'Star Wars Celebration Europe' Recap - Day 3

Image via comingsoon.net

Star Wars Celebration Europe has officially come to an end. Following a day that saw the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn, a new trailer for season 3 of Star Wars Rebels, and the announcement of a Thrawn novel by Timothy Zahn, the finaly day had to pack a big punch. Today, we had the pleasure of spending an entire hour with Princess, now General Leia herself, Carrie Fisher, the Lucasfilm Story Group, Ray Park, and the most anticipated panel of the day (which wasn't streamed), the Future Filmmakers panel, featuring directors Rian Johnson, Phil Lord and Chris Miller. So, what happened today?

Carrie Fisher: The Princess Diaries

Much like the panel with Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels, Carrie Fisher spent an hour with the fans and host Warwick Davis. With anything involving Carrie Fisher, this panel

Image via metro.co.uk

was a lot of fun and very funny. She shed some light on Han and Leia's relationship leading up to The Force Awakens, saying they weren't divorced, but "estranged." That is something that you could pick up a bit in Claudia Gray's novel, Bloodline. She went on to tell some stories from the original films, as well as commenting on Leia's look in the most recent film. One of the more memorable moments of the panel was when she, along with Warwick Davis, attempted to reenact a scene from Return of the Jedi in which Wicket and Princess Leia meet for the first time. Unfortunately, Carrie's beloved sidekick, Gary Fisher, chased Davis off the stage and cut that reenactment a bit short. At the end, however, Fisher and Davis invited fans onstage to take selfies with them as the Q&A was nearing its end. This was an hour filled with fun and laughs, a perfect description of Carrie Fisher.

Lucasfilm: The Art of Storytelling

Including members of the story group like Kiri Hart and Dave Filoni, as well as Lucasfilm executives, this panel was focused on the inner workings of how these stories are crafted and all of the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. One of the big themes in this panel was how everyone at Lucasfilm, and each department, acts as a cohesive unit. When crafting a story for a film, TV show, or video game, it is important to have everyone working together in order to deliver the best possible product. Towards the Q&A portion, a fan on Twitter asked if the folks at Lucasfilm have experienced Star Wars fatigue since they work on these stories all the time. In response to that question, StarWarsNewsNet.com summed up the sentiments of the panelists perfectly b

Image via starwarsnewsnet.com

y saying, "They never get tired of Star Wars because they love it so much and they can't afford to get tired. They do exciting things and they love it. Lucasfilm takes ideas from many sources, but they also do a lot of them internally by brainstorming. Everyone who has an idea should express it and if its good - it will be used." So, clearly, the members of Lucasfilm are exactly like us. We can't get enough of Star Wars.

Ray Park Unleashed

Image via starwarscelebration.com

Ray Park, lauded for his role as Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, delighted fans with an hour long Q&A in which he even taught some lightsaber techniques to fans, as well as reenacted his death from the film with help from a few fans and Warwick Davis. His interactions with the fans was definitely a highlight of the panel, showing how much he appreciates the Star Wars fandom. One of the more interesting things that Park said during this Q&A was that when he learned of Maul's return in  The Clone Wars, he thought he should start getting ready to reprise his role, if the character was ever brought back to the big screen (maybe in a future Obi-Wan film?). He also spoke about an idea he had for Qui-Gon's death that involved using his horns. He pitched the idea to George Lucas that he thought Maul could scratch Qui-Gon's chest with the horns, and then deliver the killing blow. Unfortunately, Lucas said that would've been a little too scary for the audience. Nonetheless, little details and stories like that are what you can hope to get from these panels.

The Future Filmmakers Panel

Image via nydailynews.com

The final panel of the day, and the most anticipated panel, centered around the future of the Star Wars films. Joined by host Pablo Hidalgo of the Lucasfilm Story Group, was fellow Lucasfilm Story Group member, Kiri Hart, President of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, Episode VIII director, Rian Johnson, and Han Solo directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller. We learned some information about Episode VIII, but nothing that we didn't already guess, or nothing that would've broken the internet. For example, Episode VIII will pick up right where The Force Awakens left off, its going to be a more character-centric film, Billie Lourde, Carrie Fisher's daughter, will return for the film, and Rian Johnson will be at next year's Celebration in Orlando. Then, for Han Solo, we did get some information on when the film will begin shooting, which is in six months. We were also introduced to Alden Ehrenreich, the man who will be taking on the mantle of the legendary character. He gave some information on his audition, stating that his screen test for the film was on the Falcon with Chewie and that he was in awe of the whole experience. After that exchange, John Boyega surprised the crowd and came up on stage! He spoke a bit about Episode VIII, saying that Rian Johnson's "doing an indie film within a franchise." This is very exciting news, considering his success with films like Brick and Looper. Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher then joined them on stage and had a bit of fun with the crowd. To end the recap of this panel, Pablo Hidalgo mentioned earlier that next year's Celebration in Orlado will be the "Episode VIII Celebration." We can definitely expect a lot of news next year for the 40th anniversary of Star Wars.

That is the end of Star Wars Celebration Europe! I hope those who attended had a fantastic time indulging their obsession, as well as mine, for a weekend. Here's to Celebration 2017 in Orlando!

May the Force be with you.

Image via starwarscelebration.com

*Links to the respective panels will be posted if and when they are posted online.*