I had a plan for the whole of Celebration Europe. I’d mapped out this and I’d planned out that, but like all great things in life…there were plenty of surprises along the way as we shall see. The first of these came on the night of Friday 7th April when it was announced that in addition to receiving an exclusive Mandalorian poster, those in attendance would also get to see Chapter 23, the seventh episode of season 3 a full five days before the rest of the galaxy.
I saw this in a packed out room on the Galaxy Stage with Start Your Engines co-host Paul Naylor sat next to me and Chris Cooke (of Toys of the Jedi) just beside him. Somewhere behind us was Desert Planet Discs co-host Carl Bayliss (and over at the Celebration Stage Mark Newbold) and we managed a quick wave before the lights went out.
While I won’t be reviewing the episode here (check the site soon for our group review of The Spies), what I did want to briefly mention was how much seeing this episode (an absolutely stunner might I add) play out on the big screen made me miss Star Wars at the cinemas. The audience gasped, laughed and cheered and it was just wonderful to relax and immerse ourselves in this world while we all watched the same moments together.
A few hours earlier on the same day, Kathleen Kennedy had announced the official return of Star Wars to the big screen with three films locked in place and in various stages of development and I, for one, cannot wait.
When the episode finished there was thunderous applause (wink, wink) and we all felt like we’d witnessed something special. Not because we had seen it earlier than the rest of the world, but simply because we had watched it together, as a Star Wars family.
- Hardcover Book
- Córdova, Zoraida (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 352 Pages - 09/05/2023 (Publication Date) - Random House/Star Wars (Publisher)
