{"id":663957,"date":"2025-04-20T10:45:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T07:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/star-wars-celebration-announces-los-angeles-as-next-location-as-japan-edition-winds-down\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T10:45:16","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T07:45:16","slug":"star-wars-celebration-announces-los-angeles-as-next-location-as-japan-edition-winds-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/star-wars-celebration-announces-los-angeles-as-next-location-as-japan-edition-winds-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Wars Celebration Announces Los Angeles as Next Location as Japan Edition Winds Down"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tStar Wars Celebration is coming home to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Wars<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe massive Lucasfilm fan convention will hold its next edition in Los Angeles, timed to commemorate the release of the very first Star Wars<\/em> movie, it was announced Sunday in Tokyo, Japan, the site of this year\u2019s event.<\/p>\n

\n\tA source close to Lucasfilm told The Hollywood Reporter <\/em>that the Los Angeles Convention Center will likely play host to the 17th Star Wars Celebration. The venue previously held the fourth edition of Star Wars Celebration in May 2007, which honored the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. <\/em><\/p>\n

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News<\/a>: Star Wars Celebration is coming home to celebrate the sci-fi franchise\u2019s 50th anniversary. The 2027 edition will be held in Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com\/1hoaXouF2K<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Borys Kit (@Borys_Kit) April 20, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

\n\tThe 2025 Star Wars Celebration returned the event to Japan for the first time since 2008, marking just the second time it has been held in Asia in its 25-year history. The Tokyo event was the fastest Star Wars Celebration to sell out, with over 105,000 guests in attendance, an 8 percent increase from the 2023 convention in London, according to Lucasfilm. Demonstrating the truly global app<\/a>eal of the Star Wars<\/em> franchise, 55 percent of this year\u2019s guests came from the Asia-Pacific region, with 47 percent from Japan and an additional 31 percent from the U.S. Altogether, fans travel<\/a>ed to the event from 125 countries, compared to 64 countries for the previous edition.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe feeling in and outside the convention was that this year\u2019s edition was not as expansive as the Celebration held in London in 2023.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere is not enough vendors and not enough to do,\u201d said one man from Los Angeles, who has been to London and twice to the Anaheim editions, who declined to give his name. The man voiced what Celebration veterans had noticed themselves. The breadth of product and merchandise wasn\u2019t as large as previous years, there were fewer interactive installations or even the life-size starships that loomed over the attendees. There were also fewer panels and less in the way of major news announcements, at least of the broad audience variety.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBut I got to sing \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d to Hayden so that was cool,\u201d piped in the man\u2019s British friend, referring to Hayden Christensen, the actor who played Anakin Skywalker in the prequel Star Wars<\/em> movies<\/a> and who proved to be perhaps the most popular of Star Wars<\/em> actors that populated the autograph and photo op line. <\/p>\n

\n\tFans lined up for over two hours for a moment with Christensen, who has not acted in any major production and even took a break from screen work since wrapping up his Star Wars<\/em> work in the aughts. The actor was also charging the most, by a significant margin. A photo with the Christensen cost around $208, with the next closest being Ahsoka<\/em> star Rosario Dawson, who had an asking price of $181. An op with Diego Luna was around $160. Not that was a deterrence for fans, whether first-timers or veterans. For non-Asians, the faraway destination was \u201cgeek tourism,\u201d and quite frankly, nothing was getting in the way of their fandom.<\/p>\n

\n\tSam Dungey and his fianc\u00e9e Alisha, who flew in from England, partook in the photo op with Christensen, and were over the Yavin moon with their experience. Dungey told the actor of his recent engagement and got a hearty \u201cCongratulations\u201d from him (these being hardcore fans, the wedding is planned for, appropriately enough, May 4, 2026).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe was my childhood,\u201d Dungey said of Christensen. \u201cI grew up with the prequels, that was my Star Wars.<\/em> I get emotional just thinking about it.\u201d His fianc\u00e9e said that the couple hope to one day bring their kids to a Celebration.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe power of Force was definitely on show across generations and across cultures. Some attendees spent hours getting into costumes and make-up just to parade the convention center and pose for photos. One local man spent two months creating an AT-ST Walker, a two legged armored transport, from cardboard.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe Tokyo Star Wars Celebration featured over 26 hours of franchise programming across 3 main stages, plus some 100 hours of fan panels and podcast content on supporting stages and convention spaces. Several major franchise announcements were made in Tokyo. Ryan Gosling made a surprise appearance with director Shawn Levy to reveal the name and release date for their upcoming spinoff feature, Star Wars: Starfighter<\/em>. Jon Favreau, Kathleen Kennedy, Star Wars<\/em> guru Dave Filoni, and stars Pedro Pascal and Sigourney Weaver also lit up the event on its first day by showing the first footage of The Mandalorian & Grogu<\/em>, the Star Wars<\/em> film spun off from Disney+\u2019s hit The Mandalorian <\/em>TV series. <\/p>\n

\n\tOther highlights included Andor<\/em> creator Tony Gilroy and stars Diego Luna, Kyle Soller, Adria Arjona, Genevieve O\u2019Reilly, Alan Tudyk and Denise Gough premiering the first episode of season two of the critically acclaimed Disney+ series. And Hayden Christensen also drove the fans wild, turning up to Ahsoka<\/em> panel and revealing that he will reprise his fan-favorite role of Anakin Skywalker for season two of that Disney+ show. <\/p>\n

\n\tOn the animation side, Lucasfilm revealed that a Darth Maul animated series, Maul: Shadow Lord<\/em>, will arrive in 2026. And the critically-acclaimed Star Wars: Visions<\/em> animated anthology project is expanding, with a new banner, Star Wars: Visions Presents<\/em>, giving animators a longform showcase, with The Ninth Jedi <\/em>being the first spinoff standalone limited series. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n