Easily the most popular panel during
Star Wars Fan Days was the Lucasfilm Presentation with Steve Sansweet. After inspecting a squad of Stormtroopers, Steve spent some time talking about the past year and the future of
Star Wars.
It's been a great year for
Star Wars, starting with the Tournament of Roses parade on New Year's Day, continuing with
Celebration IV in May,
Celebration Europe in July, followed shortly afterwards by
San Diego Comic-Con, the the television debuts of both
Robot Chicken and
Family Guy episodes, and now
Star Wars Fan Days here in Plano, Texas.
Steve played a video compilation that was previously only showed in London, showcasing the effect that
Star Wars has had on pop culture and the fans who love the saga. Plus, he also showed a fan-made video showing members of the film's cast and crew who are no longer with us, which was very touching.
So where do we go from here?
The biggest event for early 2008 is of course
The Force Unleashed, which will be centered around the video game, but also have multiple multimedia projects including novels, comics, action figures. Set in the time period between Episodes III and IV, this event promises to forever change the way we look at
Star Wars, as Darth Vader takes on a secret apprentice to help him wipe out the remaining Jedi Knights in the galaxy.
Then in the fall of 2008,
The Clone Wars will arrive. Although the network has yet to be announced, this will also be a huge event for Lucasfilm and fans alike, but instead of talking about it himself, Steve showed a video starring Dave Filoni and Catherine Winder as they took us behind the scenes of
The Clone Wars production, showing just how the characters are created, what deicisions are made for each story in the series. As a final "gift" for the fans, the trailer for
The Clone Wars was shown on the big screen. Although it wasn't the hi-def, greatest sound system, it still rocked the crowd and they applauded.
As for that certain other franchise called
Indiana Jones, a lot of fans were eager to hear more on the upcoming movie,
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It's coming in May 2008, but before that,
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones will be released on DVD, the first volume will be on sale October 23rd. Volume 2 is expected in December, and volume 3 next spring.
Always a crowd-pleaser, Steve also held a Q&A session with the fans. here are the highlights:
Although The Clone Wars hasn't even aired yet, a fan wanted to know if it would ever be out on DVD. That's a pretty afe bet that it will be at some point.
Asked if there were any voice actors from the previous Clone Wars returning, it was confirmed that Anthony Daniels would return for C-3PO, and the voices of Yoda and Asajj Ventress will be as well.
There are no plans for a Sequel Trilogy (Episodes 7-9). George has said that he has told the story he wanted to tell with Episodes 1-6.
There are no plans for a Steve Sansweet figure, but if you want one, continue to bug Hasbro about it. Actually, he has about 1-15 custom figures that fans have made over the years.
The Clone Wars series won't have any direct connection story-wise to the old Clone Wars series, other than it takes place in the same time period (between Episdes II and III).
There won't be a young Han Solo, since he'd be a toddler in this time period.
It has not yet been announced where either TV series would air. Stay tuned.
Abut 80% of the filming for the live action series would most likely be in Australia, since that is where the production is being done.
Lucasfilm has already started hiring a team of writers to create the episodes for the live action series.
There are no plans for a Rogue Squadron series, although there are lots of great stories from that time period.
Asked if there will be an Indiana Jones cartoon, Steve said that's an interesting possibility, but the focus is on Indy 4 right now.
As for a Disneyland refurbishment or plans for updating Star Tours, this is something they want to do, and there are discussions about that.
Asked about how many TV series Lucasfilm is planning to do, Steve said there are the two shows that were already discussed for now, which is taking up the majority of time.
There are no plans for a Star Wars theme park, and there are agreements with Disney which would prevent such a thing from happening wherever there is a Disney park.
A young fan asked if Harrison Ford was going to be in the new Indiana Jones movie. Rest assured, he is in it.
The final question asked about future celebrations. One fan heard a rumor that there were plans for Lucasfilm to have 9 celebrations, but then they changed their minds now only have plans for 6. The crowd started chuckling shortly afterwards, as the meaning of the joke became clear.
Finally, at the end of the Lucasfilm Presentation, Official Pix offered up for sale their first limited edition print from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which was the first image from the film's production (see below for the image).
