The annual Star Wars Celebration event has always seen a lot of new information spill out about the upcoming films and this weekend's event in London was no exception.

As well as showcasing a wide range of tidbits from Rogue, Episode VIII and the Rebels TV series, there was also a range of surprise appearances.

Let's get to it.

 

BEN MENDELSOHN IS REALLY INTO COSPLAY

The Rogue One panel, which saw the Celebration Reel trailer thing being released, also debuted a few new characters and confirmed a few special points of interest. We'll get into those later, but the one big takeaway is that Ben Mendelsohn is really, really into cosplay. So much so, in fact, that he turned up on the stage in full costume as Director Orson Krennic with two Deathtroopers standing behind him.

 

ALDEN EHRENREICH IS HAN SOLO AND HE WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO AUDITION

The Future Filmmakers Panel showcased the upcoming works and the directors who'll be making future Star Wars films, but one point was officially-officially confirmed - Alden Ehrenreich is playing Han Solo. What's more, directors Phil Lord & Chris Miller also mentioned that they saw well over 3,000 actors for the role - including our own Jack Reynor - but that Alden Ehrenreich was the first one to do so. In our view, he's the best choice to play him. Ehrenreich then took to the stage and mentioned that he screentested alongside Chewbacca and that he did it on a mock-up set of the Millennium Falcon. Does that mean Solo has the Falcon in the film?

 

EPISODE VIII WILL BE THE FIRST STAR WARS FILM TO PICK UP RIGHT AFTER THE FORCE AWAKENS

What's more, Han Solo will feature in the as-yet-untitled Episode VIII. As a dead body. Because he's dead. Kylo Ren AKA Ben Solo, his own son, killed him. Oof. Need a minute here.

 

RIAN JOHNSON LISTED THE FILMS THAT DIRECTLY INFLUENCED EPISODE VIII

It's a pretty diverse and interesting list, to say the least. Twelve O'Clock High, Bridge on the River Kwai, Letter Never Sent, Three Outlaw Samurai were all name-checked by Johnson as having a key influence on Episode VIII. Here's a quick rundown on each film - Twelve O'Clock High is an old World War II movie about a tough, no-nonsense Air Force general who is sent to lead a motley crew of pilots who've been plagued with morale problems. Bridge On The River Kwai, again another World War II movie, this one's about a group of British POWs who are forced to build a bridge for the Japanese Imperial Army and the plot to destroy said bridge by US forces. Letter Never Sent is a Soviet adventure film about a group of geologists who find a diamond mine in the depths of Siberia but begin to pull themselves apart when trying to return to their canoe. Three Outlaw Samurai is about a wandering samurai warrior who gets mixed up in a struggle between peasants and a greedy governor whose daughter was kidnapped by said peasants.

Like we said, very diverse choices.

 

EPISODE VIII WILL REALLY PUT REY, FINN, POE DAMERON AND KYLO REN FRONT AND CENTRE

As Johnson describes it, Episode VIII is where they "zoom in" to the characters and really begin to understand what makes them tick and why they are what they are. That's going to be an interesting watch, particularly with Adam Driver's Kylo Ren. We can definitely expect to see some sort of explanation as to why he turned away from his parents and, more specifically, why Luke Skywalker walked away from everyone.

 

MARK HAMILL WASN'T A FAN OF ALL THE SECRECY AROUND THE FILMS

In fact, Hamill called it annoying and with good reason. "You get the call sheets and there are no names, everyone's got a number. You're number 11, you're 33. You're looking at the call sheets, wondering who's working today. They're not doing it to annoy you, it's just that they want the surprise to be in the movie theaters, not on the internet," he explained. "I understand why they're doing it, but it can get really out of control, with the pages that get shredded every day. I need old-school, I need a script! That you can write on, that you can take home and read."

 

A MAJOR EXPANDED UNIVERSE CHARACTER IS RETURNING TO STAR WARS

For any hardcore Star Wars fans out there, this one's for you. Grand Admiral Thrawn, who was a major character in the first Expanded Universe novels, has been confirmed as being 'canon' and will be joining the cast of the Star Wars: Rebels TV series. What's more, Thrawn will be voiced by Lars Mikkelsen, brother to Rogue One's Mads Mikkelsen. Thrawn will be the major villain for Rebels' third season and confirms that we need to start watching Rebels. As well as this, Timothy Zahn - who wrote the original Expanded Universe novels that featured Thrawn - is returning to write an in-canon novel. The title of the book? Thrawn. 'Cos d'uh, obviously.

 

THE NEW ROGUE ONE TRAILER WAS SHOWN, BUT WE WON'T GET TO SEE IT ANY TIME SOON

Well, at least for a week or two from the time of writing. The trailer showed a lot of new footage and confirmed that Darth Vader will play a role in Rogue One. He wasn't shown on in the trailer, but the all-familiar breathing was joined with the now-infamous siren noise. As well as this, there was a really, really cool teaser that put the opening crawl from A New Hope in perspective for Rogue One. Take a look. It's so, so cool.

Star Wars ANH Crawl Rogue One Teaser from Jon Are Hellevangsdal on Vimeo.

 

NEXT YEAR'S CELEBRATION WILL BE THE BIGGEST YET

Why? Because it marks the 40th Anniversary of the first Star Wars film, A New Hope. As well as this, you'll also see a gigantic amount of information on Episode VIII - but sadly, nothing about here. Not even a trailer. Dang.

 

 

So that's pretty much everything we learned. Not a huge amount of information, to be sure, but secrecy has always been the big thing with Star Wars and you've got to respect that. We'll be keeping an eye out for the next Rogue One trailer and, of course, literally anything Star Wars-related in the coming days, weeks and months.

In the meantime, let us know us what you think about all of this in the comments!