Star Wars Celebration Chicago 2019 – Sunday, April 14

It was snowing! The news actually said it was a record: 16 hours of uninterrupted snowfall. The most ever during the daytime.

And then by Tuesday it would be 70!
Thanks a lot Chicago.

The snow canceled many flights. I heard on a podcast that there were rumors that George Lucas and perhaps even Ewan McGregor were supposed to fly in for the 20th Anniversary of The Phantom Menace panel on Monday, but their flights were cancelled.

I didn’t get to go to the TPM panel because my sister and I were heading home, but those that went said it was a bit lack luster and the end felt like it was scrapped together at the last minute because they didn’t have their surprise guests. Who knows?

My sister and I went to a panel in the morning: This Deal is Getting Worse All the Time. It was a cute interactive game. They gave out raffle tickets and if your number was called you went up to play any variety of games for the chance to win a prize. But then some were mystery packages and you had to make a choice, a gamble really, to either keep your prize or upgrade it for the mystery package that could be a better or worse prize. It was fun to watch but I was glad my number wasn’t called. The only prizes I liked were Star Wars lunch boxes. I don’t care to collect any toys.

At 12:30 I had a ticket for Matt Lanter’s autograph. I brought my Clone Wars cast photo for him to sign. It being day 4 I could tell he was tired. He was quiet, but very nice and appreciative. I said that I was so emotional when it was announced that TCW was returning and I can’t wait to see it. I mentioned that I was sad Timeless was cancelled but glad at least that it got some closure. Then I also said it was cool that he met Hayden and to have a photo of the two Anakins together. He said Hayden is a nice guy and that was the first time they had met.

My sister and I met up with our friend Megan for The Clone Wars panel. We decided with the snow and the huge pain it was to go over to the Wintrust Arena that instead we stayed where we were and see it in the Live Streaming room. So we queued up early for the people without the reservation QR codes. We made it in and it was a very emotional panel.

You can watch the whole panel here. I am going to make some references with the time stamp.

I cried during the trailer, and especially during the scene when Ahsoka reunites with the 332nd Legion of Clone Troopers. They have Ahsoka’s markings painted on their helmets. (40:40).

We were shown a very exciting scene (at 30:36) with Ahsoka riding a speeder bike in the underworld of Coruscant (Level 1313).

The 332nd Legion and Ahsoka’s scene all brought back memories of a panel I went to at Celebration Anaheim – The Untold Clone Wars. Back then we were shown all the concept art for theses stories and it is just so wonderful that we now get to see some of those concepts and stories get told. I am so happy The Clone Wars was saved.

I love at 10:50 when Ashley reads the text message between her and Dee Bradley Baker about how she found out TCW was saved. That is the best story!

Oh, also, Sam Witwer does a great impression of Dave Filoni. Like spot on! Its at 14:10.

At 17:15 – Ashley talks about having to go back to CW Ahsoka after doing Rebels Ahsoka.

19:40 Bad Batch! (Which was also discussed in Anaheim.)

I wonder if some Darth Maul fans are already creating Maul in kilt (34:35) cosplay.

After the panel was over we got our poster of Ahsoka as we were leaving the room. So glad we didn’t have to stand on another queue for that because I had to haul ass to the Del Rey booth for a signing of From a Certain Point of View.

Ten authors were there to sign: Claudia Gray, Delilah Dawson, Alexander Freed, Jason Fry, Daniel Jose Older, Zoraida Córdova, Charles Soule, Cavan Scott, John Jackson Miller, and E. K. Johnston.

Because TCW panel ended at 4:30 and the signing was starting at 5m we got there 15 minutes before it started. (Another reason it was a good idea not to go to the Wintrust Arena). My sister was with me but really only I was on the queue. But it was an unofficial standby line.

Del Rey really, really underestimated the crowds for this. 10 authors together to sign a popular Star Wars book at a Star Wars convention? This should have been done in a room with a side room for queueing instead of at the Exhibit Hall.

Anyway, our standby line became official when we got our tickets.

I had bookmarked the pages for the authors to easily find their stories to sign. I just wish some of the authors had pens and not sharpie markers because the sharpies bled through.

Obviously the line had to move fast but I managed to get photos of everyone. I briefly told Claudia Gray that I was two hours away from finishing Bloodline and she kind of spoiled a character’s fate. She felt bad but said I don’t know what happens though. So I will find out the details soon.

I told Zoraida Córdova that I just finished and really enjoyed Labyrinth Lost and she handed me a sticker that says Brooklyn Bruja.

Sometime after the signing was over I asked the people at the Del Rey Booth if they will do the same POV book for the 40th of The Empire Strikes Back. They said most likely no because it takes time to get all those authors together and publish and it’s too late to start that project with it being 2019 already. So that was a bummer to hear because I would have loved such a book!

Other things that happened on Sunday:

So I didn’t plan on buying the Hallmark C-3PO and R2-D2 Ralph McQuarrie ornaments but there was no line and they had these SWCC exclusives left so I thought, why not?

I went over to Artist Alley because I wanted to see if Brandon Kenny made any progress on his Queen Amidala drawing that he started on Saturday. He hadn’t and it was because he was nervous since he was working up the nerve to propose to his girlfriend, Karen Hallion, on The Star Wars Show. I had not seen it on YouTube yet but that was sweet and amazing. I congratulated him. Then I went on to say how I was watching him on his Instagram painting Rey and I was nervous when he was placing the brush at the edge of her face to have the ink drip down. So we walked about that method and deciding where to plan the dripping.

He was giving out these free postcards of Warwick and Ewoks.

We also went over to Jason Palmer’s booth and he was there this time. I didn’t plan to do this but I splurged and bought his art I had my eye on from Orlando 2017 – the 40th Anniversary of Star Wars. I should have bought it earlier and had Hayden sign it, but oh well, too late.

When I asked Jason’s assistant if he could sign it she said they are pre-signed but then when she pulled out a poster for me she discovered it was not signed and asked him to do so.

So I seized the chance to ask him about the mural and if Thrawn was based off of Pierce Brosnan. He said yes and it was concept he had for years.
For Kanan he looked at Charlie Hunnam. Though he is not an exact look alike I can’t really see Charlie.
For Hera his assistant who does Hera cosplay was the model.
For Ezra Jason looked at a young Tom Cruise, and when he said that I suddenly saw it!
For Ahsoka he looked at Lily Collins because she has full lips and thick eyebrows. So the eyebrows he made white for her markings.

That was very cool to hear him talk about.

That is really it for Celebration Chicago! I am going to (very soon) write up a post just about our short sight seeing in Chicago and a post about the awesome Cosplay I saw it SWCC.

Hope to do this again in 2020 Anaheim!