What to Expect from Star Wars Celebration Orlando 2017

We are less than a week away from Star Wars Celebration: Orlando and the rumors are flying around like mynocks. We already know what’s going to take place, generally speaking. Event list for Celebration is outlined on the Star Wars Celebration official site. Fans can attend panels covering everything from women’s fashion to the art of smooth talking with Lando himself. And somewhere in this plethora of panels, there will be a number of hidden gems for fans to sift through.

Most fan sites are going to or have already speculated about what major reveals we are going to get at the event. I am no different. This post is going to outline what think is going to happen as well as some things we hope will happen.

The Last Jedi Trailer

The release of Episode VIII is less than 9 months away and we have yet to see a trailer. We saw a brief teaser last year where Rey hands Luke his lightsaber, but we saw very similar footage, if not the exact same footage at the end of Episode VII. Candid pictures and set photos have been leaked for the last year but they don’t really tell a story. Well, only April 13th, we are finally going to get that story.

The trailer for The Last Jedi is rumored to air the first day of the event and fans at Celebration are said to receive a longer trailer than the rest of us who don’t get to go. No matter what happens, the video will go live quickly after it debuts in Orlando.

Star Wars: Rebels

Dave Filoni, Executive Producer and Supervising Director of Star Wars Rebels and Star Wars: The Clone Wars will be presenting on character backgrounds and showing rare clips and artwork from the shows. For those of you who don’t know, Filoni was one of the main creators behind the Jedi padawan Ahsoka Tano. Since Ahsoka’s departure from Rebels in season 2, there have been a number of questions about her future.

Some of the art we are going to see will likely depict what happened to Ahsoka and where her story will go. There’s been a great deal of speculation as to what has happened to her. I think we are going to see an inkling of her future and past.

Star Wars: Battlefront 2

One of my first forays into the Star Wars universe was the original Battlefront games. The sole reason I own an X-box One is because of Battlefront. I don’t think there is going to be a panel on this one, but I’ve heard rumors that we are going to see the first look at EA’s follow-up to the franchise re-launch of Star Wars Battlefront.

While I enjoyed some aspects of the game, there is one thing that I am really looking forward to with the sequel: a single player mode. I loved the original campaigns. They helped me to better understand the story and get to know the different trooper styles. I want to see what the next iterations of troopers and what story EA decides to show us.

Additionally, I want to see GALACTIC CONQUEST!!!

Novels and Comics

On April 11th, fans are going to get a new Star Wars novel. Thrawn is the latest book in the new canon and will explore the Imperial Grand Admiral’s backstory. Where’s he from, how he got involved with the Empire, and maybe even more. But what’s awesome about this story is that it’s not the only one. We’ve got a few books on the docket for 2017, but I believe that Star Wars Celebration is going to announce more.

The powers that be recently announced that Episode VIII will have a journey of novels, leading up to the release of the film in the same manner Episode VII did. With that, we are likely to get more novels that have yet to be introduced. I will explore what I think they novels will cover, or what they actually cover in another post.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

There is no shortage of fans for the Star Wars video games. This is especially true with the Star Wars The Old Republic MMO. I’ve seen rumors floating around Twitter that one of the big announcements that we are going to see is that SWTOR is going to get a reboot. While this is altogether possible, the controversially loved MMO has recently gone through some changes. With this time and effort already put into place, would EA and Disney be willing to just trash the project and reboot it?

What I think is actually going to happen is that certain storylines in the game are going to be made canon, specifically the events surrounding the Eternal Empire. Fans have been wanting to see new canon revolving around the Old Republic. What better way to introduce fans to the lore than by letting them play it months before it was officially announced as canon?

Other Possibilities

There are literally thousands of announcements Disney and Lucas can make this week. Here are some of the other possibilities we may hear this weekend:

  • Details on the live action-tv show
  • New spin-off movies
  • New saga films
  • Additional video games

With less than 48 hours before Star Wars Celebration: Orlando begins, there is much to talk about and discuss. I will write a follow up post to this after the conference and talk about all the new information we received from it. What are you most looking forward to learning from SWCO? Leave a comment in the section below and let’s talk about it.