Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

As it happenedended

Star Wars Celebration - live updates: The Phantom Menace 20th anniversary panel

All the action from the convention floor, including first looks at The Rise of Skywalker, The Mandalorian, and Galaxy’s Edge

Clarisse Loughrey
Chicago
Monday 15 April 2019 11:58 EDT
Comments
Watch the brand-new teaser for Star Wars: Episode IX

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Get ready, Chicago! This weekend sees all manner of creatures, droids, and jedi masters descend upon the city for Star Wars Celebration 2019. It’s the ultimate convention for fans of the franchise: not only can they gather together, revel in the geekery, and flaunt their very best cosplay outfits, but the event will feature a host of special panels – with some teasing major revelations for Star Wars’ future.

Saturday will see two major panels. The Galaxy’s Edge presentation will hopefully offer some initial ride footage from the brand new lands at Disneyland and Disney World. Meanwhile, we’ll get our first details of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a brand new EA game set after the events of Revenge of the Sith.

We’ll be covering all this live from the convention centre itself, so follow the liveblog below to find out the latest news coming out of Star Wars Celebration 2019.

Please allow a moment for the liveblog to load...

The experience will be available on Oculus Quest, which will offer you six degrees of freedom, meaning you can move forward, backward, or whichever way you like. The game will also come to the Oculus rift s.

clarisse.loughrey12 April 2019 19:36

The game is set on Mustafar, Vader's lair, which we got a good look at in Rogue One. We'll learn a little more about its history and its role, plus some revelations about the planet itself. That also means we get to meet the Mustafarians themselves. We've also got writing from David S Goyer, who you might know as a screenwriter on Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy.

clarisse.loughrey12 April 2019 19:39

Your droid co-pilot ZOE-3 (voiced by Maya Rudolph) is your partner-in-crime on this adventure, which will see you get captured by Vader's forces, where you'll learn he's chosen you for a special task.

clarisse.loughrey12 April 2019 19:47

Here's a look at ZOE-3! 

clarisse.loughrey12 April 2019 19:49

Here's the trailer! Goyer is promising an immersive experience that features detailed sound design.

clarisse.loughrey12 April 2019 19:57

The game will have direct ties to Secret of the Empire, another VR experience created by ILMxLAB, which saw them team up with the Void. That story saw you team up with Cassian Andor and K-2SO to infiltrate Mustafar and steal a powerful weapon.

clarisse.loughrey12 April 2019 20:01

I'm here for the Creatures, Aliens, and Droids panel hosted by Warwick Davis 

clarisse.loughrey12 April 2019 22:03
clarisse.loughrey12 April 2019 22:07

According to Neal Scanlan, who did creature effects for all the new Star Wars movies, the very first design for BB-8 was drawn on a napkin by JJ Abrams.

clarisse.loughrey12 April 2019 22:42

The Corellian hounds from Solo were actually real dogs fitted with special suits! 

clarisse.loughrey12 April 2019 23:03

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in