Star Wars Celebration Will Kick Off With 40th Anniversary Tribute To Saga
By Elaine Tveit
Star Wars Celebration in Orlando will kick off on April 13th with the biggest “celebration” of the weekend: the commemoration of the Star Wars’ saga’s 40th anniversary.
It’s been forty years since Star Wars (as A New Hope was titled in 1977) first lit up movie screens and changed the world as people knew it. To celebrate this milestone, StarWars.com announced yesterday that actor Warwick Davis (Wicket in Return of the Jedi) will host a panel paying tribute to the saga.
The panel is scheduled for the first day of Star Wars Celebration in Orlando on Thursday, April 13th, and is the kick-off event for the weekend-long convention.
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy will join Davis on the main Celebration stage for the panel, which StarWars.com relates will also feature “discussions with some of the saga’s brightest stars.” Fans on Twitter speculated that an appearance by the saga’s creator, George Lucas, is possible, as well.
The official description of the panel also suggests that “surprises” are in store for attendees of this panel. “Surprises” could entail a variety of things: a guest appearance by Lucas we speculated about above; or as Making Star Wars speculates, the long-rumored release of the theatrical version of the original trilogy on Blu-Ray.
In addition announcing the 40th-anniversary panel, StarWars.com revealed the unique key art for this year’s Celebration. Check out the full poster featuring the key art below:
Image Credit: Lucasfilm
The above poster is an important reminder that the Star Wars saga is, in fact, a saga: a cohesive whole. And it’s all coming together for Celebration in Orlando in April. The artwork, by Paul Shipper, brings together all three trilogies in the saga as is appropriate for an anniversary celebration.
Much like the poster, this year’s Star Wars Celebration will, I suspect, be much like a family reunion. Whether or not, as a Star Wars fan you prefer the prequels, the originals, or the sequels; whether or not you get along with your fellow, equally opinionated nerds, the one thing we can all agree on is this: We wouldn’t have any of this passion or fun without George Lucas and the franchise he built.
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Star Wars Celebration in Orlando takes place Easter weekend, April 13th-17th. Don’t miss the 40th-anniversary panel and all the surprises it has in store.