SWC19 SWCC Panels and Programming (and Queuing)

Now that the stress of ticket and hotel buying has subsided for the most part, for better or for worse depending on who you ask, the next thing to begin speculating about is the programming that Star Wars Celebration Chicago will offer.

The big point of focus throughout the convention is obviously going to be on Episode IX. Since it has already been revealed that no programming will take place on Thursday, we can pretty much assume that the Episode IX panel will happen on Friday morning. Which means the overnight queue will begin some time on Thursday, with things getting serious by mid to late afternoon.

Kenobi should be at Celebration as well. How big of a presence he will be, and whether Ewan makes an appearance or not, will be the big question for now. No doubt if they secure Ewan for a Kenobi panel, that will be the second biggest panel of the weekend. One that will likely be on a separate day as the Episode IX panel and will most certainly also require an overnight queue.

Speaking of which, there's been a lot of hopeful chatter on these boards lately in regards to the upcoming 20th anniversary of The Phantom Menace. Personally, I don't see how they can not make this another big point of focus. TPM was the entry into Star Wars for an entire generation of fans. And assuming they can secure at least a couple of the big names from it, a 20th anniversary panel would be insanely popular. I also think dedicating a day's worth of panels in one of the main panel rooms to anything and everything related to the PT in general will be very well attended. Will we finally get our long awaited "Yipee! An Hour with Jake Lloyd" panel? Will Ahmed Best finally reveal to us the dark secrets George Lucas told him about Jar Jar's origins? Only time will tell.

And then to round out the four major panels of the weekend, as expected, Hamill Himself should be another hugely popular one. After that are the regulars like Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, Ray Park, and the Fetts. So we can expect panels from each of them.

Other big panels over the weekend might include one for the upcoming Star Wars Resistance animated series. Another one will likely be for whichever Star Wars video games are happening at the time or are about to be released.

There are a lot of social issues being brought up nowadays in the context of Star Wars and its fan base as well. So I would expect there to be programming dedicated to open and inclusive discussion on these topics.

With Celebration also being in Chicago and not Anaheim or Orlando, I'm wondering just how much focus there is going to be on Star Wars Land. My inclincation right now tells me there won't be much. But who knows, it could be the complete opposite of that, and maybe they go all in on Star Wars Land at Celebration Chicago in an attempt to lure all of the midwest into their parks at a later point. Not sure if a panel would be in order here, but maybe a separate area dedicated to showing off what Star Wars Land is going to look like.

And as always, I'm definitely looking forward to the Cantinarchaeology panel that's hosted by Pablo Hidalgo where they discuss and dissect everything and anything related to the Cantina!

This is just my own little run down right now in terms of how I see things starting to shape up. Everything I said above is pure guess work. Beyond that, anyone else's guess is as good as mine when it comes to speculating on the kind of programming that will be offerred. Referring to past Celebrations to get an idea of that is about the only way to go at this point.

And until the specifics come out and we need to start separating information, this is going to be the official panels, programming, and queuing discussion for Star Wars Celebration 2019.

 

I'm pretty sure I read recently that Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett) will be stopping his con appearances soon due to his age. If he does make it to Celebration it will probably be the last one for him. Tem Morrison and Daniel Logan will have to do the Fett panels then.

 

Out of curiosity, why is that assumed? Weren't there two big panels last years - opening ceremonies and TLJ? I was guessing friday morning would be opening ceremonies, maybe focused around 20th anniversary of Phantom Menace.

If there isn't one I'd be happy to give a lecture while waiting in Q's about old ones "Star Wars: Dark Forces came out in 1995. Yes you can see each pixel. Yes I'm aware your iphone has a better resolution size."

 

There's never been an "opening ceremony". Anaheim had TFA on the first day, London had RO (although not in the morning) and Orlando had the 40th anniversary (with TLJ the following day). With no 40th panel, it's highly likely the Episode IX: Jar Jar's Revenge panel is on Friday.

 

An Obi-Wan film (assuming it happens) would probably be in a future films panel with stuff like the Boba Fett film, the GoT guys' films and Rian's films. Although, after Solo, I'm sure Lucasfilm is taking a hard look at their strategy and it's possible some of these never happen.

We could get something on Favreau's show too.

 

I do hope there is an opening ceremony on Thursday like the days before Reedpop. One of my biggest memories from CIII was the opening ceremony on Thursday night.We were in Indy so we were lined up outside the building to get back inside for the panel and all the guests showed up on stage, Temuera Morrison sang to us, they showed a video message from the Ep 3 cast (Ewan, Natalie, Hayden, Ian etc) welcoming us to CIII, they showed the video for Battle of Heroes that is on the Ep III soundtrack dvd which was the first time anyone saw that preview and we were the only ones to have seen it for like a month so it felt exclusive. It was just a great way to kick off Celebration cause it was just Star Wars Celebration themed instead of a specific SW topic.

 

Basically whichever major panel happens to be first at Celebration is what would be considered the "opening" panel. There is no intentional panel for the sole purpose of simply kicking off the event. And tradition holds that the opening panel is reserved for whichever upcoming movie there is, since that's always the biggest point of focus at any given Celebration. But at the same time, there might something else going on that is equally popular, as was the case in Orlando last year with the 40th anniversary. So when something like that happens, it just depends on what the circumstances are that year that would dictate which of those panels comes first.

For Chicago, they've already stated that no programming will take place on Thursday. And being that Episode IX is the point of focus this year with nothing else rivaling it, that means that the opening panel will likely happen on Friday. Now if a Kenboi panel with Ewan happens, or if a 20th Anniversary TPM panel happens with Natalie, Ewan, and Liam, something that could easily rival the Episode IX panel, then there might be some debate as to which one they want to have first, for whatever reason. But again, it isn't for the express purpose of kicking off Celebration.

 

As much as I would love a TPM panel, I don't see them having it rival the Ep 9 panel as it is the final ST film. I see them pushing that more.

However, they could do a panel with just Rick McCallum, Lucas and Doug Chiang talking about production and it would still be amazing without maybe taking away from the Ep 9 panel

 

Agreed. Even if they somehow got Natalie and Liam to come, I don't see them putting that before IX.

 

True. I was just posing that as an example of something that could rival the Episode 9 panel. In the same way that the 40th Anniversary panel rivaled the TLJ panel.

 

Thanks for the detailed explanation!

 

You people are getting me excited for this Cele.! but one thing and I'll think you'll agree with, social issues and outside problems should be left out of a very eventful and pleasant experience! we know that. we agreed to the anti-harassment policy when we ordered tickets, that can include the anti- Rose group . let's hope everyone who attends leaves this issue out .I know everyone on the boards will, lets go and have fun.(after all the ticket and hotel mess!) as for how many tickets sold, I called Reed and they said,to every question, "I don't know".

 

I'm not exactly referring to issues being hashed out among fans.

I'm just saying that a lot of conventions are seeing an increase in content that highlights the various goings on, contributions, and accomplishments in communities that have been impacted by some of these social issues. And that I would expect to see similar content at Star Wars Celebration.

 

I guess it can't be avoided nowadays.

 

Well not that anybody is trying to avoid it. It's a welcomed aspect of what is happening in the Star Wars universe.

 

The Star wars universe is all inclusive or there wouldn't be tolerance of alien species and droids. we must practice this amoung our selves, or we should have been doing this along time ago, we've regressed!

 

They announced a game coming next fall called Star Wars: Fallen Order which sounds intriguing. Have to think a panel for this is a lock.

 

Absolutley. A reveal panel for it, along with maybe a continued support panel for Battlefront 2.

 

For now, I'm assuming the only thing we'll hear about for sure will be Episode IX and SW Resistance. If there is anything that hasn't yet been announced, then hopefully we'll hear about it there too, but I won't get my hopes up about seeing anything for the (as of yet) still unannounced Kenobi and/or Fett films that have been rumored to be coming. I would like to know more about the trilogies coming from Rian Johnson and the other one from the GOT writers.

 

C2E2 pretty much has an entire room dedicated to panels about diversity and inclusion in fandom. All weekend long you can listen to people talk about racial minorities, women in comics, gay people in video games, gender issues in anime.

Reed really believes in and supports those discussions, but I don't think there's enough to fill every panel in one room all weekend with it. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a fan panel about it, though.

 

I think it would definitely be nice to see some sort of opening ceremony on Thursday since there's no panels that day (maybe at the Star Wars Show stage on the main floor?). But I think they'll just hold off and start with the Episode IX panel on Friday.

In terms of the big panels. Looking at the last few years I'm thinking;

Fri - Episode IX & 20th Anniversary of Celebration
Sat - Resistance (first trailer and season 2 premiere) & Jedi: Fallen Order
Sun - Live Action TV (first look, maybe pilot premiere if we're really lucky) & 20th Anniversary of Prequel Trilogy
Mon - Future Films (Stories - Kenobi & Fett, RJ's Trilogy, B&W's Series) & Closing Panel

20th Anniversary of Celebration would probably make more sense as the opening panel than IX but there's no way they do that. Or I guess they could combine it with the closing panel, that could work too.

In terms of star panels - Hamill Himself, Ian McDiarmid, Anthony Daniels, Billy Dee Williams, Ray Park, and The Fetts will likely all do panels again. If they let the ST cast do more this time then I could totally see John Boyega doing a panel, probably Daisy Ridley too. I'd love Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor to both come and do a panel, that would be incredible, but sadly not holding out hope for it.

Then there's the traditional Hasbro, Del Rey, and Marvel panels, a panel for the next Lego project, BTS panels for TLJ and Solo since both have released since last Celebration. Plus fan run panels, Rebel Legion, 501st, Mando Mercs, etc.

As for queues, with the arena I'm thinking IX will be the only panel requiring a full over night but some of the other popular ones will likely go very quickly in the mornings. The overnight queue will start outside the building as soon as the Thursday crowd is let in. Probably not massive at first but will build quickly in late afternoon/early evening. Live stage probably reaching capacity in the early hours of the morning.

 

The site says the Star Wars Show stage won't start until Friday as well.

 

Yeah, I was just thinking as a one off opening event using that space rather than as a panel but it won’t happen.

 

I mean, they did do a full on DJ hosted dance party during the overnight queue in Orlando. Nobody saw that coming. Rian Johnson spent four hours in the overnight queue talking to fans. Ray Park, Daniel Logan, Ashley Eckstein all came to visit. James Arnold Taylor greeted and visited the Anaheim overnight queue for several hours. If these things all happened during the overnight queue, I guess anything is possible when it comes to an actual day at Celebration.

Also, you know the dude who hosts those bits on the main stage and keeps the crowd engaged while a panel is getting ready to start? He also hosted the dance party along with the same DJ who usually accompanies him, at 1am. So I can see something informal happening hosted by those two guys. They aren't getting paid to just sit around. If you figure, there are going to be a ton of people mulling about the convention center on Thursday anyway. Even though there is no programming, it is still considered an official day at Celebration that attendees paid for. They ought to have at least one big panel hall open for people to sit in, in addition to whatever else is open. And during that they could just do more informal stuff that isn't even on the schedule. Just that same host firing t-shirts into the crowd and getting everyone hyped with music playing. With maybe some speakers or guests depending on who decides they want to do that for whatever reason, just random staffers who want to impart something to the Celebration crowd. Or perhaps an unannounced special guest wanting to welcome everyone.

In all seriousness, I think a Celebration Tips and Survival Guide panel should happen on Thursday. Just hosted by more random ReedPop staffers who get the honor of doing it. Open Q&A and all. I'm sure a lot of changes have happened that a lot of people in this area of the country who haven't been to a Celebration recently are unaware of. It could go a long way.