inside the bigger season.
The story is going to advance.
Ahmed Bess is returning to this project as Darth Jar Jar, who he played in the Lego Rebuild
(06:34):
the Galaxy Star Wars movie that came out about a year ago now.
So that's really cool to see.
You'll be able to squad up in an X-Wing in Fortnite.
New Star Wars gameplay from May till June 5th this season.
Check it out.
There's a video on YouTube featuring the trailer for this whole event, and they brought out
some of these creepy looking Wookiee things onto the stage.
(06:59):
And they did a big show and a dance, and it was crazy.
Anyway, David W. Collins comes to the live stage to talk about voice acting on the many
Star Wars projects.
He had some honoring words to say about working with Sam Witwer all these years.
He's a great guy.
Rosario Dawson joined the live stage as well today.
A possible hint that her leku could get even longer.
(07:21):
I don't know if she was talking about the comparison between Mando and Ahsoka, but hey,
maybe we'll get another inch on those things, which would be great.
They did some more product spotlights on Stance, which is a company that makes socks and shirts
in Japan.
They have a Star Wars collaboration going on.
All this stuff looks interesting.
(07:43):
They have their own mascot for a lot of their stuff.
So it was this particular mascot that they put on a lot of Stance stuff, wearing things
like X-Wing pilot uniforms and stuff like that.
So Kenny Kamehawa came to the stage as well to talk more about Visions Presents the Ninth
Jedi, which is an extended story that began in Volume 1.
(08:05):
And that was Season 1, Episode 5 of Star Wars Visions.
So we're looking forward to seeing that.
It was very hard to follow a lot of the Japanese presenters that came to the live stage because
at home they didn't put the subtitles on the screen.
So it was only people in person that got to see the subtitles of what these people
were saying on the big overhead screen.
(08:25):
But I mean, I hear that it was all live translated by people in a booth somewhere.
So props and a huge round of applause to all of those people who did all that live translating.
I mean, that's crazy, crazy work.
All right, they did a spotlight for some wicked looking jackets.
(08:46):
I don't know what this company name was, but really cool stuff.
They had Diego Luna come out to the live stage and just talk about stuff.
A lot of these people who they bring back out to the live stages, they have their moment
in the love of the crowd and everything like that.
And it's all fun and they don't really talk about new things.
(09:08):
So just something to note.
The artists who designed the official Celebration artwork this year came to the live stage as
well.
And then the heroic sidekicks of Star Wars panel began, hosted by Ashley Eckstein.
The guests was Ahmed Best, Anthony Daniels and Alan Tudyk.
So they all talked about their characters and making Star Wars movies from their perspective
(09:33):
and being some of the supporting beloved characters of the series.
They had a lot to say.
And Ahmed Best delivered the most beautiful speech that I've ever heard from someone at
Star Wars Celebration.
And I'm not going to play it for you now, but I will play it when we do the full round
table review.
So stay tuned for that.
Disney Imagineering joined the live stage, and that was really cool to hear what they
(09:56):
had to say about the updates coming to Galaxy's Edge at Disney Parks.
Smuggler's Run is getting a Mandalorian and Grogu update in, I guess, in favor of the
series or the movie.
I don't know.
I don't think they were that specific about it, but they just said it's a Mandalorian
and Grogu update.
(10:17):
Hondo Onaka has a new mission from the New Republic to track down bounties for some Imperials
across four brand new locations.
Tatooine being one of them.
You'll get to fly through Beggar's Canyon and so many cool things.
Jim Cummings is back as Hondo to continue the story.
And in the story, the engineers decide between Bespin, Coruscant and Endor.
(10:37):
So this makes the engineer's job a bit more interesting, because as anybody knows who
has been there and done Smuggler's Run, the engineer is probably one of the more laid
back positions in the cockpit.
So maybe add a little extra thing for them to do, which is kind of nice.
They get to have a massive impact on where people go in the story, which is kind of cool.
(11:01):
The BDX droids, which are the two legged little kind of walking droids that waddle around,
will be officially rolling out to the parks in Paris and in Hollywood Studios, Florida,
Walt Disney World.
So they're very expressive.
They could be very chipper, sad, angry and more.
They're going to add a lot more immersiveness to the park, having droids walking around
(11:22):
on their own.
So that'll be cool.
Then we hit some more showcases.
Lego showcased the new K2SO figure that is buildable.
Pre-orders are up right now.
The Star Wars logo can be bought early at Star Wars Celebration, so some people might
already have that.
If you're an avid Lego buyer, you might see people online have already purchased one.
(11:44):
It's because it was available at the convention, but it will be launching publicly soon.
Multiple Star Wars Visions directors came up to the live stage as well.
Again, couldn't understand a single word they're saying, but very cool.
Showcasing Hasbro showed off the new Visions, the dual exclusive figure box set at Japan
Celebration, and this was the one that included the black and white Ronin as well as his astromech
(12:08):
droid wearing that straw hat.
So unfortunately, that can only be bought at Celebration.
Hasbro does this every time.
They always make a figure that can only be bought somewhere exclusively at the Star Wars
Celebration.
I know the one that Blake and I attended and Bryce and Ben, we all went to 2017 Orlando
(12:29):
Celebration eight years ago, believe it or not.
The exclusive at the time there was the 40th anniversary pilot Luke Skywalker from A New
Hope when they were running the 40th anniversary series of foiled kind of flashy card back
versions of the six inch figures.
And I remember we got one of those as well.
(12:51):
So they do this and can bite people in the butt, I guess, if they're an active collector
and don't attend at the Celebration, it means they're going to be paying a hefty sum of
money for somebody else's later.
The Droid Builders Club got to hit the live stage as well.
And they're the team that built all the droids for the convention.
They got to build the new cooking droid whose name is Cookie, which was sort of semi gifted
(13:17):
to Oki, who is the guy carving up Star Wars shaped fruit on stage, which is really neat.
What a sweet guy he is.
They also featured Gil, who is the RX droid that has been at a number of Star Wars celebrations
now as well.
They talked a little bit about droid building and then they brought out the prop crew responsible
(13:37):
for the Celebration stage every single year.
They make that stage look absolutely insane.
And they talked a little bit about how they build the pieces at home and ship them to
Celebration every year, except for one of the big pieces.
Everything is numbered and they assemble it like Lego.
And it's, you know, it's always great to hear from all these people that make this celebration
look so absolutely immersive and awesome.
(13:59):
It was great that they spend the last day of the Celebration kind of honoring all those
groups of people as well.
So that was cool.
Mads Mikkelsen came to the live stage as well.
And Mads has not seen Andor yet.
If any of you don't know, Mads Mikkelsen played Galen Erso in Rogue One.
And he didn't have too much.
There was no news there.
(14:19):
It was mostly just kind of quizzing him on on his time being in the movie.
But yeah, he had some lovely things to say and, you know, he hasn't seen Andor yet.
So, you know, very surprising.
The 501st Legion got a spotlight.
They were there at Japan Celebration as well.
And then they featured Oki, who has been at Celebration for 10 years in a row.
(14:41):
And he is honored by the live crew and thanked for his work.
Such a sweet guy.
And he started to tear up on the stream and it was very emotional.
The closing ceremony began.
They kicked things off with a sizzle reel recap video from the entire weekend.
As every year goes, they pack it with emotions like you wouldn't believe.
This video is likely and has been already released online.
(15:04):
And you know, this is the event of all events for so many people.
Over 125 countries were represented this past weekend, with over 70% of the attendees as
first timers to a Star Wars celebration.
So that was pretty mind blowing when they read off that statistic.
And then the biggest news, I guess, of the day was really that, of course, announcing
(15:26):
when the next celebration is.
And they do this every time.
The next one will be in two years to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Wars.
And this will be held in LA from April 1st to April 4th, 2027.
So we'll see you there because, you know, that's going to be a big one to hit.
We were there, like I said, eight years ago at the 40th anniversary Star Wars celebration.
(15:50):
So it only feels right that I feel like I'm going to be, you know, going back for the
next one being the 50 year anniversary.
I feel like that's something I kind of want to do.
So, you know, if you see someone walking around with a Star Wars escape pod shirt on, it might
be me.
It might be somebody else, you know, tap me on the shoulder, say hello.
And until 2027, that is it.
(16:10):
That is the last of Star Wars celebration that we have for the recaps.
And again, stay tuned for the roundtable review of Star Wars celebration the whole weekend.
We're going to get some people on here.
We're going to talk about everything.
We're going to get hyped up and excited about Starfighter shooting in a couple of months
and Ahsoka shooting in a week and all these great things.
(16:31):
So may the force be with you guys.
We will see you in the next episode of Star Wars escape pod.
Look out for those fresh episodes coming at you.
Lightspeed.
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