Let’s face it. This time we all had a bad feeling about it. This summer’s Star Wars Celebration 2020 is now officially canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and fans from all over the world will now have to wait another two years to get together in what has become a shining beacon of Star Wars fandom.
At Star Wars Celebration, the health and safety of our fans, attendees, exhibitors, guests and staff is always our number one priority. Due to the global impact of the COVID-19 virus (…) we have made the decision to cancel Star Wars celebration for 2020.
While this news is disappointing. we are happy to announce that Star Wars Celebration will return to the Anaheim Convention Center on August 18-21, 2022
There are still a lot of variables concerning how the pandemic will evolve in the coming months, but we have now reached a point where August is just around the corner and with uncertainty being the only certainty, decisions had to be made, and common sense seems to have prevailed.
Since Disney took over the franchise, every Star Wars Celebration event held in the US has been used to promote a major theatrical release. This year that wouldn’t be the case, but there would still be a lot to look forward to, with a special focus on the 40th anniversary of what many consider to be the best movie of the entire Star Wars Saga, Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back. As in 2017 in Orlando (the 40th anniversary of Episode IV – A New Hope) and 2019 in Chicago (the 20th anniversary of Episode I – The Phantom Menace), fans would have been able to attend special panels and events highlighting another Star Wars milestone’s legacy. We would also probably get new information regarding season 2 of The Mandalorian since it’s already finished filming and, with post-production being able to move forward despite the current film and television shutdowns, there’s no reason to think it won’t keep it’s October 2020 premiere date.
Rescheduling Star Wars Celebration to 2021, and even though new live-action streaming projects (focusing on Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, and a few others) will likely emerge and there will be new footage to be shown and new announcements to be made, would leave a bit of a void on what concerns the theatrical side of the franchise. By deciding to return only in 2022 Disney will be able to focus on the project they have scheduled to release in theaters on December 16th, 2022. This means they are all but setting that date in stone, and even though we still know very little about that specific project the commitment to have a new Star Wars movie out by then seems to have been definitively made.
This shouldn’t have been an absolute certainty since it’s likely that the domino effect started this spring, with the rescheduling of so many movies, will probably have repercussions for a few years and if there was a time to postpone any given project without major backlash it would be now. By not doing so Disney is showing us is that they’re confident in what they have planned out for the big screen beyond the Skywalker Saga.
