It's a pretty exciting time to be a Star Wars fan. A few years ago, the franchise was pretty much dead, with George Lucas seemingly done with the movies forever. There was still the expanded universe, but it seemed like we would probably never get any more actual movies in the franchise.
Now, we're getting a new Star Wars movie every single year for the foreseeable future, with a full new trilogy and several spinoffs on their way. That all starts with Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens this December, followed by Rogue One the following year.
Not only that, but there's plenty of other new Star Wars content on the way too. There's the Disney XD show Star Wars: Rebels, which is getting ready to air its second season. There's a brand new video game, Star Wars: Battlefront, launching this fall. There's also a brand new set of expanded universe books, starting with A New Dawn by John Jackson Miller.
What's especially exciting about all of this is that before now, there was so much Star Wars content outside of just the movies, it was pretty difficult for a casual fan to jump into it all, with so much expanded universe material to get caught up on. Now, Disney has essentially hit the reset button on what's canon outside of the movies, meaning that it's now the perfect time to get on board and be completely caught up with the Star Wars universe.
Everyone's talking about the Force Awakens trailer, but there was plenty of other great content and tidbits that we found out about from this year's Star Wars Celebration. Here are a few of the highlights.
[new page = #10]
10. More about The Force Awakens
We've already covered what we learned during the great Force Awakens panel, but just to summarize, one of the juiciest bits of info was regarding where the movie will be set.
When we saw that desert planet playing such a prominent role in the first Force Awakens teaser, just about everyone assumed it was Tatooine. This was the desert planet we saw in A New Hope where Luke grew up and later on where Anakin was born during The Phantom Menace.
However, we found out during the Force Awakens panel that this isn’t actually Tatooine at all; it’s a new planet called Jakku. It’s a little confusing in that it looks basically exactly like Tatooine, but also it’s cool that we’ll be getting a good amount of new worlds in this trilogy and not just seeing the same planets we’ve seen in all the other films.
For more about the Force Awakens panel, including set images and character descriptions, check out our coverage of it here.
[new page = #9]
9. The Battle of Jakku
One of the coolest shots from the new Force Awakens trailer was of a downed Star Destroyer on Jakku. Apparently the new Star Wars: Battlefront video game will provide some backstory as to how this got there. We found out at Star Wars Celebration that Battlefront would feature a free DLC level called "The Battle of Jaku." According to the official EA description of the DLC content, players will “experience the events that created the massive, battle-scarred landscape of Jakku shown in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
[new page = #8]
8. Rogue One is going to be really dark
We finally got some more info about the first Star Wars spinoff at the Gareth Edwards panel on Sunday. First of all, we found out that the official title of the movie will apparently be Star Wars Anthology: Rogue One. We got a plot description, via the Star Wars Twitter account, which is basically true to what the rumors were: the movie will be about stealing the plans to the Death Star.
At the panel, Edwards showed off some concept art and a teaser trailer for the movie. The concept art shows a bunch of soldiers in what looks more like Halo than it does Star Wars, really. The teaser trailer, which Disney hasn't uploaded to YouTube yet, shows the view from an unknown planet of the massive Death Star, followed by a black screen and the sounds of people screaming. It's pretty mysterious but really intriguing, and it's clear that this is going to be a very adult, dark Star Wars movie.
[new page = #7]
7. The New Republic
A lot of fans were worried when we started hearing more and more about the new Star Wars trilogy that these new movies would kind of nullify the events of the previous trilogy in that the Empire wouldn’t actually have been defeated by the events of Return of the Jedi. It now appears that this isn’t the case. As a fan on Reddit pointed out, the Star Wars: Battlefront description describes the Battle of Jakku as “the pivotal moment when the New Republic confronted key Imperial holdouts on a remote desert planet in the Outer Rim.” So thankfully, we can confirm that the events of Return of the Jedi did indeed create a new Republic.
[new page = #6]
6. The First Order
Concept art from the show floor revealed the new terms “The First Order” and “The Resistance,” with the picture below for example referring to a Snowtrooper costume as a “First Order Snowtrooper.” There has already been plenty of fan speculation as to what this could mean. Some fans are thinking that “The Resistance” is simply the new name for the Rebels, and “The First Order” is the new name for the Empire. Some have speculated that “The First Order” is a movement in isolated parts of the New Republic that are loyal to the Old Empire, maybe with some Sith involvement, and the Resistance are like New Republic sponsored rebels in these territories.
It’s really impossible to tell just yet, but what we can say for sure is that the new trilogy won’t be the Rebels versus the Empire anymore.
Image via Twitter from SuperAwesomeGeekShow
[new page = #5]
5. No Battlefront campaign
Another Battlefront tidbit: DICE revealed that the anticipated Star Wars: Battlefront will not have a campaign. The game will be completely focused on the multiplayer, with 4 planets and 8 maps. There will also be extra DLC content such as the extra Battle of Jakku map, which will be released for free December.
[new page = #4]
4. Rebels Season 2
At the Star Wars: Rebels panel, we got a pretty great trailer for the show’s second season, which showed off quite a bit. We can see the heavy role Darth Vader will play in this season, and the trailer features a glimpse at a pretty amazing battle between Vader and Ezra. The trailer is arguably a little spoilery, but for more about the upcoming season, check out the footage here:
[new page = #3]
3. Mark Hamill's narration in the Force Awakens trailer
In the Force Awakens second trailer, we hear Mark Hamill narrating with a line taken from Return of the Jedi. A lot of people were wondering if this was just lifted from the movie or re-recorded, but during his panel, Hamill confirmed that it was a bit of both, and J.J. Abrams mixed his original lines from Jedi with a new recording. He also talked a bit more about working with J.J. on the movie.
[new page = #2]
2. Alan Dean Foster will write the Force Awakens novelization
At the Del Rey Star Wars panel, it was revealed that sci-fi author Alan Dean Foster would be writing the novelization for The Force Awakens. He actually wrote the novelization for the original Star Wars in 1977, though it was credited to George Lucas. He also wrote two books in the Expanded Universe, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye and The Approaching Storm.
[new page = #1]
1. Where's Josh Trank?
One odd turn of events on the last day of the celebration was that the Gareth Edwards panel we talked about earlier was originally supposed to be a Gareth Edwards/Josh Trank joint panel. That would make sense, as Edwards and Trank are directing the first two Star Wars spinoffs. But then Trank didn't show up, and it was just Edwards. The host briefly mentioned that Trank wouldn't be there, and that was about it. Never again did they mention Trank's name or anything about his spinoff. What happened? Could Disney have wanted Trank to have something ready to show or announce for the panel but he didn't have it in time? Are there problems with Trank's spinoff? Or was he just sick and we're reading way too much into this? Oddly, the trailer for Trank's new movie Fantastic Four went online right in the middle of the panel, which seems like a pretty big coincidence.