BONUS - Star Wars Celebration Japan - Day 3 Report from Rachel Pearson

Hi, Jamie and the listeners of filming mentories. This is a Rachel Roving report from day three of Star Wars celebration here in Japan in Tokyo. The third day was really a lot more chilled out than the first two, both in terms of quantity of people roaming the Makuhara Messa Conference Center here in Chiba, but also in terms of big announcements. They seem to really get all of those out on day one, which was which was great, but it was nice to have a bit more of a chill day to day. So really the news was Star Wars Visions is coming back in October this year on the twenty ninth, so only a couple of months ago until we have some new, brilliant Star Wars series stories to watch.

We also have some sequels to previous episodes in this upcoming series, including the character Ronan from the Jewel, who was a hugely popular character from past Visions series. There were several amazing cosplays of his character there. But apart from and Or as well, this limited series has been one of my absolute favorite things to come out of Star Wars in recent years. I really think it highlights the breadth of creativity there is around the world in Star Wars and in our community, and it pays homage obviously to the influence Japanese culture and history has had on Star Wars. As most of your listeners will probably know, Darth Vader himself was based on a famed samurai and I'm probably going to butcher this name, but I believe his name was open Anga Oda.

You can actually see his armor in the Samurai Museum here in Tokyo, which is a very cool experience I did on a previous trip, and you can see his beautiful, very Darth Vader esque armor there, and you can also get a turn to swing a Samurai sword, though I'm not sure how wise it was for someone to let me hold a Samurai sword. Being this tired and the other bits of news, we did get a little tiny bit of reference to some of the previously announced projects, although the whole con was very quiet on them. So a little bit of news on the ray film that set fifteen years after the Rise of Skywalker. It's a classic one. It's in a development delay, so like I mentioned in my previous report, I think it is wise that it seems like the people at celebration are deciding or you know, the people that Lucasfilm and Disney and are deciding not to announce things that are in development because as we all know, those things can change.

Schedules can change, priorities, all of those things can change. And it's nice that they have announced Starfighter at a pre production stage. So I think do you think it's wise that they haven't made huge, huge announcements like the ones that came flooding out in Star Wars celebration in London in twenty twenty three. So it seems likely that the ray film won't even start shooting until twenty twenty seven, So watch that space for that one and a lot of Day three with panels on imagineering. So we heard about the new up dates to the Smuggler's Run ride in Galaxy's Edge in Orlando and in Anaheim in California.

They have made it so that the engineering role, so there's a couple of different roles you can take on the Smugglers Run Millennium Falcon ride in Galaxy's Edge. You can be a pilot, which is obviously the best role and it's incredibly exciting. You can be a shooter, so you can be on the guns very good fun shooting guns in space is great. And you can be an engineer, which was generally considered the worst, the least exciting role because it was just mashing buttons and trying to fix the ship as the pilot inevitably smashed it into various various things. They've done an update or they are doing an update to that role's capabilities and purpose on the ride where they get to side, where the ride ends up, where you end up in the Millennium Falcon.

So these are three different options you can choose from, and you can end up in our beloved Tatooine unless you really hate sand mentioning no names Anakin Skywalker, you can end up in Coruscant, and you can end up in Best Spin, which would absolutely be my choice. I'd love to fly around to Cloud City. So it's very exciting that that engineer role has been enhanced. And if you are a gamer as well, there's been a new Outlaws game update, which is getting a new DLC on May the fifteenth this year, so next month. I've actually not played it yet.

It does look amazing. I know it's had a little bit of backlash, but hey, this is Star Wars. It wouldn't be Star Wars if something wasn't getting some kind of backlash, even if it's wonderful. But yes, I haven't played it yet. Parenting small pawder ones is not also conducive to playing video games and traveling to Japan for ten days, but I do hope to get to it one day.

And also the second Jedi Fallen Jedi game, and last, but not least, we saw the Droid team bring on the really adorable b d X droids that have been roaming Galaxy's Edge. They are coming to Paris and Tokyo for a limited amount of time. I'm going to Disneyland Tokyo today. I'm gonna have my fun on Star Tours. But apparently they are coming to Tokyo Park, so I'm really hoping to see them because they are absolutely incredible.

They brought them onto the live stage at Celebration and they're so expressive. It is really breathtaking to see what they can make and how much personality they can imbue these real life droids with. It's just one of the many incredible, Like I said, the incredible creativity and imaginations of those teams. So I hope to see those either in Tokyo or maybe in Paris if I nip over for a quick trip. And last but not least, we saw the Droid team bring on the really adorable b d X droids that have been roaming Galaxy's Edge.

They are coming to Paris and Tokyo for a limited amount of time. I'm going to Disneyland Tokyo today, I'm gonna have my fun on Star Tours. But apparently they are coming to Tokyo Park, so I'm really hoping to see them because they are absolutely incredible. They brought them onto the live stage at celebration and they're so expressive. It is really breathtaking to see what they can make and how much personality they can imbue these real life droids with.

It's just one of the many incredible, Like I said, the incredible creativity and imaginations of those teams. So I hope to see those either in Tokyo or maybe in Paris if I nip over for a quick trip. And last, but not least, the big news of the day that everybody was waiting for. At the closing ceremony of Star Wars Celebration twenty twenty five in Tokyo, Star Wars celebration will return in twenty twenty seven to Los Angeles. There were sort of mixed feelings about this from people I was standing near and nearby Canadian was not so happy, but generally I think, you know, it's the fiftieth anniversary of our beloved Star Wars, the first Star Wars from nineteen seventy seven, and it either makes sense to bring that back to London or to have it, you know where everything is based over in La So it'll be in the LA Convention Center in April or from April first to April fourth, twenty twenty seven.

So you've got a couple of years to save up, a couple of years to limber up those legs. I'm not gonna line. My body is a little bit broken from walking, slash, running, slash, standing around for three days having the time of my life. But you know, I'm not getting any younger these days. So yeah, so La here we come in twenty twenty seven, and I'm sure it's going to be a really special one.

And again every every time I'm hoping for, you know, some of those classic here is Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, which I think is probably unlikely in any city in any place. I think even if they bought Star Wars Celebration to his actual home, I'm not sure he would attend, but hey, stranger things have happened. But anyway, thank you so much for having me on Filming Mentories reporting back from Star Wars celebration here in Tokyo. I am a broken shell of my former self. I'm looking forward to having a holiday from this holiday, but I have had an amazing time and it's been really great to be able to report back.

I'm going to go and try and sleep for a week and bring home as many of those funny little Japanese health drinks as I can stuff into my already much stuffed suitcase, and I will see you hopefully when I get back. But yeah, love to you, Jamie, and love to all of the listeners of Filmingmentaries. Keep supporting Jamie, keep supporting filmimentary. He's doing the lord's work reporting and documenting all of this incredible history from something that we all love, Star Wars, but also you know, a breadth of amazing stories from filmmaking history. So yeah, go and support the podcast on Patreon.

Go and buy some lovely film Mementaries. March and yeah, support the good work. So that's enough rambling on from me. There's Rachel Pearson out