Lucasfilm turns 50 in 2021, celebrating with lots of new merch

Lucasfilm is in for a major anniversary in 2021, and a lot is in store for the new year.

In 2021, Lucasfilm is turning the big 5-0. Yes, that’s right. In the new year, Lucasfilm will be celebrating its 50th year in the business, seeing as the company was founded in the year 1971. For Star Wars fans, we know that predates the 1977 release of A New Hope, but of course, Star Wars still plays a huge part in Lucasfilm’s legacy.

Now, Lucasfilm is announcing that they’re excited to begin celebrating 50 years of the company. This is great because, with this announcement, it’s like we’re getting back-to-back celebrations — the first of those being the 40th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, which Star Wars/Lucasfilm has been celebrating all year long in 2020.

And in order to celebrate 50 years, it looks like Lucasfilm is going all-in on doing what it does best: selling exciting merchandise.

“Consumer products have always been an integral part of the Star Wars fan experience, and they remain a constant force in pop-culture today,” Paul Southern, Lucasfilm Senior Vice President, Licensing and Franchise said in a statement. “To commemorate Lucasfilm’s 50 years of storytelling, we look forward to honoring this consumer products legacy and bringing to life brand-new products, games and publishing offerings that celebrate our future with Lucasfilm’s exciting feature films and Disney+ series ahead.”

That’s about all Lucasfilm could offer as far as announcing what’s in store for this celebration. Perhaps they’re still in the early stages of planning, and/or they don’t want to reveal too much just yet. But hopefully, there will be some great products to come out of this.

So far, on the Star Wars front, we kind of already have an idea of what’s in store for 2021. No new movies. We should get season 3 of The Mandalorian. And they’ll be launching The High Republic literary series. (Earlier this year, there were rumors that “Project Luminous” was going to be a new video game, but that turned out to be The High Republic series announcement.) So, those two projects alone aren’t necessarily being made to celebrate 50 years of Lucasfilm, but we could see some special branding on those — maybe something close to the Marvel Studios 10th-anniversary logo and branding that was used back in 2018.

Hopefully, there will be more than just exclusive re-releases (or new merch altogether) when it comes to this celebration. We hope the cast and crews behind some of Lucasfilm’s biggest projects will get together for some epic behind-the-scenes moments. Depending on how things go (either virtually or in-person depending on the circumstances in 2021), we could get panels bringing these people back. Perhaps a detailed documentary will come out. And hopefully, even George Lucas himself can be involved with the celebration and making appearances. (You only get to celebrate 50 years at the company once).

Star Wars celebration won’t be back until 2022, so there can’t be any celebratory panels there. Nor can they do it at the D23 Expo, as that also won’t return until 2022. It’s possible there can be panels at San Diego Comic-Con and New York Comic Con, but that’s all up in the air right now.

Hopefully, there will be some exciting things in store for this anniversary. And now that we’re already in December, it won’t be long until we see what’s planned.